• Open access
  • Published: 16 August 2021

Impact of corporate social responsibility on organization’s financial performance: evidence from Maldives public limited companies

  • Ibrahim Sameer   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-1177-4066 1  

Future Business Journal volume  7 , Article number:  29 ( 2021 ) Cite this article

36k Accesses

13 Citations

2 Altmetric

Metrics details

The main objective of this study is to determine the CSR disclosure and to find out the association between CSR and FP by the public companies of Maldives. This study used a mixed-method research choice and is longitudinal research. The study period was from 2014 to 2018. Data were collected from annual reports of the listed companies in MSE. The sampling technique used was judgmental sampling, and the data were analyzed from STATA 15 software by using panel data regression. The finding reveals that diversity and ROA, environment and ROE, diversity, and EPS, and when the size of the firm controlled, there exhibit significant negative relation between CSR and ROA; hence, it can conclude that there exists a significant negative relationship between CSR and FP. This study has implications for the academician and corporate world in understanding CSR and FP in developing countries like the Maldives. One of the main consequences of this study is the CSR framework adopted in this study which is not a custom-tailored instrument specific to the Maldives instead chose from another research paper. Further, the sample size was also very limited due to that generalization may not be possible in a large population. This paper spreads the understanding of the relationship between CSR and FP.

Introduction

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) is one of the most controversial and significant topics since the 1950s, and it has been growing since then [ 29 ]. CSR discipline is one of the rigorous research areas among practitioners and academicians [ 28 ]. In the history of the corporate world for the first time, CSR was mention by Bowen [ 21 ] in his seminal book Social Responsibility of the Businessmen in 1953. In his book, the central question, he argues that and continues to be asked, was “ what is the responsibilities to society may businessmen reasonably be expected to assume .” Bowen [ 21 ] also stresses the importance of knowing business ethics so that it can lead to superior enduring performance. Cruz et al. [ 43 ] confirm that CSR initiatives are significant in the context of business ethics and found a healthy positive attitude toward business ethics and CSR.

Despite the long history of CSR discipline, up to date, it remains to be debatable and immature in some areas. For instance, one area that is debatable and one of the central focus given is determining the relationship between CSR and corporate financial performance (CFP). According to Das and Bhunia [ 47 ], the whole literature on this area can be categorized into three. Some studies show a positive correlation between CSR initiatives on FP [ 167 , 197 ] and Yeganeh and Barzegar [ 7 ]. On the other hand, Hirigoyen and Rehm [ 78 ] and Madugba and Okpara [ 118 ] found negative correlation between CSR and FP. Lastly, [ 35 , 104 ] found no correlation between CSR and FP.

During the past six decades of CSR discipline, numerous finding has caught the attention of CSR practitioners and academicians [ 195 ]. These studies results suggest that CSR provides insurance like effect on financial performance against adverse events of company [ 147 , 203 , 204 ], CSR initiatives can enhance employee organizational commitment and organizational performance [ 5 ], and most of the workers like to work and can attract more potential employees for an organization that has an excellent reputation for being socially responsible [ 69 , 77 , 112 ]. Therefore, now a day to pursue sustainable development and enhance the goodwill of companies has started to publish CSR disclosures in annual company report or CSR reports.

In the Maldives, it is not mandatory for public companies to publish the CSR report. Nowadays, companies announced CSR disclosure through the annual report. It indicates the prominence given by companies to CSR activities, but the effect of CSR on financial performance is not locally being investigated so far in the Maldives, due to several reasons. First, research base culture did not exist in the Maldives and recently public university came into the picture. Secondly, public companies in the Maldives assume that similar management practices (such as CSR) adopted by foreign countries might be relevant in the Maldives. According to [ 181 ], most of the research done on CSR is investigated in a western developed nation such as the USA, UK, Germany, and Australia and is not that clear whether it can apply in developing nations. Burton et al. [ 25 ] and Khan [ 97 ] suggested that to understand CSR, it is a must to understand the cultural aspects of that country because developed nations' influential factors may not apply to the Maldives. Third, there is no CSR measurement practice in the Maldives and how it should report. Fourth, the impact of CSR on financial performance has not been investigated locally so far in the Maldives. Due to these reasons, it is worth investigating the association between CSR and financial performance.

From the above discussion, it is clear that most of the research done on CSR was dominated by a western developed nation such as the USA, UK, Germany, and Australia [ 181 ]. According to Das and Bhunia [ 47 ] though there are intensive empirical research done in order to find relationship between CSR on FP [ 14 , 62 , 137 ], the result of previous studies is indeterminate. Hence, this is a gray area with inconclusiveness, and this research gap motivates the researcher to conduct a study on this topic.

According to Wang et al. [ 196 ], there are numerous researches on CSR discipline in respect of FP in foreign countries, especially in developed nations, indicating a dearth of studies in the Maldives context. As per the researcher's knowledge so far, there is only one study done [ 175 ] in the local context on CSR. In that research, the author investigates the CSR context in the Maldives and has not explored the CSR and FP relation. Hence, this provides a gap for further studies in finding the relationship between CSR and FP in public listed companies in the Maldives. Therefore, this study of CSR and FP in public listed companies in the Maldives tries to attempt to fill this gap in the literature.

To establish whether CSR (community, workplace, environment and diversity) positively/negatively correlated with Financial Performance (FP) of public companies in Maldives using ROA.

To determine whether CSR (community, workplace, environment and diversity) positively/negatively correlated with Financial Performance (FP) of public companies in Maldives using ROE.

To decide whether CSR (community, workplace, environment and diversity) positively/negatively correlated with Financial Performance (FP) of public companies in Maldives using EPS.

Following this brief introductory section, the rest of the paper is divided in the following manner: “ Literature review ” section discusses the meaning of CSR, why companies engage in CSR and empirical evidence of CSR and FP and theoretical framework. “ Research methodology ” section discusses the data collection and sampling procedure, model used in the study and the specification test. “Finding and analysis” section presents the empirical findings and discussion of the results, and finally, “Conclusion” section is the conclusion of the paper.

Literature review

According to [ 27 ], there were a vast number of definitions of CSR that have emerged in the academic literature. Some of the notable contributors that have defined CSR include [ 21 , 30 , 56 , 91 ]. In general, CSR can be defined as its responsibility toward its ecosystem.

Although there is a diverse definition given by scholars around the globe about CSR, there is no universally accepted definition of CSR [ 45 ]. Dahlsrud analyzed 37 most commonly used definitions of CSR. He concluded that there is a lot of congruency in the description and suggested that there are five dimensions in all the explanations and those are environmental, social, economic, stakeholders, and charity dimension. In the same tone [ 161 ] stated that there is no unique definition of CSR that can be acceptable around the globe. Finally, Hamidu et al. [ 72 ] reviewed CSR definition, its core characteristics, and theoretical perspective. They have suggested that in the academic world, there is no clear agreed definition of CSR, and the lack of homogeneity in the definition of CSR is due to the ever-shifting roles of CSR in the corporate world.

Empirical evidence regarding the relationship between CSR and FP

In the academic literature, the theoretical linkage between CSR and FP of the organization found inconsistency results [ 122 , 139 ]. Hence, the body of knowledge in this regards can be categorized into three spectra that is some argue that CSR can enhance FP of the organization, other researchers argue that CSR rather reduced firms’ performance, and finally, other schools of thought argue that there exists no relation between CSR and organization performance. Table 1 describes the summary of empirical findings of CSR and FP researches, and also it highlights the different variables used in the various study.

Researchers that are in favor of CSR and FP linkage argue that when company initiates CSR activities, it creates positive image in the mind of stakeholders; hence, the more company satisfy its stakeholders, the better financial performance of the company [ 51 , 53 ]. Likewise, the other proponents on this linkage advocate that by satisfying the interest of stakeholders and being more accountable to them can have positive effects on the financial performance of the company [ 38 , 151 , 201 ]. In light of stakeholder’s theory, [ 19 , 135 ] stated that consumers are willing to pay premium price for CSR initiatives companies’ products, and CSR activities can improve the image of the company among consumers and it help to improve customer loyalty [ 123 , 150 , 158 , 173 ]. Likewise, Turban and Greening [ 184 ] posit that CSR firms can attract more potential applicants, which in turn can be a competitive advantage for the organization. Another recent research done by them [ 68 ] documented that socially responsible companies can attract more talented employees to work on that organization, and also CSR firms can retain their employees over a long period, hence, it can lead to a competitive advantage over other companies. The proponent believed that engaging CSR-related programmed can benefit the organization in several ways, such as reduction in labor turnover [ 206 ], enhance reputation of company and achievement of business strategy [ 86 , 207 ], created sense of belongingness [ 34 ], attract more talented staffs [ 92 , 117 ], job satisfaction [ 109 ] and Sharma and Mishra [ 162 ] and be more committed to their work [ 20 , 54 ].

Conversely to the above argument, [ 58 ] advocates that there is only one responsibility of a corporate firm that maximizes shareholders' wealth. In line with this argument, [ 143 ] supports [ 58 ] claim stating that CSR is motivated by a socialist-collectivist agenda which are in paradox with capitalist/libertarian values of free enterprise and individualism. Furthermore, [ 132 ] suggest that the consumer does not check whether it is an SR company or not when making purchase decisions. But [ 140 ] documented that when making purchase decision consumer do take whether it is an SR company or not but the positive attitudes of consumer not transferred into actual purchase decision of consumer and this further being supported by [ 64 ] stating that buying SR product is a "moral duty" and this duty can be overridden by other preferences of consumer especially if it is budget consumer. Hence, this line of argument was stress by [ 58 ] documented that organization manager use firms’ resources for non-profit social activities at the expense of shareholders, and this has been supported by [ 88 ] in the "agency cost problem" which stated that the CSR cost incurred outweigh the benefits it brings to the company.

In the academic literature, the early research that supports the inverse relationship between CSR and FP is [ 105 , 157 , 188 ]. Vance's [ 188 ] support [ 58 ] preposition founds that being socially responsible does not bring any economic benefits to the company, rather, it reduces company stock returns. Further, this has validated by [ 11 ] who documented that the firm level of SR hinders FP compared to rivals. Likewise, [ 157 ] stated that engaging CSR activities lead wasting firms’ resources that can use in more productive opportunity for the firms. Further, they argue that managers of the company may engage in CSR not to increase shareowners' wealth, instead gain personal benefits. Looking into more recent studies on this line of the argument states that CSR is a manifestation of agency problem and is done at the expense of shareowner [ 80 ]. Moreover, [ 102 ] supported the findings of [ 157 ] and stated that the organization manager gets a good reputation at the expense of shareowner by investing more in CSR and also suggest that when the organization releases positive CSR news, then investors react slightly negative to those disclosures. Bhandari and Javakhadze [ 18 ] reveal that when an organization wants to satisfy its broad stakeholder’s entire group, then it may need to forgo lots of positive NPV project that may increase the shareholder's wealth.

The academic debate on CSR and FP has another possibility that both these are mutually exclusive, meaning CSR has no significant impact on FP of a company [ 122 , 139 ]. The scholars of this line of reasoning argue that CSR has no effect on financial performance of companies [ 61 , 95 , 137 ]. There are several studies conducted across the globe in finding the linkage between CSR and FP of specific industries or countries [ 55 ] and industries or countries specific research is incomplete up to date [ 44 ]. Kiliç [ 99 ] investigated online CSR disclosure practices by 25 banks in Turkey, the results suggest that all the banks in the country do at least disclose one dimension of CSR on the corporate website and also documented that highly visible banks disclose more information compared to the less visible bank. Furthermore, Pérez and Del Bosque [ 148 ] and Pratihari and Uzma [ 156 ] investigated CSR disclosure in Spain (former), and India (latter) founds that CSR positively impacts a customer in identifying the bank and CSR helps company in building brand and customer loyalty. Due to stated reasons, [ 14 , 83 ] found a positive association between CSR and FP. On the other hand, the influence on industry characteristics is also another area that has been investigated by scholars. For example, [ 15 ] called for more research to be done on potential heterogeneity of CSR’s influence on organizational performance across different industries. The reason for that is due to the impact the organization that brings to society is different. For instance, compared to other industries (such as banking, tourism and retail), the controversial sector (e.g., tobacco, alcohol, petroleum, utility, and steel) harms the environment more [ 89 ]. Therefore, [ 177 ] suggested that controversial industries are exposed more to the environment and social risk; therefore, companies in these industries need to do more CSR activities to gain the confidence of stakeholders.

Looking into empirical side of CSR and FP indicated positive relation mostly in developed and developing nation [ 14 , 42 ] and Maqbool and Bakr [ 162 ]. Conversely, some empirical studies show the inverse relationship between CSR and FP [ 169 ] and Hirigoyen and Rehm [ 78 ]. Yet there is body of empirical knowledge that do not support either of the above argument and those scholars found neutral or no relation between CSR and FP [ 95 , 109 , 137 , 163 ].

Though there are controversies in the above empirical studies, [ 32 , 142 ] conducted two different meta-analysis using 30 years of data. The authors have documented that CSR positively correlated with CFP. Further, another meta-analysis conducted by [ 17 ] also found that there is clear empirical evidence for a positive relation between CSR and FP. Conversely [ 123 ] meta-analysis of 251 studies documented positive (but small) association between CSR and FP. But meta-analysis of [ 146 ] included 159 reviews and recorded that 63% of the studies show positive, 15% indicated the contrary, and 22% shows a neutral or mixed association between CSR and FP.

In light of above discussion, it is clear that CSR and FP are inclusive in the academia. Therefore, this paper tries to investigate empirically whether there is any association between CSR and FP in developing nation such as Maldives. Most of the literature done in this discipline is in the developed nations, few studies in the developing nation, and no studies in the context of Maldives. Furthermore, this study tries to fill the imbalance that is there in the academia when public advocate companies in Maldives become more CSR orient. Hence, different hypotheses developed for this paper are given under conceptual framework (Fig. 1 ).

figure 1

Conceptual framework

Research methodology

Population and sample.

This study focuses on listed companies of MSE. At present, there are eight companies listed in the stock exchange; two companies do not fit in the study period because the study period of this research is from 2014 to 2018. For this study, the remaining six companies' data have taken as a sample (75% of the population). This study adopts non-probability sampling and uses judgmental sampling techniques. Judgmental sampling is more useful when the researcher desires to collect data from a specific group to bring more reliable and precise results [ 171 , 179 ]. Žmuk et al. [ 208 ] recommended that if the researcher's target population is small, then to get satisfactory precision and accuracy level of the parameter of the estimate, researcher needs to include 70% of the samples population; here, in this study researcher study 75% of the population.

CSR framework for this study

It has been observed that CSR disclosure made by Maldivian Public companies is voluntary, and also it has been observed that there is no specific CSR framework in the Maldives. In determining CSR disclosure in academia, there are many different indices used in measuring CSR disclosure. The most well-known indices include: Dow Jones Sustainability Index [ 37 ], Fortune magazine reputation index [ 159 ], Global Reporting Initiative [ 113 ], MSCI KLD 400 social index [ 160 ] and Vigeo Index [ 100 ].

These indices have widely used in academia for measuring CSR performance (Waddock and Graves [ 191 ]). CSR disclosures vary between countries to countries, and there is no " one size fit all " approach [ 79 ]. For example, [ 199 ] argues national culture, political, and the civil system which often determines CSR disclosure. Xiao et al. [ 202 ] stated that CSR disclosure depends on the stage of social and economic development of the country. Moreover, [ 46 ] noted that the theories that are in the developed countries might not be entirely applicable due to different drivers of CSR. Conversely, in developing countries, CSR is more toward the economic environment (such as creating more jobs), filling government shortfall areas, and philanthropic charitable donations and ethics.

Furthermore, [ 59 ] stated that at this time, there is no generally accepted CSR reporting standard across the globe. In the same vein, [ 180 ] noted that the western world CSR concept could not be adapted as it is. It required modification based on the country/geographical needs. Therefore, in this study researcher is going to use the CSR standard developed by [ 122 ]. The adoption of this "CSR instrument" for this study is due to three reasons. Firstly, they have designed that instrument by taking into account different international standards, and academic literature [ 165 ], Centre for Corporate Research and Training 2003, Confederation of Indian Industry 2002). Secondly, it is developed based on the developing nation's cultural needs and thirdly very latest instrument.

Content analysis and coding procedure

This study uses the content analysis technique and uses the annual report to developed CSR index for public companies in the Maldives. Content analysis is a technique that has been commonly used in social science research for quite a long period [ 3 ]. Further, this method has been quite often used in CSR and FP research as well [ 62 , 95 ].

In content analysis, themes must be developed to make an inference from the data. In line with this reasoning, Milne and Adler [ 130 ] stated that construction and categorization of schemes are the essential part when using content analysis. This research adopted the [ 122 ] CSR framework; hence, the researcher used the categories of [ 122 ] CSR framework. It includes mainly four components, namely community, environment, workplace, and diversity. In this study, each public company listed in MSE has coded about different CSR disclosure categories identified in the annual report. Companies CSR is measured using adopted CSR framework under each category, there are eight different themes, and based on that researcher decides whether it is CSR disclosure or not.

One of the prerequisites of content analysis is that it requires systematic coding using predetermine criteria [ 70 ]. For this study, the different keyword used is the work of [ 122 ] CSR framework. This makes the coding process straightforward, and also it lessens the prejudice in determining CSR disclosure and how to categorize them. When the keyword and categories are used, it helps in decision rules, and also it improves the reliability and accuracy of the coding process [ 130 ]. For this study, the researcher uses the unit of analysis as a “ sentence .”

The procedure used in the content analysis of this study is that two independent coders were selected. Before coding and classification process begins, these two coders are given full training by the researcher on CSR disclosure, use of coding instruments, and explanation of different categories and types of disclosure in [ 122 ] CSR framework. In order to check degree of reliability and accuracy of intercoder, this study used four main methods that are used in checking the validity of content analysis [ 62 , 95 ], that is percentage of agreement [ 41 , 178 ], Scott’s π [ 174 ], Cohen’s κ [ 41 ] and Krippendorff’s α [ 101 ]. The intercoder reliability test of this study is presented in the below table.

After reviewing different methodologies in the content analysis, [ 136 ] suggested that a reliability test coefficient value higher than 0.90 would be acceptable at all levels, and any amount above 0.80 would be acceptable in most cases and stated that there exists a significant disagreement between the coder. Therefore, based on the accuracy benchmark suggested by [ 136 ], the results are cited in Table 2 , and all the reliability test values are higher than 0.90. Hence, it is safe to conclude that the reliability of this study is considerably high because the reliability test values are significantly higher than benchmark values.

Data collection procedures and sampling

In this study, the content analysis is used in extracting CSR information from the annual reports of the company, and CSR has been divided into four categories (community, environment, workplace and diverse) covering 32 items, to change qualitative information present in the annual report; this study used content analysis and changes that qualitative data to quantitative information using a dichotomous approach. In the dichotomous approach, if the item is disclosed (CSR instrument), then “1” is given, and if items not disclosed, then “0” and total CSR score of “ T ” company is calculated based on the following formula.

where di = “1” if disclosed and “0” if not disclosed. n  = maximum number of disclosed.

In this study, the proxy of CSR categories is considered as community, environment, workplace, and diverse, and the FP proxy is considered as ROA, ROE, and EPS, and moderating variables considered as firm size. The following section details down how the ration is calculated.

Return on asset (ROA)

ROA measures profits as a percentage of total assets, and ROA gives an impression to the investors how efficient the company in managing its assets in generating profits. The higher the ROA, better it is, and the formula used in calculating ROA is given below [ 69 ]:

Return on equity (ROE)

ROE measures profits as a percentage of total shareholders’ equity, and ROE gives an impression to the investors how efficient the company is generating profits using its shareholder's funds, or in other words, it measures profits made on each dollar of shareholders’ funds. ROE is calculated using the below formula [ 69 ]:

Earning per share (EPS)

EPS measures earning made for each common stockholders, and it also shows how much money the company is making for its stockholder; as a rule of thumb, if EPS is higher, better it is. EPS is calculated using the below formula [ 69 ]:

In the academic literature on CSR discipline, different scholars have used different control variables [ 193 ] such as firm size, firms age, firms leverage, capital intensity, and industry heterogeneity. For this study researcher going to use “firm size” as the control variables, the reason for that is because previous research has shown that larger firm tend to spend more on CSR than smaller firm [ 168 ], larger firm seen as the leader of the industry or they are the playmaker in the industry [ 76 ]. To measure the firm size, this study used the natural logarithm of total assets and is calculated using the following formula:

Panel data analysis

To test the hypothesis, “ Stata 15 ” software is used for quantitative data analysis. The data were gathered from 2014 and 2018 to test the relationship between CSR and FP. To test the relationship between CSR and FP, many scholars have used regression analysis [ 36 , 38 ]; however, this kind of analysis was critics by its multicollinearity errors [ 189 ]; hence, to avoid that error this research is going to used panel data, and panel data have widely been used in academia in order to check the relationship between CSR and FP [ 111 , 180 ].

The model used in the study

The CSR dimensions used in this research are community, environment, workplace and diverse; on the other hand, financial performance dimensions used are ROA, ROE, and EPS, and the control variable used in this study is the firm size. The independent variable and dependent variables of this study are CSR and FP, respectively. To estimate the direct relationship between CSR and FP, the three dependent variables (ROA, ROE, and EPS) equation used in this study can be expressed in the following ways:

where ROA = return on assets, ROE = return on equity, EPS = earning per share, Comm = community, Div = diverse, Env = environment and Wor = work.

To estimate the indirect relationship between CSR and FP, the moderating variables are included in the above equation, and it can be stated in the following ways:

where ROA = return on assets, ROE = return on equity, EPS = earning per share, Comm = community, Div = diverse, Env = environment, Wor = work and Fsize = firm size (natural logarithm of total asset).

In this study, three different kinds of panel data models are used, namely the pool regression model by OLS (ordinary least square), fixed-effect model, and random-effects model. In the pooled regression model, it pooled all the data together, ignoring the time series and cross-section nature of the data; hence, when pool regression combined all the data into one, it ignores the heterogeneity of the data that may exist [ 152 ].

The next model that is there is a fixed effect model (FEM) or LSDV model (least square dummy variables). This method allows for individual differences, meaning that it will enable heterogeneity compared with the OLS method. FEM methods are used in social science and business management research, by various academicians [ 13 , 40 ]. The main advantage of using this method is that it estimates the effects of independent variables on the dependent variable while controlling the effects of unobserved variables [ 162 ].

The last but not the least model used in this study is the random effect model (REM). One of the assumptions of REM is that the individual-specific effects are not correlated with the independent variables. Therefore, in the REM model, it can have varying interception value between cross-sectional data, and this variation is purely random. The main advantage of REM is it helps in controlling for unobserved heterogeneity when the heterogeneity is constant over time. The FEM and REM model can be denoted in the following formula, respectively:

where \(u_{i}\) is a fixed or random effect specific to individual (group) or time period that is not included in the regression, and errors are independent identically distributed, \(v_{{it}}\)  ~ IID (0, \(\sigma ^{2} _{v}\) ).

Specification test for the study

For this study, the researcher used three above discussed model, and to choose the best model, the following specification test has been carried out to select the best model.

Pooled OLS model or FEM model

This test examined whether pooled OLS or FEM model is best in examining the group effect in the panel data set. The hypothesis significance can be check through F -test value; if the null hypothesis is accepted, then pooled OLS is better than the FEM model [ 200 ]. The null hypothesis is stated in the following manner:

Pooled OLS model or REM model

This test examined whether pooled OLS or REM model is best in examining the random effect in the panel data set. REM can be tested through the Breusch–Pagan Lagrange multiplier (LM) test [ 200 ]. The hypothesis significance can be checked through Chi-square value; if the null hypothesis is accepted, then pooled OLS is better than the REM model. The null hypothesis can be stated in the following manner [ 4 ]:

FEM or REM model: Durbin–Wu–Hausman test (Hausman specification test)

Hausman specification test runs to check whether FEM or REM is the most appropriate model in the panel data. The Hausman statistic χ 2 is computed from the following formula [ 4 ].

where βc  is the coefficient vector from the consistent estimator. βe  is the coefficient vector from the efficient estimator. Vc  is the covariance matrix of the consistent estimator. Ve   is the covariance matrix of the efficient estimator.

The hypothesis for Hausman specification test can be stated as follows:

If the p value is less than 5%, then reject the null hypothesis and accept an alternative hypothesis meaning that in that case, the FEM model is more appropriate than the REM model. On the other hand, if the p value is more than 5%, then accept the null hypothesis meaning that the REM model is more appropriate than the FEM model [ 4 , 200 ].

Findings and analysis

Relationship between csr and fp, dependent variable: roa.

In assessing the impact of CSR and FP, Table 3 shows the results obtained from the regression analysis between the independent variables, which are data capturing the CSR and the dependent variable represented by ROA. The panel analysis for the pooled, fixed, and random effect model is presented below without the control variable.

The specification test shows that the random model is the most appropriate model for this analysis. The R -squared of 0.2568 indicates that the independent variables explain about 25.68% of the variability in the dependent variable ROA. Furthermore, the result shows that there is a strong negative relationship between diversity and ROA, while the result did not show a significant relationship between community, environment, work, and ROA. The random effect model can be specified below as follows:

After controlling for the size of the company, the result shows that size has a highly statistical significant P value of 0.000. However, the relationship between size and the ROA of firms exhibits a negative relationship, as shown in Table 4 . The result further shows that diversity has a significant negative relationship with ROA as it was before the control variable added to the model, and this shows that a percent increase in diverse will bring about a 44.78% decrease in ROA. Community, environment, and work did not show a significant relationship with ROA.

The R -square, which shows the extent to which the independent variables explain the model, has a value of 70.76% (0.7076). This means that the model explains about 70.76% of the variability in the ROA of the companies. The P value of 0.000 of the F -test shows that the model is a good fit, and the overall significance of the model is subtle. CSR relationship has been examined by different researchers, and the coefficient of size as a control variable has varied, though most of the time, always found significant [ 159 ].

The result from the random effect model with the control variables can be specified as follows:

Dependent variable: returns of equity (ROE)

Table 5 presents the result of the regression analysis using pooled OLS, fixed effect, and random effect model with ROE as the dependent variable. The number of companies examined is six, and the time period was 5 years.

The two-specification test shows that the pooled OLS is the most appropriate model for this analysis. The R -squared of 0.2506 indicates that the independent variables explain about 25.06% of the variability in the dependent variable ROE. The result also shows that there is a strong negative relationship between environment and ROE, while the result did not show a significant relationship between community, diverse, work, and ROE. The Pooled model can be specified below as follows with ε representing the unexplained part of ROE:

The pooled OLS result with control for the size of the company shows that the size of the company is not statistically significant as it has a P value of 0.163. Also, the relationship between size and the ROE of firms exhibits a negative relationship, as shown in Table 6 . The result further indicates that community, diverse, environment, and work did not show a significant relationship with ROE.

The R -square value, which represents to what extent the independent variables, explains the model comes out with a value of 0.3103. This means that the model explains about 31.03% of the variability in the ROE of the companies. The P value of 0.0927 of the F -test shows that the model is not overall significant.

The result from the pooled OLS model with size as the control variables can be specified as follows:

Dependent variable: EPS

Table 7 shows the results obtained from the regression analysis between the independent variables, which are data, used to cover the CSR and the dependent variable represented by EPS. The panel analysis for the pooled, fixed, and the random effect is presented below without the control variable.

The fixed-effect model is the most appropriate model for this analysis, as shown in Table 7 by the specification test. R -squared of 0.1658 shows that the independent variables explain about 16.58% of the variability in the dependent variable EPS. Furthermore, the result shows that there is a strong negative relationship between diversity and EPS, while the result did not show a significant relationship between community, environment, work, and EPS. The fixed-effect model can be specified below as follows with ε explaining the part of the model not captured by the independent variables:

In adding the control variable, which is the size of the company, the result shows that firm size has an insignificant statistical P value of 0.639. However, the relationship between size and the EPS of firms shows a positive relationship, as shown in Table 8 . The result further shows that diversity has a significant negative relationship with EPS as it was before the control variable added to the model. Lastly, community, environment, and work did show an insignificant relationship with EPS.

The R -square, which shows the extent to which the independent variables explain the model, has a value of 0.1100. This means that the model explains about 11% of the variability in the EPS of the companies. The P value of 0.1014 of the F -test shows that the overall model significance of the model is not strong enough.

The result from the fixed effect model with the control variables can be specified as follows:

Testing for multicollinearity

As presented in Table 9 , the multicollinearity result, which based on the rule of thumb, is that if VIF with a value less than five but must not be more than value is 10. The result shows that there were no multicollinearity problems with the independent variables. The work variable has the highest collinearity, but however, it is not more than 10. The values of all the VIF are still within the acceptable level of not more than 10.

CSR and FP relation

Table 10 depicts a summary of the hypothesis tested in this study. The subsequent part of this section discusses in detail the CSR and FP relationship of this research.

Relationship between community and FP (ROE, ROA and EPS)

Based on the findings of the study, H1, H2 and H3 were rejected, meaning that there is no significant relationship between CSR (community) and FP (ROE, ROA and EPS). This finding contradicts previous literature and there can be several possible reasons for that.

Firstly, CSR is a novel idea that “ creating shared value ,” which is proposed by Porter and Kramer [ 69 ] in the HBR. The basic idea behind this principle is that an organization generates economic benefit by way of creating value for the society, but [ 164 ] stated that this norm is not valid. The reason for the invalidation of Porter and Kramer [ 69 ] preposition is because CSR is multifaceted, so just by philanthropic giving the shared value cannot achieve, rather a company should develop a clear CSR program that aligns with the business purpose. In line with this reasoning [ 175 ] stated that in the Maldives only a few companies have formal CSR strategy. Thus, just by donating money to the community by the Maldives, public companies may not increase the FP of the enterprise. Furthermore, [ 164 ] suggested organization should run planned coordinated CSR program, otherwise that may not bring any benefits to the company, in line with this rational [ 175 ] stated that companies in the Maldives conduct CSR activities more “ informal and unplanned ” ways and indicated that in the Maldives only 23% of companies consult relevant parties when planning CSR programs for the upcoming years hence, that might be the reason for insignificant results of this study.

Secondly, CSR initiatives vary from industry to industry [ 31 ]. In line with this argument, [ 66 ] stress “ consumer service ” industries such as banking, general retail, and insurance, etc., companies focus more on community engagement CSR programs. Conversely, “ heavy ” industries such as oil and gas refining and utility, etc. companies concentrate more on natural environment CSR programs than community involvement programs. Hence, the CSR initiatives undertaken by Maldives public companies might have overlooked the industry it operates when developing CSR programs. That might be the reason for the insignificant result of this study.

Thirdly, McLennan and Banks [ 162 ] stated that understanding the need of the local community framing CSR community development programs is a necessity because of the heterogeneous nature of the city. Eweje [ 52 ] points out the main reason for the failure of the CSR community development program is due to not addressing the social and environmental issues that are intended to solve and lack of trust community have on the company. In the case of Maldives, some of the public company community development CSR programs politically driven. Shareef et al. [ 175 ] affirm in the Maldives, most of the prominent local entrepreneur is politically motivated. Hence, the CSR initiatives undertaken by Maldives public companies might be politically driven, conduct CSR community development programs without assessing needs, and unfulfilled promise leads to mistrust between companies and community might be the reason for the insignificant result of this study.

Relationship between environment and FP (ROE, ROA and EPS)

Based on the findings of the study, H4 was accepted, meaning that there is a significant relationship between CSR (environment) and FP (ROE), but the results found are negative. This finding is in line with [ 116 , 159 ]. These scholars argue that when the firm engages in disclosing environmental-related CSR programs leads to negative financial performance, and the reason is the cost involve in such programs outweighs the cost than the benefits it brings to the company. Shareef et al. [ 175 ] affirms that in the Maldives, only 18% of businesses people believe cost reduce when the organization engages in CSR (environment) related activities.

Conversely, based on the findings of the study H5 and H6 were rejected, meaning that there is no significant relationship between CSR (environment) and FP (ROA and EPS). Therefore, this study finding contradicts previous other literature and there can be several possible reasons for that.

Firstly, Maldives is a developing country, and the state regulates most of the corporate-related things as the caretaker of the country. Therefore, most of the things related to environment protection such as air pollution, biodiversity, carbon emission, deforestation, and energy efficiency strictly governed through laws and regulations rather than business-driven initiatives. According to [ 134 ] CSR as a voluntary contribution and does not require laws to follow. But in developing countries like the Maldives, CSR is more government-driven than business-driven. As discussed earlier, a caretaker of the society government has enacted and made a mandatory requirement for business by law that may be related to the environment. Hence, stakeholders in the Maldives do not consider mandatory CSR disclosure as real CSR initiatives. Due to that, the improved financial benefits may not be evident in environment-related affairs.

Secondly, the so-called " environmental investors " are still the minority in the investor's markets [ 7 ]. A country like the Maldives, where CSR is at its infancy stage, may not have " environmental investors ." In line with this reasoning [ 175 ] stated that CSR in the Maldives is " mediocre " and documented that environmental protection and ethical standards are CSR practices of business, but customers do not consider environmental protection and ethical standards are CSR practices that local companies should adhere. Therefore, in the Maldives context, " environmental investors " dilemma might not be true due to that in the short term, firms may not gain any financial benefits.

Thirdly, CSR disclosure between the firms, especially the Industry, which it operates, leads to more CSR disclosure [ 22 , 60 ]. In line with this thinking [ 190 ], argue that companies that negatively affect the environment tend to disclose more compare with other Industry. In line with this reasoning, [ 175 ] suggest that the primary focus of tourism companies in the Maldives focuses on environment protection than any other aspect of CSR. The other business owners belong to other Industries focus their CSR activities on another aspect, such as community development. In line with this thinking, most of the sample companies listed in the MSE not regarded as a controversial Industry hence financial gain not materialized.

Relationship between workplace and FP (ROE, ROA and EPS)

Based on the findings of the study, H7, H8 and H9 rejected, meaning that there is no significant relationship between CSR (workplace) and FP (ROE, ROA and EPS). This finding is in line with [ 93 , 155 ], which stated workplace and FP have no significant relation. On the other hand, this finding contradicts previous literature and there can be several possible reasons for that.

Firstly, in the academic literature, CSR and workplace (employees) show a very positive picture. CSR-related programmed can reduce labor turnover, created a sense of belongingness, attract more talented staff, and be more committed to their work. Conversely Brieger et al. [ 162 ] advocated that the dark side of the CSR has not been explored. CSR companies might do some window dressing to portray to the public that the company is a socially responsible company at the expense of employees [ 7 ]. For example, in the Maldives, some public companies' MD salary is very high, but the employee's salary was not competitive. Previous literature shows that socially responsible reputed companies' wages are significantly low [ 138 ]. Furthermore, Brieger et al. [ 162 ] founds that working in CSR committed company may lead to employee work addiction, which may harm the well-being of the worker, family, and friends. Due to the stated reasons, employees working in public companies in the Maldives may not have considered CSR disclosure is vital.

Secondly, [ 175 ] affirms that in the Maldives, employees are the major second most frequently target group of CSR activities. They suggest that companies provide medical expenses coverage, different training programs, recreational activities, and some financial assistance programs as well, and these things lead to workers' loyalty to boost by 52%. The single most striking observation that emerges from the study shows no significant relationship, and this is an alarming result. A likely reason is that the investment made by Maldivian public companies on human capital outweighs the FP measured during the study period. There can be a possibility that Maldivian public companies have taken substantial steps toward the development of the workforce in their organization. However, the organization may not have reaped the benefits in the form of financial gain.

Thirdly, CSR is considered as “ two-way street ” Tsavdaridou and Metaxas [ 183 ] that mutually benefits both (stakeholders and business) parties. Contrary to this line of reasoning [ 175 ] suggest that in the Maldives, CSR is perceived to be “ one-way street ” rather than “ two-way street .” Further, documented that in Maldives organization does not expect anything in return on CSR activities, and if the company expects anything in return, then it is considered as the outside realm of CSR initiatives. This might be because the Maldives is 100% Muslim country, this perception comes from the Islamic religion of almsgiving (Zakat or Sadaquath), which advocates donation to vulnerable people, and by helping poor people, we should not expect material benefit return in this world.

Fourthly, sometimes, the entrepreneur may not be able to reap the benefits of CSR initiatives due to a lack of awareness of CSR among the stakeholders. This line of thinking supported by [ 175 ] posit that in the Maldives one of the most significant barriers in implementing and institutionalizing CSR within business is due to lack of awareness among the public, and it noted that 50% of the people believe that in the Maldives the main barrier in implementing CSR initiatives is due to lack of awareness.

Relationship between diverse and FP (ROE, ROA and EPS)

Based on the findings of the study H11 and H12 were accepted, meaning that there is a significant relationship between CSR (diverse) and FP (ROA and EPS), but the results found are negative. This finding is in line with [ 6 , 103 ] posited that diversity leads to negative employee productivity and performance. As stated earlier, this study found a significant relationship between CSR (environment) and FP (ROA and EPS), but the results found are negative, and there can be several possible reasons for that.

Firstly, when there is a different ethnic group within the company leads the worker to indulge in disagreements that may not directly relate to their work; hence, it may lead to conflicts between the employees, and in the end, company productivity goes down. For example, the Maldivian worker and Sri Lankan worker may argue on the religious differences among them. In line with this thinking, [ 75 ] stated a deep level of divergences between the groups could lead to a negative impact on organizational performance. Furthermore, [ 127 ] suggests that interpersonal deviations arise between the employees may lead to a negative emotion that may detrimental to organizational productivity.

Secondly, the use of emigrant workers remains widespread due to a lack of skilled labor force [ 1 ]. According to [ 131 ], the number of emigrant workers has increased by 188% between, 2000 to 2011 and estimated that, on average, a 5% increase would be there in every alternative year. These numbers show alarming figures indicating the different nationals working in various companies in the Maldives. Hence, companies' workforce diversity can have a considerable impact on organizational performance. Most of the time, in Maldives expatriate workers, does the odd job in the construction industry Maldivian considers those workers as very inferior and discriminates their workers [ 151 ]. This might be the case in public companies; hence, if the employees discriminated, then it leads to unhappy work condition may result in the productivity of the companies. In the same vein, [ 187 ] posit if employees are not happy and if they are discriminated based on their cultural differences, it will lead to low morale in the working environment and dissatisfy and at the end it leads to negative performance and affects the productivity of the organization.

Thirdly, a diverse workforce leads to employee turnover and absenteeism to go up, which leads to lower productivity of the organizations [ 26 ]. Leonard and Levine [ 110 ] acknowledged if employees are isolated based on cultural differences, age or gender from coworkers may increase labor turnover. In line with this [ 198 ] conceive that diversity leads to negative dynamics such as stereotyping, cultural classes, and ethnocentrism, and these negative dynamics lead to employee turnover and absenteeism. This might be the case in public companies in the Maldives. Hence, if diversity is overlooked or not adequately handled by the top management, it may detract the productivity of the companies.

Based on the findings of this study, H10 was rejected, meaning that there is no significant relationship between CSR (diverse) and FP (ROE). Therefore, this finding is in line with scholars that argue on diversity, and organizational performance has no relation. For example, [ 6 , 103 , 126 ] found that ethnicity diversity has no significant relation with innovation within an organization.

Conversely there is a large volume of published studies describing that diversity leads to improve financial performance [ 9 , 115 ]. As stated earlier, this study found no significant relationship between CSR (diverse) and FP (ROE), and there can be several possible reasons for that.

Firstly, according to the corporate governance code (clause 1.6(a)(v)(vi)) of Maldives, all public company boards should have a 30% representation of women [ 7 ]. But the samples taken for this study except one company remaining five companies didn't strictly follow the corporate governance code accordingly. It found that BML board have 33% of female, STO has 14% of female, Dhirague has 14%, MTDC has 22% female, Amana Takaful have 0%, and MTCC has 0% female representation. According to [ 154 ] board, diversity is not just a simple " number game ." Having the right mix of gender diversity in the boardroom leads to better financial performance [ 115 ]. Therefore, it is important for public companies in the Maldives to follow corporate governance code thoroughly so that in the future, that may improve the financial position of the company. Though currently public companies not following the CG code may not lead any adverse implication but maybe in the future, when the investors get to know the importance of diversity in the board may punish the companies.

Secondly, if the female directors appointed as “ token ,” then it may not leads to a positive impact. According [ 94 ], the theory of “ tokenism ” if the group representation is less than 15%, then it is considered as appointed as “token.” If female directors appointed as “ token ,” then it may lead to negative/no significant impact on organization performance. In the context of Maldives, the average female board representation of the six-sample company is 13%. Therefore, it is safe to conclude that there is no significant statistical relationship between CSR (diversity) and FP (ROE) in the Maldivian plc context is due to “ tokenism .”

Thirdly, a report published by the Ministry of Environment indicated that lack of women in the decision-making level is a challenge that Maldives face in a time of advocacy of gender equality and empowerment [ 162 ]. In the same vein, the UNFPA Maldives bulletin indicated that only 25% of women work in the decision making level in the country. As stated earlier in the context of Maldives, the average female board representation of the six-sample company is 13%, one of the possible reasons for that low representation can be due to the " glass ceiling ." According to [ 50 ], the " glass ceiling " is a phenomenon where the promotion of certain people, especially women, doesn't go beyond a certain level in the hierarchy. In public companies, the highest top-ranking occupation considered as the board of directors' jobs, due to cultural thinking in the Maldives and the " glass ceiling " phenomena, sometimes, female employees do have difficulty climbing up in the leader of the hierarchy and be in the boardroom. Therefore, it is safe to conclude that there is no significant statistical relationship between CSR (diversity) and FP (ROE) in the Maldivian plc context is due to the " glass ceiling " phenomena.

Control variable (firm size)

Based on the findings of the study, H13-01 and H13-03 rejected, meaning control variable firm size is not a significant thing that affects organization CSR disclosure or FP. This result is consistent with [ 182 ] and Adeneye and Ahmed [ 2 ], and they posit that firm size cannot influence CSR or FP. Further, based on finding H13-02 accepted indicating firm size have a significant effect on ROA, this result consistent with [ 33 , 141 ].

The main objective of this study is to find out the relationship between CSR initiatives to the financial performance of the public companies in the Maldives.

The results of this research broadly classified into three broad spectrums that are ROA, ROE, and EPS with CSR. ROA, as a dependent variable, result shows there is a robust negative relationship between diversity and ROA, while the result did not show a significant correlation between community, environment, work, and ROA. ROE, as a DV result also shows there is a robust negative relationship between environment and ROE while the result did not show a significant correlation between community, diverse, work, and ROE. Besides, to check the effect of the control variable on ROE, the results indicated the size of the company is not statistically significant. Similarly, the relationship between size and the ROE of firms exhibits a negative correlation. The result further shows Community, Diverse, Environment, and Work did not show a significant relationship with ROE. EPS, as a DV, the result shows there is a robust negative relationship between diversity and EPS, while the result did not show a significant correlation between community, environment, work, and EPS. Furthermore, to check the effect of the control variable on EPS, the results indicated that the size of the company has an insignificant. Nevertheless, the relationship between size and the EPS of firms shows a positive relationship. The result further indicates diversity has a significant negative correlation with EPS as it was before the control variable added to the model. Lastly, Community, Environment, and Work did show an insignificant relationship with EPS.

There are several vital contribution this study made; firstly, the CSR research done in the developing countries was very limited especially in the context of Maldives, In doing so, the results of this study suggest that public companies in the Maldives are practicing CSR, and companies are reporting CSR initiatives in the annual report of the companies. Secondly, this study has examined the relevance of different management theories that are developed in the field of CSR and tries to identify the association between different variables that affect CSR theories. This study confirms the importance of stakeholders’ theory in understanding CSR in the Maldivian market. Thirdly, this research used panel data, that is widely been used in academia in order to check the relationship between CSR and FP [ 111 , 180 ]. Therefore, this study used improved data methods in identifying the association between CSR and FP and documented that there is statistical significance between the CSR and FP of public limited companies in the Maldives. Fourthly, this study is one of its kind that has explored, the relationship between CSR and FP of listed companies in the Maldives, therefore, this study contributes existing body of knowledge as a reservoir hence in future this research work can be reference materials for researchers and students who wants to explore this subject matters in the future.

The empirical outcomes suggested in this research should be considered in the light of some constraint because no research is without limitation; hence, this study also has several limitations due to the methodology adopted by this study. Firstly, the major limitation of this study is the “ CSR instrument ” adopted by this research. Secondly, the sample size used in this study is six, and the time horizon of the study is 5 years from 2014 and 2018 due to limited companies listed on the stock exchange, and the small number of samples size might be the reason for negative results of this research. Therefore, generalizability of this research finding might not be applicable to all companies in the Maldives. Thirdly, to assess the CSR disclosure by the public companies in the Maldives, this research used the company annual report using the content analysis and to convert the qualitative data to quantitative data, the dichotomous process has been used to calculate each company CSR disclosure under each specific criterion identified in CSR framework. Since the primary documents used in measuring CSR is an annual report; therefore, the finding of this research largely depends on the quality of information presented in the annual report. Fourthly, the primary dependent variable of this study was FP, and the proxies of FP included as ROE, ROA, and EPS. This financial ratio calculated from the financial statement; hence, the reliability of this finding largely depends on the “ true and fair ” values presented in the financial statement.

Several suggestions can be given for the future researcher in making a more judgmental decision in making this research more meaningful. First is developing a “ CSR instrument ” for local context and testing the relationship between CSR and FP. Secondly, it includes more samples and extending the study duration may give more meaningful results. Further, this study purely used annual report in identifying CSR disclosure, future researcher advisable to used website information and standalone CSR report can also use that may get more meaningful results. Thirdly, this study focuses only public listed company in Maldives stock exchange; the future researcher can look into both public and private company, that may give more conclusive information related to CSR, and it can augment the external validity of the finding of this study, and also can used other advanced econometric technique that analyzes the relationship between CSR and FP such as continuous wavelet transformation (CWT) method proposed by (Kenourgios, Drakonaki and Dimitriou). Fourthly, it can include more variables or other different variables in both CSR and FP measurement and check the association between CSR and FP can augment the external validity of the finding of this study. Furthermore, different other control variables such as R and D, institutional ownership, and leverage can be used. Therefore, future work can include these variables and check the association between CSR and FP.

Availability of data and materials

Abbreviations.

Corporate Social Responsibility

Financial Performance

Return on Assets

Return on Equity

Earnings Per Share

Ordinary least-squares

Fixed Effect Model

Random Effect Model

Maldives Transport and Contracting Company

Maldives Tourism Development Corporation

State Trading Organization

Bank of Maldives

ADB (2015) Maldives overcoming the challenges of a small island state country diagnostic study. ADB, Manila

Google Scholar  

Adeneye YB, Ahmed M (2015) Corporate social responsibility & company performance. J Bus Stud Q 7(1):151–166

Ajfei SM (2015) A content analysis of sustainability dimensions in annual reports. FIU electronic theses and dissertations, Florida, USA

Akbar A, Imdadullah M, Ullah MA, Aslam M (2011) Determinants of economic growth in asian countries: a panel data perspective. Pak J Soc Sci 31(1):145–157

Ali I et al (2010) Corporate social responsibility influences, employee commitment and organizational performance. Afr J Bus Manag 4(12):2796–2801

Ali M, Ng YL, Kulik CT (2014) Board age and gender diversity: a test of competing linear and curvilinear predictions. J Bus Ethics 125(3):497–512

Article   Google Scholar  

Ali W (2014) Corporate social responsibility disclosure (CSRD): a case study of Pakistan. Doctoral dissertation, pp 1–451

Ambec S, Lanoie P (2008) Does it pay to be green? A systematic overview. Acad Manag Perspect 22:45–62

Assenga P, Aly DA, Hussainey K (2018) The impact of board characteristics on the financial performance of Tanzanian firms. Corp Gover Int J Bus Soc 18(6):1089–1106

Atiyah AR (2016) The relationship between the diversity of employees and organizational performance. Cross-Cult Manag J 18(2):151–163

Aupperle KE, Carroll AB, Hatfield JD (1985) An empirical investigation of the relationship between corporate social responsibility and profitability. Acad Manag J 28(2):446–463

Babiak K, Trendafilova S (2011) CSR and environmental responsibility: motives and pressures to adopt green management practices. Corp Soc Responsib Environ Manag 18(1):11–24

Baetschmann G, Staub K, Winkelmann R (2017) Consistent estimation of the fixed effects ordered logit model. J R Stat Soc Ser A (Stat Soc) 178(3):685–703

Bagh T et al (2017) The corporate social responsibility and firms’ financial performance: evidence from financial sector of Pakistan. Int J Econ Financ 7(2):301–308

Barnett L (2007) Stakeholder influence capacity and the variability of financial returns to corporate social responsibility. Acad Manag Rev 32(3):794–816

Berger L (2018) Unconscious bias in the workplace: you can't afford to ignore it. https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbescoachescouncil/2018/03/23/unconscious-bias-in-the-workplace-you-cant-afford-to-ignore-it/#729edd167660 . Accessed 23 Aug 2019

Beurden PV, Gössling T (2008) The worth of values—a literature review on the relation between corporate social and financial performance. J Bus Ethics 82:407

Bhandari A, Javakhadze D (2017) Corporate social responsibility and capital allocation efficiency. J Corp Finan 43:354–377

Bhattacharya C, Sen R (2004) Doing better at doing good: when, why and how consumers respond to corporate social initiatives. Calif Manag Rev 47(1):9–24

Bouraoui K, Bensemmane S, Ohana M, Russo M (2019) Corporate social responsibility and employees’ affective commitment A multiple mediation model. Manag Decis 57(1):152–167

Bowen HR (1953) Social responsibilities of the businessman. Harper, New York

Brammer S, Pavelin S (2006) Voluntary environmental disclosures by large UK companies. J Bus Finance Acc 33(7–8):1168–1188

Brieger SA et al (2019) Too much of a good thing? On the relationship between CSR and employee work addiction. J Bus Ethics 17:1–19

Brønn PS, Vrioni AB (2001) Corporate social responsibility and cause-related marketing: an overview. Int J Adv 20(2):207–222

Burton BK, Farh J, Hegarty WH (2000) A cross cultural comparison of corporate social responsibility orientation: Hong Kong vs United States Students. Teach Bus Ethics 4:151–167

Buttner E, Lowe B, Harris B (2010) Diversity climate impact on employee of color outcomes: does justice matter? Career Dev Int 15(3):239–258

Carroll AB (1999) Corporate social responsibility: evolution of a definitional construct. Bus Soc 38(3):268–295

Carroll AB, Shabana KM (2010) The business case for corporate social responsibility: a review of concepts, research and practice. Int J Manag Rev 12(1):85–105

Carroll AB (2016) Carroll’s pyramid of CSR: taking another look. Int J Corp Soc Responsib 1(3):2–8

Carroll AB (1979) A three-dimensional conceptual model of corporate social performance. Acad Manag Rev 4(4):497–505

Casado B, Nicolau JL, Ruiz F, Sellers R (2014) Industry-specific effect of CSR initiatives: hotels and airlines. Kybernetes 43(3/4):547–564

CEC (2001) Promoting a European framework for Corporate Social Responsibility, pp 1–32

Chek IT, Mohamad ZZ, Yunus J, Norwani R (2013) Corporate social responsibility (CSR) disclosure in consumer products and plantation industry in Malaysia. Am Int J Contemp Res 3(5):118–125

Chen ZF, Hong C, Occa A (2019) How different CSR dimensions impact organization-employee relationships: the moderating role of CSR-culture fit. Corp Commun Int J 24(1):63–78

Chetty S, Naidoo R, Seetharam Y (2015) The impact of corporate social responsibility on firms’ financial performance in South Africa. Contemp Econ 9(2):193–214

Cho SJ, Chung CY, Young J (2019) Study on the relationship between CSR and financial performance. Sustainability 11(2):1–26

Cho H, Guidry P, Hageman M, Patten M (2012) Do actions speak louder than wordss? An empirical investigation of corporate environmental reputation. Acc Organ Soc 37(1):14–25

Choongo P (2017) A longitudinal study of the impact of corporate social responsibility on firm performance in SMEs in Zambia. Sustainability 9(8):1–19

Chuang SP, Huang SJ (2016) The effect of environmental corporate social responsibility on environmental performance and business competitiveness: the mediation of green information technology capital. J Bus Ethics 25:1–19

Clark S, Linzer S (2015) Should I use fixed or random effects? Polit Sci Res Methods 3(2):399–408

Cohen J (1960) A coefficient of agreement for nominal scales. Educ Psychol Meas 20(1):37–46

Crifo P, Diaye M-A, Pekovic S (2016) CSR related management practices and firm performance: an empirical analysis of the quantity–quality trade-off on French data. Int J Prod Econ 171(3):405–416

Cruz S, Vaduva S, Fotea I, Neagoie D (2015) Business ethics & corporate social responsibility attitudes among SME leaders in Romania. In: Proceeding of the 9th international management conferance "management and innovation for competitive advantage". Bucharest , 2015. University of Bucharest Academy of Economic Studies

Dabic M et al (2016) Industry-specific CSR: analysis of 20 years of research. Eur Bus Rev 28(3):250–273

Dahlsrud A (2008) How corporate social responsibility is defined: an analysis of 37 definitions. Corp Soc Respons Environ Manag 15:1–13

Dartey-Baah K, Amponsah-Tawiah K (2011) Exploring the limits of Western Corporate Social Responsibility Theories in Africa. Int J Bus Soc Sci 2(18):126–137

Das L, Bhunia A (2016) The impact of CSR on firms’ financial performance—a literature review. Am J Bus Econ Manag 4(4):66–74

Dawkins CE et al (2014) Corporate social responsibility and job choice intentions: a cross-cultural analysis. Bus Soc 35:1–35

Dhanesh GS (2014) CSR as organization-employee relationship management strategy: a case study of socially responsible information technology companies in India. Manag Commun Q 28(1):130–149

Ekadah W, Mboya J (2015) Effect of board gender diversity on the performance of commercial banks in Kenya. Eur Sci J 8(7):128–148

Esen E (2013) The influence of corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities on building corporate reputation. Int Bus Sustain Corp Soc Responsib 11:133–150

Eweje G (2007) Multinational oil companies’ CSR initiatives in Nigeria. Managerial Law 49(5/6):218–235

Famiyeh S, Kwarteng A, Dadzie SA (2016) Corporate social responsibility and reputation: some empirical perspectives. J Glob Responsib 7(2):258–274

Fatma M, Khan I, Rahman Z (2018) Striving for legitimacy through CSR: an exploration of employees responses in controversial industry sector. Soc Responsib J

Feng M, Wang X, Kreuze Y (2017) Corporate social responsibility and firm financial performance: comparison analyses across industries and CSR categories. Am J Bus 32(3–4):106–133

Fitch HG (1976) Achieving corporate social responsibility. Acad Manag Rev 1(1):38–46

Fridson F, Alvarez Z (2011) Financial statement analysis: a practitioner’s guide, 4th edn. Wiley, New York

Friedman A (1970) The social responsibility of business is to increase its profits. The New York times magazine

Galant A, Cadez S (2017) Corporate social responsibility and financial performance relationship: a review of measurement approaches. Econ Res 30(1):676–693

Gamerschlag R, Möller K, Verbeeten F (2011) Determinants of voluntary CSR disclosure: empirical evidence from Germany. RMS 5(2–3):233–262

Garai S (2017) Impact of corporate social responsibility on firm’s financial performance with a special reference of RIL. Int J Appl Res 3(1):38–41

Gatimbu KK, Wabwire JM (2016) Effect of corporate environmental disclosure on financial performance of firms listed at Nairobi Securities Exchange, Kenya. Int J Sustain Manag Inf Technol 2(1):1–6

Geringer JM, Beamish PW, DaCosta RC (1989) Diversification Strategy and Internationalization: implications for MNE Performance. Strateg Manag J 10(2):109–119

Gielissen B (2011) Why do consumers buy socially responsible products? Int J Bus Soc Sci 2(3):21–35

Glavas A, Godwin LN (2013) Is the perception of ‘goodness’ good enough? Exploring the relationship between perceived corporate social responsibility and employee organizational identification. J Bus Ethics 114(1):15–27

Godfrey PC, Hatch NW, Hansen JM (2010) Toward a general theory of CSRs: the roles of beneficence, profitability, insurance, and industry heterogeneity. Bus Soc 49(2):316–344

Green T, Peloza J (2011) How does corporate social responsibility create value for consumers? J Consum Mark 28(1):48–56

Greening DW, Turban DB (2000) Corporate social performance as a competitive advantage in attracting a quality workforce. Bus Soc 39:3

Gross R, Holland B (2011) Corporate social responsibility and employee engagement: making the connection. Mandrake

Guthrie J, Abeysekera I (2006) Content analysis of social, environmental reporting: what is new? J Hum Resour Cost Acc 10(2):114–126

Haar BT, Keune M (2014) One step forward or more window-dressing? A legal analysis of recent csr initiatives in the garment industry in Bangladesh. Int J Comp Lab Law Ind Relat 30(1):5–25

Hamidu AA, Haron HM, Amran A (2015) Corporate social responsibility: a review on definitions, core characteristics and theoretical perspectives. Mediterr J Soc Sci 6(4):83–95

Hansen SD et al (2011) Corporate social responsibility and the benefits of employee trust: a cross-disciplinary perspective. J Bus Ethics 102(1):29–45

Harris EE (2014) The impact of board diversity and expertise on nonprofit performance. Nonprofit Manag Leadersh 25(2):113–130

Harrison A, Price H, Bell P (1998) Beyond relational demography: time and the effects of surface- and deep-level diversity on work group cohesion. Acad Manag J 41(1):96–107

Henriques I, Sadorsky P (1996) The determinants of an environmentally responsive firm: an empirical approach. J Environ Econ Manag 30(3):381–395

Hinson RE, Agbleze S, Kuada J (2013) Perspectives on corporate social responsibility (CSR) & employers attractiveness. In: 14th IAABD annual conference, 2013. GIMPA ACCRA

Hirigoyen R, Rehm P (2015) Relationships between corporate social responsibility and financial performance: what is the causality? J Bus Manag 4(1):18–43

Hohnen R (2007) Corporate social responsibility: an implementation guide for business. International Institute for Sustainable Development, Winnipeg, Canada

Hong H, Kacperczyk M (2009) The price of sin: the effects of social norms on markets. J Financ Econ 93(1):15–36

Hopkins M (2003) The planetary bargain: corporate social responsibility matters. Routledge, London

Imai K, Kim IS (2019) When should we use unit fixed effects regression models for causal inference with longitudinal data? Am J Polit Sci 63(2):467–490

Isanzu J, Fengju X (2016) Impact of corporate social responsibility on firm’s financial performance: the Tanzanian perspective. J Innov Sustain 7(1):18–27

Iwata J, Okada X (2011) How does environmental performance affect financial performance? Evidence from Japanese manufacturing firms. Ecol Econ 70(9):1691–1700

Jacobs W, Singhal R, Subramanian S (2010) An empirical investigation of environmental performance and the market value of the firm. J Oper Manag 28(5):430–441

Javed M, Rashid MA, Hussain G, Ali HY (2020) The effects of corporate social responsibility on corporate reputation and firm financial performance: moderating role of responsible leadership. Corp Soc Responsib Environ Manag 27(3):1395–1409

Jehn KA, Northcraft GB, Neale MA (1999) Why differences make a difference: a field study of diversity, conflict, and performance in workgroups. Adm Sci Q 44(4):741–763

Jensen C, Meckling H (1976) Theory of the firm: Managerial behavior, agency costs and ownership structure. J Financ Econ 3(4):305–360

Jo H, Na H (2012) Does CSR reduce firm risk? Evidence from controversial industry sectors. J Bus Ethics 110(4):441–456

Joecks J, Pull K, Vetter K (2013) Gender diversity in the boardroom and firm performance: what exactly constitutes a “critical mass?” J Bus Ethics 118(1):61–72

Jones R (1980) Corporate social responsibility revisited, redefined. Calif Manag Rev 22(3):59–67

Jones A, Willness S, Madey R (2014) Why are job seekers attracted by corporate social performance? experimental and field tests of three signal-based mechanisms. Acad Manag J 57(2):383–404

Jung H-J, Kim D-O (2016) Good neighbors but bad employers: two faces of corporate social responsibility programs. J Bus Ethics 138(2):295–310

Kanter M (1977) Men and women of the corporation. New York, USA

Kesto DA (2017) The impact of corporate social responsibility practices on financial performance of banking sector in Ethiopia. Glob J Manag Bus Res 17(1):29–44

Kenourgios D, Drakonaki E, Dimitriou D (2019) ECB’s unconventional monetary policy and cross-financial-market correlation dynamics. N A J Econ Finance 50:101045

Khan R (2005) Exploring the concept of sustainability in emerging markets: evidences from the Indian pharmaceutical industry. Oikos 1–14

Khojastehpour M, Johns R (2014) The effect of environmental CSR issues on corporate/brand reputation and corporate profitability. Eur Bus Rev 26(4):330–339

Kiliç R (2016) Online corporate social responsibility (CSR) disclosure in the banking industry Evidence from Turkey. Int J Bank Market 34(4):550–569

Kim Y, Brodhag S, Mebratu D (2014) Corporate social responsibility driven innovation. Innov Eur J Soc Sci Res 27(2):175–196

Krippendorff K (2012) Content analysis: an introduction to its methodology. SAGE Publications, New York

Krüger P (2015) Corporate goodness and shareholder wealth. J Financ Econ 115(2):304–329

Kunze F, Boehm A, Bruch H (2013) Organizational performance consequences of age diversity: inspecting the role of diversity-friendly HR policies and top managers’ negative age stereotypes. J Manag Stud 50(3):413–442

Kwanbo R (2011) An assessment of the effectiveness of social disclosure on earnings per share in Nigerian Public Corporations. World J Soc Sci 1(1):86–106

Lahouel BB, Zaied YB, Song Y, Yang GL (2020) Corporate social performance and financial performance relationship: a data envelopment analysis approach without explicit input. Finance Res Lett 69:101656

Leal Fa, Pasola V (2003) Using environmental management systems to increase firms’ competitiveness. Corp Soc Responsib Environ Manag 10(2):101–110

Lee EM, Park SY, Lee HJ (2013) Employee perception of CSR activities: its antecedents and consequences. J Bus Res 66(1):1716–1724

Lee J, Graves S, Waddock S (2018) Doing good does not preclude doing well: corporate responsibility and financial performance. Soc Responsib J 14(4):764–781

Lee, et al (2018) Do a company’s sincere intentions with CSR initiatives matter to employees? A comparison of customer-related and employee-related CSR initiatives. J Glob Responsib 9(4):355–371

Leonard S, Levine I (2006) The effect of diversity on turnover: a large case study. ILR Rev 59(4):547–572

Lin WL, Ho JA, Sambasivan M (2019) Impact of corporate political activity on the relationship between corporate social responsibility and financial performance: a dynamic panel data approach. Sustainability 11(1):60

Lis A (2012) The relevance of corporate social responsibility for a sustainable human resource management: an analysis of organizational attractiveness as a determinant in employees’ selection of a (potential) employer. Manag Revue 22(3):279–295

Llach J, Marimon V, Alonso-Almeida MDM (2014) A closer look at the ‘global reporting initiative’ sustainability reporting as a tool to implement environmental and social policies: a worldwide sector analysis. Corp Responsib Environ Manag 21(6):318–335

Lorenzo R, Reeves M (2018) How and where diversity drives financial performance. Harvard Bus Rev 30:1–5

Loukil N, Yousfi O, Yerbanga R (2019) Does gender diversity on boards influence stock market liquidity? Empirical evidence from the French market. Corp Govern 19(4):669–703

Lu W, Taylor ME (2018) A study of the relationships among environmental performance, environmental disclosure, and financial performance. Asian Rev Acc 26(1):107–130

Luce RA, Barber AE, Hillman A (2001) Good deeds and misdeeds: a mediated model of the effect of corporate social performance on organizational attractiveness. Bus Soc 40(4):397–415

Madugba JU, Okpara MC (2016) Impact of corporate social responsibility on financial performance: evidence from listed banks in Nigeria. Expert J Finance 4:1–9

Mahoney L, Roberts W (2007) Corporate social performance, financial performance and institutional ownership in Canadian firms. Acc Forum 31(3):233–253

Makhdoomi M, Nika FA (2018) Workforce diversity and organizational performance—a review. Int J Enhanc Res Manag Comput Appl 7(3):571–576

Maqbool S, Bakr A (2019) The curvilinear relationship between corporate social performance and financial performance: evidence from Indian companies. J Glob Responsib 10(1):87–100

Maqbool S, Zameer MN (2018) Corporate social responsibility and financial performance: an empirical analysis of Indian banks. Future Bus J 4(1):84–93

Margolis JD, Elfenbein HA, Walsh JP (2009) Does it pay to be good and does it matter? A meta-analysis of the relationship between corporate social and financial performance. SSRN, pp 1–68

Marin X, Ruiz S, Rubio D (2008) The role of identity salience in the effects of corporate social responsibility on consumer behavior. J Bus Ethics 84(1):65–78

Marin L, Ruiz S (2007) “I need you too!” corporate identity attractiveness for consumers and the role of social responsibility. J Bus Ethics 71(1):245–260

Marinova J, Plantenga J, Remery H (2016) Gender diversity and firm performance: evidence from Dutch and Danish boardrooms. Int J Hum Resour Manag 27(15):1777–1790

Martin GC (2014) The effects of cultural diversity in the workplace. J Divers Manag 9(2):89–92

McLennan L, Banks B (2019) Reversing the lens: why corporate social responsibility is not community development. Corp Soc Responsib Environ Manag 26(1):117–126

Melo A, Morgado G (2012) Corporate reputation: a combination of social responsibility and industry. Corp Soc Responsib Environ Manag 19(1):11–31

Milne A, Adler B (1999) Exploring the reliability of social and environmental disclosures content analysis. Acc Audit Acc J 12(2):237–256

Mohamed X (2013) The expatriate workforce: boon or bane? Q Econ Bull 12:13–20

Mohr A, Webb DJ, Harris E (2001) Do consumers expect companies to be socially responsible? The impact of corporate social responsibility on buying behavior. J Consum Aff 35(1):45–72

Mohr LA, Webb DJ (2005) The effects of corporate social responsibility and price on consumer responses. J Consum Aff 39(1):121–147

Moon D (2002) The social responsibility of business and new governance. Govern Opposit 37(3):385–408

Nassivera K et al (2017) Willingness to pay for organic cotton: Consumer responsiveness to a corporate social responsibility initiative. Br Food J 119(8):1815–1825

Neuendorf KA (2002) The content analysis guidebook. Sage Publications, Thousand Oaks

Nollet J, Filis K, Mitrokostas M (2015) Corporate social responsibility and financial performance: a non-linear and disaggregated approach. Econ Model 25:1–8

Nyborg K, Zhang T (2013) Is corporate social responsibility associated with lower wages? Environ Resour Econ 55(1):107–117

Nyeadi S, Ibrahim S, Sare C (2018) Corporate social responsibility and financial performance nexus: empirical evidence from South African listed firms. J Glob Responsib 9(3):301–328

Öberseder M, Schlegelmilch BB, Gruber V (2011) “Why don’t consumers care about CSR?”: A qualitative study exploring the role of CSR in consumption decisions. J Bus Ethics 104(4):449–460

Ofori F, S-Darko D, Nyuur B (2014) Corporate social responsibility and financial performance: fact or fiction? A look at Ghanaian banks. Acta Commer 14(1):1–11

Orlitzky W, Schmidt J, Rynes D (2003) Corporate social and financial performance: a meta-analysis. Organ Stud 24(3):403–441

Orlitzky J (2015) The politics of corporate social responsibility or: why Milton Friedman has been right all along. Ann Soc Responsib 1(1):5–29

Orlitzky M, Benjamin D (2001) Corporate social performance and firm risk: a meta-analytic review. Bus Soc 40(4):369–396

Patrick HA, Kumar A (2012) Managing workplace diversity: issues and challenges. SAGE Open 2(2):1–15

Peloza J (2009) The challenge of measuring financial impacts from investments in corporate social performance. J Manag 35(6):1518–1541

Peloza J (2006) Using corporate social responsibility as insurance for financial performance. Calif Manag Rev 48(2):52–72

Pérez A, Del-Bosque A (2016) The stakeholder management theory of CSR: A multidimensional approach in understanding customer identification and satisfaction. Int J Bank Mark 34(5):731–751

Perryman A, Fernando D, Tripathy A (2016) Do gender differences persist? An examination of gender diversity on firm performance, risk, and executive compensation. J Bus Res 69(2):579–586

Petkevičienė Š (2015) CSR reasons, practices and impact to corporate reputation. Soc Behav Sci 213(1):503–508

Plewa (2018) Migration in Maldives: a country profile 2018. International Organization for Migration.

Podestà A (2002) Recent developments in quantitative comparative methodology: the case of pooled time series cross-section analysis. DSS Pap SOC 3(2):5–44

Porter ME, Kramer MR (2011) Creating shared value. Harvard Bus Rev 89(1/2):62–77

Post C, Byron D (2015) Women on boards and firm financial performance: a meta-analysis. Acad Manag J 58(5):1546–1571

Pradhan X (2016) Impact of corporate social responsibility intensity on corporate reputation and Financial performance of Indian firms. Bus Theory Pract 17(4):371–380

Pratihari K, Uzma X (2018) CSR and corporate branding effect on brand loyalty: a study on Indian banking industry. J Prod Brand Manag 27(1):57–78

Preston LE, O’Bannon DP (1997) The corporate social-financial performance relationship: a typology and analysis. Bus Soc 36(4):419–429

Prieto ABT, Shin H, Lee Y, Lee CW (2020) Relationship among CSR initiatives and financial and non-financial corporate performance in the ecuadorian banking environment. Sustainability 12(4):1621

Qian (2012) Revisiting the link between environmental performance and financial performance: who cares about private companies? Govern Sustain 1–25

Rahdari H, Rostamya AA (2015) Designing a general set of sustainability indicators at the corporate level. J Clean Prod 108(Part A):757–771

Rahman S (2011) Evaluation of definitions: ten dimensions of corporate social responsibility. World Rev Bus Res 1(1):166–176

Rahman (2019) Communication strategy and action plan 2019–2023. Male': Ministry of Environment Ministry of Environment

Rahmawati D, Honggowati A, Supriyono A (2014) The effect of corporate social responsibility on financial performance with real manipulation as a moderating variable. Int J Manag Econ Soc Sci 3(2):59–78

Rangan VK, Chase L, Karim S (2015) The truth about CSR. Harv Bus Rev 93(1/2):40–49

Rashid MZ, Ibrahim S (2002) Executive and management attitudes towards corporate social responsibility in Malaysia. Corp Gov 2(4):10–16

Rashid RNA, Khalid A, Rahman NIA (2015) Environmental corporate social responsibility (ECSR): exploring its influence on customer loyalty. Procedia Econ Finance 31(1):705–713

Raza X, Ilyas I, Rauf R, Qamar Z (2012) Relationship between Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and Corporate Financial Performance (CFP): literature review approach. Elixir Int J 46:8404–8409

Russo S, Fouts D (1997) A resource-based perspective on corporate environmental performance and profitability. Acad Manag J 40(3):534–559

Rutledge R, Karim X, Aleksanyan R, Wu S (2014) An examination of the relationship between corporate social responsibility and financial performance: the case of Chinese state-owned enterprises. Acc Environ More Talk Little Progress 5:1–22

Saharan DS, Singh MS (2018) Impact of consumer expectations on their involvement in CSR initiatives. Abhigyan 35(4):31–42

Saunders S, Lewis M, Thornhill D (2009) Research methods for business students. Pearson Education Limited, Harlow

Saxena A (2014) Workforce diversity: a key to improve productivity. Procedia Econ Finance 11:76–85

Schmeltz A (2012) Consumer-oriented CSR communication: focusing on ability or morality? Corp Commun Int J 17(1):29–49

Scott A (1955) Reliability of content analysis: the case of nominal scale coding. Public Opin Q 19(3):321–325

Shareef A, Arunachalam W, Sodique D, Davey F (2014) Understanding CSR in the Maldivian context. Soc Responsib J 10(1):85–114

Sharma S, Mishra P (2019) Hotel employees’ perceptions about CSR initiatives and there potential to support the skill India initiative. Worldw Hosp Tour Themes 11(1):78–86

Simnett A, Vanstraelen W, Chua C (2009) Assurance on sustainability reports: an international comparison. Acc Rev 84(3):937–967

Stemler S (2001) An overview of content analysis. Pract Assess Res Eval 7(17):137–146

Taherdoost H (2016) Sampling methods in research methodology; how to choose a sampling technique for research. Int J Acad Res Manag 5(2):18–27

Tilakasiri KK (2012) Corporate social responsibility and company performance: evidence from Sri Lanka. Victoria University, Melbourne

Tilt R (2016) Corporate social responsibility research: the importance of context. Int J Corp Soc Responsib 1(2):5

Trang NT, Yekini A (2014) Investigating the link between CSR and Financial performance—evidence from Vietnamese listed companies. Br J Arts Soc Sci 17(1):85–101

Tsavdaridou A, Metaxas D (2015) A theoretical framework on CSR and urban development. Munich Personal RePEc Archive, pp 1–15

Turban DB, Greening DW (1996) Corporate social performance and organizational attractiveness to prospective employees. Acad Manag J 40(3):658–672

Ugur S, Yarimoglu YK (2015) Employees’ perspectives on corporate social responsibility: a focus group study in Izmir City. J Yasar Univ 10(1):68–74

Ujunwa R (2012) Board characteristics and the financial performance of Nigerian quoted firms. Corp Govern 12(5):656–674

Ukachukwu CC, Iheriohamma EBJ (2013) The effect of cultural diversity on employee productivity in work organizations in Port Harcourt, Nigeria. Int J Dev Manag Rev 8(1):32–49

Vance SC (1975) Are socially responsible corporations good investment risks. Manag Rev 64(8):19–24

Vatcheva A, Lee D, McCormick M, Rahbar N (2016) Multicollinearity in regression analyses conducted in epidemiologic studies. Epidemiology (Sunnyvale Calif) 6(2):227

Vollero A, Conte F, Siano A, Covucci C (2019) Corporate social responsibility information and involvement strategies in controversial industries. Corp Soc Responsib Environ Manag 26(1):141–151

Waddock R, Graves S (1997) The corporate social performance-financial performance link. Strateg Manag J 18(4):2–34

Wahba A (2008) Does the market value corporate environmental responsibility? An empirical examination. Corp Soc Responsib Environ Manag 15(2):89–99

Wahba A (2010) How do institutional shareholders manipulate corporate environmental strategy to protect their equity value? A study of the adoption of ISO 14001 by Egyptian firms. Bus Strategy Environ 19(8):495–511

Walker A, Kent B (2009) Do fans care? Assessing the influence of corporate social responsibility on consumer attitudes in the sport industry. J Sport Manag 23(1):743–769

Wang S et al (2015) Opening the black box of CSR decision making: a policy-capturing study of charitable donation decisions in China. J Bus Ethics 128(3):665–683

Wang S (2015) Chinese strategic decision-making on CSR. Springer, New York

Book   Google Scholar  

Waworuntu S, Wantah D, Rusmanto F (2014) CSR and financial performance analysis: evidence from top ASEAN listed companies. Procedia Soc Behav Sci 164:493–500

White D (1999) Managing the diverse organization: The imperative for a new multicultural paradigm. Public Admin Manag Interact J 4(4):469–493

Williams S (1999) Voluntary environmental and social accounting disclosure practices in the Asia-Pacific region: an international empirical test of political economy theory. Int J Account 34(2):209–238

Wooldridge D (2013) Introductory econometrics: a modern approach. South-Western, Cengage Learning, Mason

Wu L, Shao Z, Yang C, Ding T, Zhang W (2020) The impact of CSR and financial distress on financial performance-evidence from Chinese listed companies of the manufacturing industry. Sustainability 12(17):6799

Xiao JZ, Gao S, Heravi S, Cheung CQ (2005) The impact of social and economic development on corporate social and environmental disclosure in Hong Kong and the U.K. Adv Int Account 18:219–243

Yang J, Zhang D, Jiang B, Sun E (2015) Strategic flexibility, green management, and firm competitiveness in an emerging economy. Technol Forecast Soc Change 101(1):347–356

Yang SL, Shiu YM, Liu TC (2015) Reexamination of the insurance-like effect of corporate social responsibility: Empirical evidence from China-listed companies. Chin Manag Stud 9(3):295–310

Yeganeh X, Barzegar D (2014) The effect of disclosure level of corporate social responsibility (CSR) on corporate financial performance (CFP) in Tehran stock exchange. Int J Acc Res 1(11):43–51

Yoon R, Lee S (2016) What makes employees zealous supporters of their firm’s CSR initiative? the role of employees’ perceptions of their firm’s CSR authenticity. Adv Group Processes 33:93–126

Zhao X, Lee S, Moon L (2019) Employee response to CSR in China: the moderating effect of collectivism. Pers Rev 48(3):839–863

Žmuk B, Lutilsky R, Dragija B (2016) The choice of a sampling procedure for a (too) small target population: the case of Croatian public hospitals. Zbornik Ekonomskog fakulteta u Zagrebu 14(2):19–44

Download references

Acknowledgements

Not applicable.

Author information

Authors and affiliations.

Islamic University of Maldives, Malé, Maldives

Ibrahim Sameer

You can also search for this author in PubMed   Google Scholar

Contributions

The paper was conceptualized by ‘IS’; data extracted and contributed by ‘IS’; formal analysis was contributed by ‘IS’; investigation was contributed by ‘IS’; methodology was contributed by ‘IS’; validation was contributed by ‘IS’; visualization was contributed by ‘IS’; writing—original draft—was contributed by ‘IS’; writing—review and editing—was contributed by ‘IS’. Author read and approved the final manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Ibrahim Sameer .

Ethics declarations

Competing interests, rights and permissions.

Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ .

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article.

Sameer, I. Impact of corporate social responsibility on organization’s financial performance: evidence from Maldives public limited companies. Futur Bus J 7 , 29 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1186/s43093-021-00075-8

Download citation

Received : 23 October 2020

Accepted : 11 June 2021

Published : 16 August 2021

DOI : https://doi.org/10.1186/s43093-021-00075-8

Share this article

Anyone you share the following link with will be able to read this content:

Sorry, a shareable link is not currently available for this article.

Provided by the Springer Nature SharedIt content-sharing initiative

  • Corporate social responsibility
  • Financial performance
  • Return on assets
  • Return on equity and earning per share

research paper on public limited company

Inform Direct company secretarial software will ease the administrative burden of corporate life.

Advantages and disadvantages of a public limited company

research paper on public limited company

Written by Johnathan Korchak

Published in Company formation on November 25, 2016

7 comments | Tags: business types , plc

A great number of businesses choose to incorporate as a company limited by shares rather than other forms, such as the sole trader , partnership, limited liability partnership (LLP) or company limited by guarantee .

While most companies limited by shares are set up as private companies, in this article we look at the advantages and disadvantages of a public limited company . As well as those forming new companies, a proper evaluation of the advantages and disadvantages of a public limited company will be needed for an existing private limited company considering converting to a plc.

As ever, if you’re at all unsure about the best course of action, we’d strongly suggest you speak to your solicitor or accountant, who can give you detailed information and advice that takes account of your personal circumstances.

Need a little help managing your plc?

An important part of managing an unlisted plc in the UK is keeping its statutory books and filings up to date. Inform Direct is the perfect tool to help make this task a whole lot easier , meaning you can focus more on running your business.

Find out more | Log on

Public limited company advantages

As a limited company, a plc shares the advantages of a limited company with its private counterpart. But there are also specific features of a public limited company, many of which reinforce one another, that give it some unique advantages:

1 Raising capital through public issue of shares

The most obvious advantage of being a public limited company is the ability to raise share capital, particularly where the company is listed on a recognised exchange.

Since it can sell its shares to the public and anyone is able to invest their money, the capital that can be raised is typically much larger than a private limited company.

It’s also possible that having stock listed on an exchange could attract investment from hedge funds, mutual funds and other institutional traders.

2 Widening the shareholder base and spreading risk

Offering shares to the public gives the opportunity to spread the risk of company ownership among a large number of shareholders . This may allow early investors in the company to sell some of their own shares at a profit while still retaining a substantial stake in the company.

Obtaining capital from a wide range of investors has some advantages over relying on one or two “angel investors”, as many private companies will choose to do to facilitate growth. While an angel investor may provide a large amount of capital and expertise, the founders may not be comfortable with the level of influence over the company’s direction that the angel will often expect.

3 Other finance opportunities

As well as share capital, a public limited company will often find itself in a better position when looking at other potential sources of finance.

The demands of being a public limited company and maintaining a stock exchange listing, for example, can help to improve a company’s creditworthiness when issuing corporate debt (and therefore reduces the return the company needs to offer investors).

Banks and other financial institutions may be more willing to extend finance to a public limited company, particularly one that is listed. The company could also be in a better position to negotiate favourable interest rates and repayment terms on loans.

4 Growth and expansion opportunities

The value of being able to raise finance is in how it can be employed to serve the business. By having more finance potentially more readily available and on better terms than a private company, the public limited company ican be in an advantaged position to:

  • Pursue new projects, new products or new markets
  • Make capital expenditure to support and enhance the business
  • Make acquisitions (whether in cash or by offering shares to the shareholders of the target business)
  • Fund research and development
  • Pay off existing debt (or replace existing debt with new debt on better terms)
  • Grow organically

5 Prestigious profile and confidence

Whether deserved or not, having ‘plc’ at the end of a company name can add standing and prestige. There is a sense of status about a public limited company that its private company counterpart just doesn’t quite have, which can affect how the business is viewed. While often more imagined than real, this perception of being more established, larger or more powerful can affect the behaviour of customers, suppliers and employees.

More people are likely to be aware of the company if it is public, particularly if it’s listed on a stock exchange. In that case, it’s more likely to receive attention from the media and investment professionals. This is effectively free publicity, meaning more people will recognise the company and its products or services. Better brand recognition can lead to more sales. It may also make you more visible to valuable potential business partners.

Credibility and confidence are reinforced by:

  • Operating under a stricter legal regime than private companies in many areas
  • Higher share capital requirements
  • Greater transparency (for example, in the required form of accounts)
  • For listed companies, the indirect endorsement of having their shares listed on a recognised exchange

Again, these factors can affect the behaviour of (potential) shareholders, customers and business partners.

6 Transferability of shares

The shares of a public limited company are more easily transferable than those in the private equivalent, meaning shareholders benefit from liquidity. If shares are quoted on a stock exchange, shareholders and potential shareholders will generally find it easier to transfer shares in the company – although the market still relies on willing purchasers and sellers being available.

The fact the shareholders are less bound to remain with the company can give them comfort – and may help the company by making people more willing to invest.

Without restrictions on transferability of shares that often apply in private companies, it’s also easier to deal with situations like a shareholder’s death, allowing shares to be transmitted in line with the terms of any will.

7 Exit Strategy

Going public can enhance the options for the founders to exit the business at some point in the future, if they wish to do so. Both higher transferability of shares and the increased visibility of the business and its performance may increase the chances of bid interest from potential suitors.

Public limited company disadvantages

There are some important disadvantages of a public limited company, compared to a private limited company. These public limited company disadvantages include:

1 More regulatory requirements

To help protect shareholders, the legal and regulatory requirements for a public limited company are more onerous than for private limited companies. For example, additional restrictions include:

  • A trading certificate must be obtained from Companies House before the company can trade (there is no such requirement for a private company)
  • The need to have at least two directors (only one is required in a private company)
  • More onerous rules apply concerning loans to directors
  • A suitably qualified company secretary must be appointed (not required for a private company)
  • As well as higher transparency around accounts, they must be produced within 6 months of the end of the financial year (9 months for private companies)
  • AGMs must be held, whereas in a private company decisions can more often be made by resolution
  • There are various additional restrictions on the company’s share capital and limits on pre-emption rights and dividends

If the company’s shares are listed, the company will also need to follow the rules of the market. These rules, particularly those to be listed on the London Stock Exchange, are demanding.

Understanding and applying these additional rules will consume time and effort that cannot then be dedicated to growing the business. Appointing staff or advisers – including the required company secretary – will help but come at a cost.

2 Higher levels of transparency required

Limited companies, whether public or private, have more of their details in the public domain, available via Companies House, than other business types. But the required level of transparency is much higher for public companies.

As well as needing to have its accounts audited, public limited companies are generally unable to file abbreviated accounts, whereas smaller private companies can often do so. The fuller form of accounts means a public limited company has to disclose more detailed data about the business and its performance, information which is then available to anyone who wishes to access it.

The accounts of public limited companies are often scrutinised more by analysts and receive more media commentary.

3 Ownership and control issues

With a private limited company, the shareholders will typically be people known to the directors or founders. A private company will often be selective over who to admit as a shareholder, ensuring they support the vision and plans for the business. The use of pre-emption rights can allow existing shareholders to maintain control over the company when a new share issue is undertaken, a shareholder dies or wants to transfer their shares.

With a public limited company, it’s much harder to control who is a shareholder of the company, and who the directors are ultimately accountable to. There is therefore a possibility that the original owners or directors can lose control of the direction of the company, face disputes or just spend a lot more time managing shareholder expectations.

Institutional shareholders can wield particularly high levels of influence, often expecting consultation and adoption of particular policies or standards in return for their investment.

4 More vulnerable to takeovers

At worst, a company can become vulnerable to a hostile takeover if a majority of shareholders agree to a bid. With shares being freely transferable, a potential bidder can build up a shareholding in advance of launching a bid attempt.

5 Short-termism

Where a public limited company is listed, there can be added pressure imposed by the market. The company’s share price represents the value of the company as viewed by the market, and (potential) investors will usually expect a healthy return. As well as dividends paid from profits, there will be a desire for the share price to increase.

This level of emphasis on the share price, usually not so immediate a demand in a private company, can cause the directors to focus almost exclusively on short-term results. They may therefore miss strategic opportunities or threats, thereby not achieving the best for the business in the long-term.

6 Initial financial commitment is higher

The minimum financial commitment is higher for a public limited company than for a private limited company. In order to trade, the plc must start with at least £50,000 of nominal share capital, at least 25% of which is paid up . That means at least £12,500 must be committed to the business, whereas in a private company a single share of (say) £0.01 could be allotted – and not even paid for on issue!

Associated costs of company formation may also be higher, especially if the company’s requirements are complex. If the company’s shares are to be listed on an exchange, it will typically pay legal and investment professionals to advise and manage the listing process. There will be other costs associated with obtaining a listing.

All companies and LLPs are required to maintain up to date statutory records . Inform Direct is the perfect tool to keep your unlisted public limited company's records up to date .

7 Article Comments

thanks for the hel in my business class

Thanks for the help in economics class

U have saved students

helpful indeed. Thank you

Thank you so very much

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Save my name and email address in this browser for the next time I comment.

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed .

An official website of the United States government

Here’s how you know

Official websites use .gov A .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States.

Secure .gov websites use HTTPS A lock ( Lock A locked padlock ) or https:// means you’ve safely connected to the .gov website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.

  • Library Search
  • Commerce Research Library

Company & Industry Research

  • Company Research
  • Industry Research
  • Market Research

Research Tips

Company research can include a lot of different types of Information.  This guide focuses on the best databases the Commerce Research Library has to offer for corporate profiles and corporate family research.

If you're looking for where a company or subsidiary is officially registered check their location in one of the database below and then check the official government website for the relevant state to find official documentation.  Here is an example of the Delaware website , a popular state where many companies register.

Databases can provide incomplete and conflicting information.  Use clues like shared company names, shared executives, and shared websites to determine if two entities are connected even if they do not appear to have a parent/subsidiary relationship.

Best Bets Company Profiles

Bloomberg Terminal graphic

For access, request an account . Public and private company profiles and research on both domestic and international companies. Users can search by company name, industry (keyword and NAICS or SIC codes), geographical region, employee and revenue size, and corporate family tree.

Bureaus billed back by ID. Access is limited to HCHB staff, ITA regional, and BEA regional offices

LexisNexis Logo

CourtLink A detailed collection of federal and state court dockets and documents, including relevant briefs, pleadings, and motions.

Nexis Diligence Diligence enables you to conduct thorough due diligence on companies and individuals, going beyond credit scores and watch lists to develop a comprehensive due diligence report utilizing global news sources, sanction lists, company information, legal history, and public records.

Nexis Dossier Take advantage of a broad collection of company financials, industry analysis, hard-to-find contact data and more—from a single interface.

Nexis Gain unique insights from over 40,000 sources, including trusted up-to-date and archived news, company profiles, public records, industry information and social media content – all in one place.

Statista Logo Squared

Best Bets for Corporate Family Trees

Uniworld Logo Squared

Other Company Research Resources

As part of the EBSCOhost Business Source Premier database, Company Profiles provide MarketLine/Medtrack Reports, which cover company overview, SWOT analyses, key facts, top competitors, company products and services, subsidiaries, etc.

EBSCOhost logo squared

This directory features listings across the government, corporations, and nonprofit organizations. Find individuals holding high-level positions and their support staff or locate departments, agencies, major offices, and smaller bureaus by subject areas or organization.

ProQuest's ABI/INFORM includes full-text journals and key trade publications, dissertations, market reports, industry reports, business cases, global and trade news, local and regional business information, SSRN working papers, and other industry-focused information, as well as the Wall Street Journal back to 1984.

Training Webinars

Company research: family trees 101.

  • Webex Recording

Business News

Financial Times logo

  • << Previous: Vetting
  • Next: Industry Research >>
  • Last Updated: Dec 19, 2023 12:09 PM
  • URL: https://library.doc.gov/company

Commerce Research Library Logo

Contact Info

1401 Constitution Ave, NW Washington, DC 20230

Email: [email protected]

Monday to Friday 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.

Closed on Federal Holidays

General Public - by appointment only

  • Databases A-Z
  • Newspapers and News Sites
  • Past Library Programs
  • Book Lists by Topic
  • Research Assistance
  • Checking Out Books
  • Request a Book, Article, or Report

DOC logo

library.doc.gov

An official website of the U.S. Department of Commerce

  • Search Search Please fill out this field.

What Is a Public Limited Company (PLC)?

  • How a PLC Works
  • Requirements
  • Pros and Cons
  • PLC vs. LTD

How to Invest in a PLC

Examples of plcs, the bottom line.

  • Types of Corporations

What Public Limited Company (PLC) Means in the U.K.

research paper on public limited company

Investopedia / Paige McLaughlin

A public limited company (PLC) is a public company in the United Kingdom. PLC is the equivalent of a U.S. publicly traded company that carries the Inc. or corporation designation.

The use of the PLC abbreviation after the name of a company is mandatory and communicates to investors and to anyone dealing with the company that it is a publicly traded corporation.

Key Takeaways

  • PLC, or public limited company, is an abbreviation for public companies in the U.K.
  • All of the companies listed on the London Stock Exchange are PLCs.
  • Any retail investor may buy stock in a PLC.
  • Unlike privately-held companies, public companies must publish certain financial data and disclosures for the public at regular intervals.
  • The formal names of some familiar U.K. brands like Burberry and Shell include the suffix PLC.

How a Public Limited Company (PLC) Works

A PLC designates a company that has offered shares of stock to the general public. The buyers of those shares have limited liability, meaning that they cannot be held responsible for any business losses in excess of the amount they paid for the shares.

In the U.K., a PLC operates along similar lines as a public corporation in the U.S. Its operations are regulated and they are required to publish periodic reports to shareholders and prospective shareholders on its true financial health.

Requirements for a PLC

U.K. company law says that a PLC must have the PLC designation after the company name and minimum share capital of £50,000. Like a publicly traded company in the U.S., PLCs offer various types of shares, such as ordinary and cumulative preference shares. Ordinary shares of a PLC are similar to common stock issued by U.S. corporations.

Cumulative preference shares are akin to preferred stock in the U.S. Other key requirements for a PLC include offering shares, appointing directors, and adhering to registration requirements. The PLC must also have PLC or public limited company as part of the name.  

The largest PLCs make up the Financial Times Stock Exchange 100 Index, known as the Footsie .

Advantages and Disadvantages of a PLC

The biggest advantage of forming a public limited company (PLC) is that it grants the ability to raise capital by issuing public shares. A listing on a public stock exchange attracts interest from hedge funds, mutual funds, and professional traders as well as individual investors. That tends to lead to increased access to capital for investment in the company than a private limited company can amass.

On the other hand, there's much more regulation for a PLC in the U.K., than there is for a public corporation in the U.S. They are required to hold annual general meetings open to all shareholders and are held to higher standards of transparency in accounting. Because they’re public, they’re also vulnerable to pressure from shareholders and takeover bids from rivals.

By becoming a PLC, the company is given greater access to capital, and shareholders are offered liquidity. These are similar benefits of a company in the U.S. going public. On the downside, becoming a PLC means more scrutiny and required reporting. The company will have more shareholders and the value of the company could become more volatile as it is determined by the financial markets. 

U.K. companies can raise more capital by being a PLC.

Becoming a PLC allows shareholders liquidity.

Increased ability to raise future capital and make acquisitions (by offering shares to target companies).

Increased scrutiny and regulation

Larger number of shareholders to be accountable to

Volatility in valuation increases as the company is beholden to financial markets.

Public Limited Company (PLC) vs. Private Limited Company (LTD)

A PLC is a public company in the U.K. Meanwhile, there are private limited companies (LTDs), which are private companies in the U.K. Shares of a private limited company are not offered to the general public. 

Private companies are still incorporated, generally with the Companies House. These companies are still required to have legal documents to form the business. Private companies must have at least one director. 

To raise capital via a public investment in the U.K. the company must be a PLC. PLCs are like LTDs, except they are publicly traded, with shares that can be freely sold and traded on a stock exchange. Meanwhile, PLCs must have at least two directors and hold annual shareholder meetings.

As public companies, any retail investor in the United Kingdom can buy shares in a PLC. The simplest way to do so is through a brokerage : The investor can simply create an account, transfer money, and buy shares of the company. It is also to buy shares through a retirement account, so some people may own PLC shares without even knowing about it.

This may be more complicated for investors outside the United Kingdom. Many U.S. brokerages allow their clients to directly buy shares in foreign markets, exchanging dollars into local currency to make the purchase. In addition, many U.K. companies are tradable in American markets in the form of American depositary receipts . The downside is that the investor would assume an additional level of currency risk .

All of the companies listed on the London Stock Exchange are, by definition, PLCs. The fashion retailer Burberry is Burberry Group PLC. Automaker Rolls-Royce is Rolls-Royce Holdings PLC. The 100 largest PLCs on the London Stock Exchange are grouped together in an index called the Financial Times Stock Exchange 100 (FTSE 100) or, colloquially, the Footsie.

The companies in this group are representative of the United Kingdom's economy as a whole. The Footsie is comparable to the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) in the U.S. The biggest PLCs by market capitalization in the Footsie, as of July 2022, included Shell, HSBC, and AstraZeneca.

The formal names of all of these companies include the PLC designation. Not all PLCs are listed on a stock exchange. A company may choose not to list on an exchange or may not meet the requirements for listing.

What Does It Mean to Be a Public Limited Company (PLC)?

A PLC is a publicly traded company in the U.K. These companies must have PLC or the words "public limited company" after their name. For example, the oil and gas company, BP plc, is a U.K. publicly traded company that's headquartered in London, England.

Who Is a Public Limited Company Owned by?

Like publicly traded companies headquartered in the U.S., PLCs are owned by shareholders. These companies are traded on exchanges where shares can be openly bought or sold by individuals, companies, and mutual funds. This listing contrast with the limited (Ltd.) listing which does not trade publically and has limitations on shares and shareholders.

What Are the Main Features of a PLC?

The key feature of a PLC is that it's based in the U.K. and is publicly traded. The company must also have the PLC or "public limited company" designation after its name.

What Is the Difference Between a Public and Private Limited Company?

A PLC is a publicly traded company, while a private limited company is also a U.K. company, except it is private. There are other notable differences between the two, such as the fact that a private limited company only has to have one director, while a PLC must have two.

A PLC is the equivalent of an Inc. or Corp. company that trades in the U.S. stock market. PLCs are publicly traded companies in the U.K. Many famous U.K.-based companies are publicly traded and have the PLC designation after their name, such as consumer goods company Unilever plc and drugmaker AstraZeneca plc.

System Day. " Public Limited Company – PLC ."

Thomson Reuters Practical Law. " Annual General Meeting (AGM) ."

Gov.uk. " Limited Companies ."

London Stock Exchange. " FTSE 100 ."

research paper on public limited company

  • Terms of Service
  • Editorial Policy
  • Privacy Policy
  • Your Privacy Choices

IJLLR logo square.PNG

Indian Journal of Law and Legal Research ISSN: 2582-8878 | PIF: 6.605 Indexed at Manupatra, Google Scholar, HeinOnline & ROAD

Open Access Logo

Indian Journal of Law and Legal Research

  • Jun 4, 2022

Issue Of Shares In Public And Private Limited Companies

research paper on public limited company

Royan Jain & Harshit Jain, B.COM LLB (H), Amity Law School, Amity University, Noida

Issue of shares is something which is undertaken by almost every company whether it be private or public company primarily for raising capital. Investors intentionally take part in the issue of shares to gain benefits, generally as a long term investment, although few may use for trading purposes. This research paper starts with the meaning of public and private company. It also consists of the various types of issue of shares and the share issue procedure that are being undertaken by the respective companies. It further elaborates the requirements of a company for issue of shares. It also explores the right and duties of the shareholders and companies undergoing issue. It even highlights the documents which are required by public and private companies for issue of shares. Finally, the study also takes support of various legislations and case laws that have come out as a result of human brain, hard work, intelligence and dedication. This paper also investigates the real time survey which shows about the public’s awareness towards laws governing issue of shares, their individual opinions on share issue and much more.

  • Volume IV Issue III

Abbreviation : IJLLR

ISSN: 2582-8878

Website: www.ijllr.com

Accessibility: Open Access

License: Creative Commons 4.0

Submit Manuscript: Click here

Open Access Logo

​All research articles published in The Indian Journal of Law and Legal Research are fully open access. i.e. immediately freely available to read, download and share. Articles are published under the terms of a Creative Commons license which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Disclaimer:

The opinions expressed in this publication are those of the authors . They do not purport to reflect the opinions or views of the IJLLR or its members. The designations employed in this publication and the presentation of material therein do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of the IJLLR.

  • Bibliography
  • More Referencing guides Blog Automated transliteration Relevant bibliographies by topics
  • Automated transliteration
  • Relevant bibliographies by topics
  • Referencing guides

Academic literature on the topic 'Public limited companies (plcs)'

Create a spot-on reference in apa, mla, chicago, harvard, and other styles.

Select a source type:

  • Journal article
  • Video (online)
  • All types...
  • Archival document
  • Book chapter
  • Complete reference
  • Conference paper
  • Copyright certificate
  • Dictionary entry
  • Dissertation / Thesis
  • Encyclopedia
  • Encyclopedia article
  • Extended abstract of dissertation
  • Newspaper article
  • Press release
  • Religious text
  • Social media post

Consult the lists of relevant articles, books, theses, conference reports, and other scholarly sources on the topic 'Public limited companies (plcs).'

Next to every source in the list of references, there is an 'Add to bibliography' button. Press on it, and we will generate automatically the bibliographic reference to the chosen work in the citation style you need: APA, MLA, Harvard, Chicago, Vancouver, etc.

You can also download the full text of the academic publication as pdf and read online its abstract whenever available in the metadata.

  • Journal articles
  • Dissertations / Theses
  • Book chapters
  • Conference papers

Journal articles on the topic "Public limited companies (plcs)":

Aziz, Nor Azah Abdul, Soon Y. Foong, Tze San Ong, Rosmila Senik, Hassan Attan, and Yusri Arshad. "Intensity of market competition, strategic orientation and adoption of green initiatives in Malaysian public listed companies." International Journal of Productivity and Performance Management 67, no. 8 (November 12, 2018): 1334–51. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/ijppm-03-2017-0078.

Annuar, Hairul Azlan. "Malaysian evidence supporting theoretical integration of roles of non-executive directors." Asian Journal of Accounting Research 3, no. 1 (August 6, 2018): 2–14. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/ajar-07-2018-0020.

Gorman, Louise, Theo Lynn, and Mark Mulgrew. "The influence of the newspaper media on the corporate governance practices of Irish listed PLCs." Corporate Ownership and Control 7, no. 3 (2010): 259–74. http://dx.doi.org/10.22495/cocv7i3c2p2.

Annuar, Hairul Azlan, and Hafiz Majdi Abdul Rashid. "An investigation of the control role and effectiveness of independent non-executive directors in Malaysian public listed companies." Managerial Auditing Journal 30, no. 6/7 (July 6, 2015): 582–609. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/maj-09-2013-0936.

Ishak, Rokiah, and Mohd ‘Atef Md Yusof. "Corporate Performance, Corporate Governance and CEO Dismissal in Malaysia." GATR Global Journal of Business Social Sciences Review 1, no. 2 (April 11, 2013): 113–26. http://dx.doi.org/10.35609/gjbssr.2013.1.2(12).

Hasan, Md Shamimul, Normah Omar, and ABM Rashedul Hassan. "Financial health and management practices: a multi-year cross country analysis of PLCs." Journal of Financial Crime 25, no. 3 (July 2, 2018): 646–57. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/jfc-01-2017-0002.

Noordin, Kamaruzaman, Mohd Rijal Muwazir @Muzakir, and Azian Madun. "The Commercialisation of Modern Islamic Insurance Providers: A Study of Takaful Business Frameworks in Malaysia." International Journal of Nusantara Islam 2, no. 1 (June 9, 2014): 1–13. http://dx.doi.org/10.15575/ijni.v2i1.44.

Fraihat, Baha Aldeen Mohammad Ahmad, and Behrang Samadi. "The effect of KM capabilities on the Performance of Jordanian Public Listed Companies." International Journal of Business and Social Research 7, no. 11 (November 14, 2017): 09. http://dx.doi.org/10.18533/ijbsr.v7i11.1077.

Mehmood, Khawaja Khalid. "Asset Growth and Profitability of PLCs in SAARC Economies." Journal of Accounting and Finance in Emerging Economies 3, no. 1 (June 30, 2017): 33–46. http://dx.doi.org/10.26710/jafee.v3i1.159.

Osemeke, Louis, Nobert Osemeke, and Robert O. Okere. "The role of board in corporate social responsibility: A normative compliance perspective." Corporate Ownership and Control 17, no. 4 (2020): 152–65. http://dx.doi.org/10.22495/cocv17i4art13.

Dissertations / Theses on the topic "Public limited companies (plcs)":

Ahlbin, Oskar, and Marcus Svensson. "Kommersialism, mer än bara ett fenomen : En studie av kommersialismen inom svenska herrelitföreningar och om den miljö de verkar i, i förhållande till yttre partners." Thesis, Linnéuniversitetet, Institutionen för idrottsvetenskap (ID), 2020. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:lnu:diva-96557.

Josué, Miguel Sapiro Vaz. "Determinans of the returns on equity of largest Portuguese public limited companies." Master's thesis, Instituto Superior de Economia e Gestão, 2015. http://hdl.handle.net/10400.5/10496.

Freudenberg, Brett David, and na. "Tax Transparent Companies: Striving for Tax Neutrality? A Legal International Comparative Study of Tax Transparent Companies and their Potential Application for Australian Closely Held Businesses." Griffith University. Department of Accounting, Finance and Economics, 2009. http://www4.gu.edu.au:8080/adt-root/public/adt-QGU20100615.094301.

Greil, Tatjana Barbara. "The West German capital market and the financing behaviour of public limited companies, 1948-1965 : a reassessment." Thesis, London School of Economics and Political Science (University of London), 2002. http://etheses.lse.ac.uk/2650/.

Xanthaki, Helen. "Secondary establishment of European Union public limited companies in France, Greece and Italy : breaches of European Community law and redress." Thesis, Durham University, 2000. http://etheses.dur.ac.uk/1202/.

Baosuwan, Kunthorn. "The study to determine customers preference of using claims system via the internet at National Insurance Company Limited, Thailand." CSUSB ScholarWorks, 2005. https://scholarworks.lib.csusb.edu/etd-project/2939.

Patrício, Sara Sofia dos Santos. "Os determinantes das mulheres no conselho : o caso das sociedades anónimas portuguesas." Master's thesis, Instituto Superior de Economia e Gestão, 2014. http://hdl.handle.net/10400.5/7854.

Zouridakis, Georgios. "The introduction of the derivative action into the Greek law on public limited companies as a means of shareholder protection : a comparative analysis of the British, German and Greek law." Thesis, University of Essex, 2016. http://repository.essex.ac.uk/17136/.

Oliveira, Joana Rola Carvalho de Veludo. "O regulamento interno do conselho de administração das sociedades abertas." Master's thesis, 2019. http://hdl.handle.net/10400.14/28516.

Brandão, João Marcelo Gomes. "Pessoas coletivas no órgão de administração : especificidades : (des)vantagens da sua designação no modelo clássico de governação das sociedades anónimas." Master's thesis, 2020. http://hdl.handle.net/10400.14/33681.

Books on the topic "Public limited companies (plcs)":

Thailand. Public Limited Companies Act, B. E. 2535 . [Bangkok]: Nititham Pub. House, 1993.

Great Britain. Parliament. House of Commons. Treasury Committee. Financial regulation of public limited companies: Sixth Report. London: Stationery Office, 2002.

Great Britain. Parliament. House of Commons. Treasury Committee. Financial regulation of public limited companies: Minutes of evidence Tuesday 25 June 2002. London: Stationery Office, 2002.

Great Britain. Parliament. House of Commons. Treasury Committee. Financial regulation of public limited companies: Minutes of evidence Tuesday 2 July 2002. London: Stationery Office, 2002.

Great Britain. Parliament. House of Commons. Treasury Committee. The financial regulation of Public Limited Companies: Sixth report of session 2001-02. London: Stationery Office, 2002.

Schiantarelli, Fabio. Debt maturity and firm performance: A panel study of Indian public limited companies . Washington, DC: World Bank, Policy Research Dept., Finance and Private Sector Development Division, 1997.

Kewangan, Malaysia Kementerian. Guidelines for the new issue of securities and the valuation of public limited companies. 4th ed. Kuala Lumpur: Ministry of Finance, Malaysia, 1989.

Kewangan, Malaysia Kementerian. Guidelines for the new issue of securities and the valuation of public limited companies. 3rd ed. Kuala Lumpur: Ministry of Finance, Malaysia, 1988.

Managers, Irish Association of Investment. Statement of best practice on the role and responsibilities of directors of public limited companies. [s.l.]: Irish Association of Investment Managers, 1992.

Dornseifer, Frank. Corporate business forms in Europe: A compendium of public and private limited companies in Europe . Berne: Staempfli, 2005.

Book chapters on the topic "Public limited companies (plcs)":

Yussof, Khairunnisa’, Yon Bahiah Wan Aris, and Nur Aina Abd Jalil. "Antecedents in Developing a Risk Culture in Public Listed Companies (PLCs): Introduction to Enterprise Risk Management (ERM)." In Proceedings of the 1st AAGBS International Conference on Business Management 2014 (AiCoBM 2014) , 201–8. Singapore: Springer Singapore, 2016. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-981-287-426-9_18.

Ray, Subhasis. "CSR in Indian Public Sector Mining Companies: The Case of LCM Limited." In Social Responsibility, Entrepreneurship and the Common Good , 272–94. London: Palgrave Macmillan UK, 2012. http://dx.doi.org/10.1057/9780230354890_16.

Gazzini, Tarcisio. "Beyond Protection: The Role of the Home State in Modern Foreign Investment Law." In Public Actors in International Investment Law , 19–36. Cham: Springer International Publishing, 2021. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-58916-5_2.

van Dijk, Frans. "Perceptions of Judicial Independence in European Countries." In Perceptions of the Independence of Judges in Europe , 29–51. Cham: Springer International Publishing, 2020. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-63143-7_3.

Malberti, Corrado. "Disclosure through Minority and Individual Rights in Public Limited Liability Companies." In Transparency of Stock Corporations in Europe . Hart Publishing, 2019. http://dx.doi.org/10.5040/9781509925551.ch-002.

Hannigan, Brenda. "1. Formation, classification, and registration of companies." In Company Law , 3–19. Oxford University Press, 2021. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/he/9780198848493.003.0001.

Moore, Imogen. "2. Companies and Corporate Personality." In Concentrate Questions and Answers Company Law , 4–32. Oxford University Press, 2020. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/he/9780198856726.003.0002.

Hannigan, Brenda. "18. Informed shareholders and stakeholders—disclosure and the limited company." In Company Law , 393–430. Oxford University Press, 2021. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/he/9780198848493.003.0018.

Kosmin, Leslie, and Catherine Roberts. "Commentary on the Companies Act 2006 Model Articles." In Company Meetings and Resolutions . Oxford University Press, 2020. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780198832744.003.0033.

Milosevic, Tijana. "Shaping Company Responsibility: Privatized Public Sphere." In Protecting Children Online? , 45–62. The MIT Press, 2018. http://dx.doi.org/10.7551/mitpress/9780262037099.003.0003.

Reports on the topic "Public limited companies (plcs)":

Wiecha, Jean L., and Mary K. Muth. Agreements Between Public Health Organizations and Food and Beverage Companies: Approaches to Improving Evaluation . RTI Press, January 2021. http://dx.doi.org/10.3768/rtipress.2021.op.0067.2101.

Rating Report

PTT Global Chemical Public Company Limited

Fri 16 Feb, 2024 - 4:01 AM ET

PTT Global Chemical Public Company Limited’s (PTTGC) ratings benefit from a two-notch uplift from its Standalone Credit Profile (SCP) for parental support. PTTGC's ratings reflect its position as a leading petrochemical company in the region, its cost-competitive feedstock supply and product offtake agreements with its parent, PTT Public Company Limited (PTT, BBB+/AAA(tha)/Stable). The ratings also reflect PTTGC's high leverage and exposure to inherent volatility in the refining and petrochemical sectors. The Negative Outlook on PTTGC reflects the risk that its EBITDA net leverage may remain above 3.5x - the level above which we may take negative rating action - in the medium term. The company's earnings have been significantly weaker in the past 12 months than Fitch Ratings' expectations. We believe petrochemical product spreads will stay weak in 2024. Increased Leverage; Slow Deleveraging: We expect EBITDA net leverage to decline to 4x-5x in 2024, from 10.6x in the 12 months to end-9M23 (2022: 12.7x), but remain above our 3.5x negative rating sensitivity on a gradual earnings recovery and lower capex. We expect EBITDA net leverage to fall below 3.5x in 2025 on better operating cash flow, but weaker demand or margins compared with Fitch's expectations could delay the deleveraging. The high EBITDA net leverage stems from weak earnings and high debt from the 4Q21 acquisition of Allnex Holding GmbH.

research paper on public limited company

Mobile Navigation

Creating video from text.

Sora is an AI model that can create realistic and imaginative scenes from text instructions.

We’re teaching AI to understand and simulate the physical world in motion, with the goal of training models that help people solve problems that require real-world interaction.

Introducing Sora, our text-to-video model. Sora can generate videos up to a minute long while maintaining visual quality and adherence to the user’s prompt.

Today, Sora is becoming available to red teamers to assess critical areas for harms or risks. We are also granting access to a number of visual artists, designers, and filmmakers to gain feedback on how to advance the model to be most helpful for creative professionals.

We’re sharing our research progress early to start working with and getting feedback from people outside of OpenAI and to give the public a sense of what AI capabilities are on the horizon.

Sora is able to generate complex scenes with multiple characters, specific types of motion, and accurate details of the subject and background. The model understands not only what the user has asked for in the prompt, but also how those things exist in the physical world.

The model has a deep understanding of language, enabling it to accurately interpret prompts and generate compelling characters that express vibrant emotions. Sora can also create multiple shots within a single generated video that accurately persist characters and visual style.

The current model has weaknesses. It may struggle with accurately simulating the physics of a complex scene, and may not understand specific instances of cause and effect. For example, a person might take a bite out of a cookie, but afterward, the cookie may not have a bite mark.

The model may also confuse spatial details of a prompt, for example, mixing up left and right, and may struggle with precise descriptions of events that take place over time, like following a specific camera trajectory.

We’ll be taking several important safety steps ahead of making Sora available in OpenAI’s products. We are working with red teamers — domain experts in areas like misinformation, hateful content, and bias — who will be adversarially testing the model.

We’re also building tools to help detect misleading content such as a detection classifier that can tell when a video was generated by Sora. We plan to include C2PA metadata in the future if we deploy the model in an OpenAI product.

In addition to us developing new techniques to prepare for deployment, we’re leveraging the existing safety methods that we built for our products that use DALL·E 3, which are applicable to Sora as well.

For example, once in an OpenAI product, our text classifier will check and reject text input prompts that are in violation of our usage policies, like those that request extreme violence, sexual content, hateful imagery, celebrity likeness, or the IP of others. We’ve also developed robust image classifiers that are used to review the frames of every video generated to help ensure that it adheres to our usage policies, before it’s shown to the user.

We’ll be engaging policymakers, educators and artists around the world to understand their concerns and to identify positive use cases for this new technology. Despite extensive research and testing, we cannot predict all of the beneficial ways people will use our technology, nor all the ways people will abuse it. That’s why we believe that learning from real-world use is a critical component of creating and releasing increasingly safe AI systems over time.

Research techniques

Sora is a diffusion model, which generates a video by starting off with one that looks like static noise and gradually transforms it by removing the noise over many steps.

Sora is capable of generating entire videos all at once or extending generated videos to make them longer. By giving the model foresight of many frames at a time, we’ve solved a challenging problem of making sure a subject stays the same even when it goes out of view temporarily.

Similar to GPT models, Sora uses a transformer architecture, unlocking superior scaling performance.

We represent videos and images as collections of smaller units of data called patches, each of which is akin to a token in GPT. By unifying how we represent data, we can train diffusion transformers on a wider range of visual data than was possible before, spanning different durations, resolutions and aspect ratios.

Sora builds on past research in DALL·E and GPT models. It uses the recaptioning technique from DALL·E 3, which involves generating highly descriptive captions for the visual training data. As a result, the model is able to follow the user’s text instructions in the generated video more faithfully.

In addition to being able to generate a video solely from text instructions, the model is able to take an existing still image and generate a video from it, animating the image’s contents with accuracy and attention to small detail. The model can also take an existing video and extend it or fill in missing frames. Learn more in our technical report .

Sora serves as a foundation for models that can understand and simulate the real world, a capability we believe will be an important milestone for achieving AGI.

All videos on this page were generated directly by Sora without modification.

How technology is reinventing education

Stanford Graduate School of Education Dean Dan Schwartz and other education scholars weigh in on what's next for some of the technology trends taking center stage in the classroom.

research paper on public limited company

Image credit: Claire Scully

New advances in technology are upending education, from the recent debut of new artificial intelligence (AI) chatbots like ChatGPT to the growing accessibility of virtual-reality tools that expand the boundaries of the classroom. For educators, at the heart of it all is the hope that every learner gets an equal chance to develop the skills they need to succeed. But that promise is not without its pitfalls.

“Technology is a game-changer for education – it offers the prospect of universal access to high-quality learning experiences, and it creates fundamentally new ways of teaching,” said Dan Schwartz, dean of Stanford Graduate School of Education (GSE), who is also a professor of educational technology at the GSE and faculty director of the Stanford Accelerator for Learning . “But there are a lot of ways we teach that aren’t great, and a big fear with AI in particular is that we just get more efficient at teaching badly. This is a moment to pay attention, to do things differently.”

For K-12 schools, this year also marks the end of the Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief (ESSER) funding program, which has provided pandemic recovery funds that many districts used to invest in educational software and systems. With these funds running out in September 2024, schools are trying to determine their best use of technology as they face the prospect of diminishing resources.

Here, Schwartz and other Stanford education scholars weigh in on some of the technology trends taking center stage in the classroom this year.

AI in the classroom

In 2023, the big story in technology and education was generative AI, following the introduction of ChatGPT and other chatbots that produce text seemingly written by a human in response to a question or prompt. Educators immediately worried that students would use the chatbot to cheat by trying to pass its writing off as their own. As schools move to adopt policies around students’ use of the tool, many are also beginning to explore potential opportunities – for example, to generate reading assignments or coach students during the writing process.

AI can also help automate tasks like grading and lesson planning, freeing teachers to do the human work that drew them into the profession in the first place, said Victor Lee, an associate professor at the GSE and faculty lead for the AI + Education initiative at the Stanford Accelerator for Learning. “I’m heartened to see some movement toward creating AI tools that make teachers’ lives better – not to replace them, but to give them the time to do the work that only teachers are able to do,” he said. “I hope to see more on that front.”

He also emphasized the need to teach students now to begin questioning and critiquing the development and use of AI. “AI is not going away,” said Lee, who is also director of CRAFT (Classroom-Ready Resources about AI for Teaching), which provides free resources to help teach AI literacy to high school students across subject areas. “We need to teach students how to understand and think critically about this technology.”

Immersive environments

The use of immersive technologies like augmented reality, virtual reality, and mixed reality is also expected to surge in the classroom, especially as new high-profile devices integrating these realities hit the marketplace in 2024.

The educational possibilities now go beyond putting on a headset and experiencing life in a distant location. With new technologies, students can create their own local interactive 360-degree scenarios, using just a cell phone or inexpensive camera and simple online tools.

“This is an area that’s really going to explode over the next couple of years,” said Kristen Pilner Blair, director of research for the Digital Learning initiative at the Stanford Accelerator for Learning, which runs a program exploring the use of virtual field trips to promote learning. “Students can learn about the effects of climate change, say, by virtually experiencing the impact on a particular environment. But they can also become creators, documenting and sharing immersive media that shows the effects where they live.”

Integrating AI into virtual simulations could also soon take the experience to another level, Schwartz said. “If your VR experience brings me to a redwood tree, you could have a window pop up that allows me to ask questions about the tree, and AI can deliver the answers.”

Gamification

Another trend expected to intensify this year is the gamification of learning activities, often featuring dynamic videos with interactive elements to engage and hold students’ attention.

“Gamification is a good motivator, because one key aspect is reward, which is very powerful,” said Schwartz. The downside? Rewards are specific to the activity at hand, which may not extend to learning more generally. “If I get rewarded for doing math in a space-age video game, it doesn’t mean I’m going to be motivated to do math anywhere else.”

Gamification sometimes tries to make “chocolate-covered broccoli,” Schwartz said, by adding art and rewards to make speeded response tasks involving single-answer, factual questions more fun. He hopes to see more creative play patterns that give students points for rethinking an approach or adapting their strategy, rather than only rewarding them for quickly producing a correct response.

Data-gathering and analysis

The growing use of technology in schools is producing massive amounts of data on students’ activities in the classroom and online. “We’re now able to capture moment-to-moment data, every keystroke a kid makes,” said Schwartz – data that can reveal areas of struggle and different learning opportunities, from solving a math problem to approaching a writing assignment.

But outside of research settings, he said, that type of granular data – now owned by tech companies – is more likely used to refine the design of the software than to provide teachers with actionable information.

The promise of personalized learning is being able to generate content aligned with students’ interests and skill levels, and making lessons more accessible for multilingual learners and students with disabilities. Realizing that promise requires that educators can make sense of the data that’s being collected, said Schwartz – and while advances in AI are making it easier to identify patterns and findings, the data also needs to be in a system and form educators can access and analyze for decision-making. Developing a usable infrastructure for that data, Schwartz said, is an important next step.

With the accumulation of student data comes privacy concerns: How is the data being collected? Are there regulations or guidelines around its use in decision-making? What steps are being taken to prevent unauthorized access? In 2023 K-12 schools experienced a rise in cyberattacks, underscoring the need to implement strong systems to safeguard student data.

Technology is “requiring people to check their assumptions about education,” said Schwartz, noting that AI in particular is very efficient at replicating biases and automating the way things have been done in the past, including poor models of instruction. “But it’s also opening up new possibilities for students producing material, and for being able to identify children who are not average so we can customize toward them. It’s an opportunity to think of entirely new ways of teaching – this is the path I hope to see.”

Academia.edu no longer supports Internet Explorer.

To browse Academia.edu and the wider internet faster and more securely, please take a few seconds to  upgrade your browser .

Enter the email address you signed up with and we'll email you a reset link.

  • We're Hiring!
  • Help Center

paper cover thumbnail

Private Limited Companies

Profile image of Avancio Chock

In this report we will investigate about private limited companies. This report will define what is a Private Limited Company? and provide examples of some well known Private Limited Companies in Sri-Lanka. This report will provide some basic characteristics of a Private Limited Company including the major ownership restrictions in a Private Limited Company, how investments are made to these companies, taxes charged from them and what happens if things go wrong in a Private Limited Organization? This report will also discuss 8 main advantages of private limited companies and 12 main disadvantages of private limited companies including main 05 limitations that a Private Limited Company suffers from. We have also included a PESTEL analysis of Private Limited Companies which briefly describes Political, Economical, Social, Technological, Environmental and Legal factors that can indirectly affect the operations in a private limited company. In this report we have summarized the...

Related Papers

Chitra S De Silva Lokuwaduge

research paper on public limited company

International Journal of Business Environment

Halpege Gunetilleke

Anura De Zoysa

jayant rawat

Samanthi Senaratne

The study explores the issue how distinct is the separation of ownership and control of Sri Lankan listed companies and what implications the corporate ownership structure have on the corporate governance structure. Firstly, the study examines the ownership structure of sixty companies listed in the Colombo Stock Exchange during the period 2000-2004 by focusing on their ultimate ownership and thereafter, they are categorised into two ownership groups as ‘widely held/management controlled’ (MC), where the ownership is dispersed and ‘owner managed/owner controlled’ (OC), where the ownership is concentrated. Secondly, the salient governance characteristics of these two groups are identified based on the level of compliance with the Corporate Governance Best Practice. Thereafter, these characteristics of two ownership groups are compared, synthesised and discussed by drawing inferences from the extant literature to assess the implications of the ownership structure on the corporate gove...

shanthi segha

Public issue of shares, popularly known as IPO (Initial Public Offer), is a method adopted by public quoted companies to raise capital. It is regulated in most of the countries although the standard of regulation differs. Author describes IPO as a beauty pageant since the companies expose themselves by disclosure in order to be selected for the purpose of investment by the public. The regulation of IPO is important due to many reasons, including the involvement of money of the general public and the intangible nature of the financial product that is under issue. The main objective of this study is to analyse the law relating to IPO in Sri Lanka on a comparative analysis in order to identify loop holes. In this regard the comparative jurisdictions selected for this study (United Kingdom and Malaysia) have moved forward by taking away the provisions pertaining to disclosure documents/prospectuses from their companies legislation and have them included under the securities legislation,...

SSRN Electronic Journal

Uttam Hathi

Verslas: Teorija ir Praktika

Virginijus Bitė

This article analyses the problems that can arise when implementing the rights of shareholders in private limited liability companies to purchase the shares of another shareholder being for sale in priority to others and the possible legal remedies for violated rights. According to the practice of the Lithuanian Supreme Court, the rights of the buyer cannot be assigned to a private limited liability company shareholder whose pre-emption right to purchase the shares being for sale has been breached. However, in this article it is being argued that perhaps in certain exceptional cases, in order to create fair business practice and ensure a “tangible” result for the plaintiff in relation to the judgment, the court could (should) take advantage of the freedom to maneuver and, by implementing justice, change the method of restitution (pertaining to the subject) – assign the shares to the plaintiff (an aggrieved shareholder) simultaneously creating an obligation on the same person to sett...

Koperunthevy Kalainathan

Corporate governance system insists on the separation of ownership and control. Even though most of the capital markets all over the world are controlled by a few dominant shareholders and these shareholders control matured and emerging markets. Therefore, the study appraises the current distribution of controlling shareholders in Sri Lankan listed companies. For this evaluation purpose, 135 companies from Colombo Stock Exchange (CSE) were identified as the sample and two-step identification was incorporated. Step one identifies the shareholders who have five per cent or more equity shares in every sector and step two identifies the full controlling shareholders who have more than 50 per cent of equity shares. The study finds that more than 90 per cent of the companies are under the control of full controlling shareholders and these full controlling shareholders are institutions, directors, individuals and the state. The research finds out those major full controlling shareholders a...

OpenAI teases an amazing new generative video model called Sora

The firm is sharing Sora with a small group of safety testers but the rest of us will have to wait to learn more.

  • Will Douglas Heaven archive page

OpenAI has built a striking new generative video model called Sora that can take a short text description and turn it into a detailed, high-definition film clip up to a minute long.

Based on four sample videos that OpenAI shared with MIT Technology Review ahead of today’s announcement, the San Francisco–based firm has pushed the envelope of what’s possible with text-to-video generation (a hot new research direction that we flagged as a trend to watch in 2024 ).

“We think building models that can understand video, and understand all these very complex interactions of our world, is an important step for all future AI systems,” says Tim Brooks, a scientist at OpenAI.

But there’s a disclaimer. OpenAI gave us a preview of Sora (which means sky in Japanese) under conditions of strict secrecy. In an unusual move, the firm would only share information about Sora if we agreed to wait until after news of the model was made public to seek the opinions of outside experts. [Editor’s note: We’ve updated this story with outside comment below.] OpenAI has not yet released a technical report or demonstrated the model actually working. And it says it won’t be releasing Sora anytime soon. [ Update: OpenAI has now shared more technical details on its website.]

The first generative models that could produce video from snippets of text appeared in late 2022. But early examples from Meta , Google, and a startup called Runway were glitchy and grainy. Since then, the tech has been getting better fast. Runway’s gen-2 model, released last year, can produce short clips that come close to matching big-studio animation in their quality. But most of these examples are still only a few seconds long.  

The sample videos from OpenAI’s Sora are high-definition and full of detail. OpenAI also says it can generate videos up to a minute long. One video of a Tokyo street scene shows that Sora has learned how objects fit together in 3D: the camera swoops into the scene to follow a couple as they walk past a row of shops.

OpenAI also claims that Sora handles occlusion well. One problem with existing models is that they can fail to keep track of objects when they drop out of view. For example, if a truck passes in front of a street sign, the sign might not reappear afterward.  

In a video of a papercraft underwater scene, Sora has added what look like cuts between different pieces of footage, and the model has maintained a consistent style between them.

It’s not perfect. In the Tokyo video, cars to the left look smaller than the people walking beside them. They also pop in and out between the tree branches. “There’s definitely some work to be done in terms of long-term coherence,” says Brooks. “For example, if someone goes out of view for a long time, they won’t come back. The model kind of forgets that they were supposed to be there.”

Impressive as they are, the sample videos shown here were no doubt cherry-picked to show Sora at its best. Without more information, it is hard to know how representative they are of the model’s typical output.   

It may be some time before we find out. OpenAI’s announcement of Sora today is a tech tease, and the company says it has no current plans to release it to the public. Instead, OpenAI will today begin sharing the model with third-party safety testers for the first time.

In particular, the firm is worried about the potential misuses of fake but photorealistic video . “We’re being careful about deployment here and making sure we have all our bases covered before we put this in the hands of the general public,” says Aditya Ramesh, a scientist at OpenAI, who created the firm’s text-to-image model DALL-E .

But OpenAI is eyeing a product launch sometime in the future. As well as safety testers, the company is also sharing the model with a select group of video makers and artists to get feedback on how to make Sora as useful as possible to creative professionals. “The other goal is to show everyone what is on the horizon, to give a preview of what these models will be capable of,” says Ramesh.

To build Sora, the team adapted the tech behind DALL-E 3, the latest version of OpenAI’s flagship text-to-image model. Like most text-to-image models, DALL-E 3 uses what’s known as a diffusion model. These are trained to turn a fuzz of random pixels into a picture.

Sora takes this approach and applies it to videos rather than still images. But the researchers also added another technique to the mix. Unlike DALL-E or most other generative video models, Sora combines its diffusion model with a type of neural network called a transformer.

Transformers are great at processing long sequences of data, like words. That has made them the special sauce inside large language models like OpenAI’s GPT-4 and Google DeepMind’s Gemini . But videos are not made of words. Instead, the researchers had to find a way to cut videos into chunks that could be treated as if they were. The approach they came up with was to dice videos up across both space and time. “It’s like if you were to have a stack of all the video frames and you cut little cubes from it,” says Brooks.

The transformer inside Sora can then process these chunks of video data in much the same way that the transformer inside a large language model processes words in a block of text. The researchers say that this let them train Sora on many more types of video than other text-to-video models, varied in terms of resolution, duration, aspect ratio, and orientation. “It really helps the model,” says Brooks. “That is something that we’re not aware of any existing work on.”

“From a technical perspective it seems like a very significant leap forward,” says Sam Gregory, executive director at Witness, a human rights organization that specializes in the use and misuse of video technology. “But there are two sides to the coin,” he says. “The expressive capabilities offer the potential for many more people to be storytellers using video. And there are also real potential avenues for misuse.” 

OpenAI is well aware of the risks that come with a generative video model. We are already seeing the large-scale misuse of deepfake images . Photorealistic video takes this to another level.

Gregory notes that you could use technology like this to misinform people about conflict zones or protests. The range of styles is also interesting, he says. If you could generate shaky footage that looked like something shot with a phone, it would come across as more authentic.

The tech is not there yet, but generative video has gone from zero to Sora in just 18 months. “We’re going to be entering a universe where there will be fully synthetic content, human-generated content and a mix of the two,” says Gregory.

The OpenAI team plans to draw on the safety testing it did last year for DALL-E 3. Sora already includes a filter that runs on all prompts sent to the model that will block requests for violent, sexual, or hateful images, as well as images of known people. Another filter will look at frames of generated videos and block material that violates OpenAI’s safety policies.

OpenAI says it is also adapting a fake-image detector developed for DALL-E 3 to use with Sora. And the company will embed industry-standard C2PA tags , metadata that states how an image was generated, into all of Sora’s output. But these steps are far from foolproof. Fake-image detectors are hit-or-miss. Metadata is easy to remove, and most social media sites strip it from uploaded images by default.  

“We’ll definitely need to get more feedback and learn more about the types of risks that need to be addressed with video before it would make sense for us to release this,” says Ramesh.

Brooks agrees. “Part of the reason that we’re talking about this research now is so that we can start getting the input that we need to do the work necessary to figure out how it could be safely deployed,” he says.

Update 2/15: Comments from Sam Gregory were added .

Artificial intelligence

Ai for everything: 10 breakthrough technologies 2024.

Generative AI tools like ChatGPT reached mass adoption in record time, and reset the course of an entire industry.

What’s next for AI in 2024

Our writers look at the four hot trends to watch out for this year

  • Melissa Heikkilä archive page

These six questions will dictate the future of generative AI

Generative AI took the world by storm in 2023. Its future—and ours—will be shaped by what we do next.

Google’s Gemini is now in everything. Here’s how you can try it out.

Gmail, Docs, and more will now come with Gemini baked in. But Europeans will have to wait before they can download the app.

Stay connected

Get the latest updates from mit technology review.

Discover special offers, top stories, upcoming events, and more.

Thank you for submitting your email!

It looks like something went wrong.

We’re having trouble saving your preferences. Try refreshing this page and updating them one more time. If you continue to get this message, reach out to us at [email protected] with a list of newsletters you’d like to receive.

IMAGES

  1. Public limited company

    research paper on public limited company

  2. Public Limited Company Registration

    research paper on public limited company

  3. Features of Public Limited Company

    research paper on public limited company

  4. Public Limited Company : Definition and Guide

    research paper on public limited company

  5. Calaméo

    research paper on public limited company

  6. public limited company vs private limited company

    research paper on public limited company

VIDEO

  1. NEW Lancet Paper

  2. What is difference between Research proposal and Research paper/ NTA UGC NET

  3. PRE

  4. Presentation of Policy Research Paper

  5. Research Grant Proposal Writing and India Centric Research Funds

  6. Research paper discussion

COMMENTS

  1. The Distinction between Public and Private Companies and its Relevance

    Date Written: October 9, 2014 Abstract This article analyses the distinction between public and private (limited) companies and its relevance for company law. Usually, the distinction refers to the fact that the tradability of shares in private companies is more restricted than in public companies.

  2. Ownership of Corporations: A Review, Synthesis, and Research Agenda

    Table 1 Theoretical Perspectives on Ownership Agency Theory RBV Institutional Theory Synthesis SOEs (+) Strong monitoring (+) Provides resources for growth, company innovation and strategic...

  3. Impact of corporate social responsibility on organization's financial

    2 Altmetric Metrics Abstract The main objective of this study is to determine the CSR disclosure and to find out the association between CSR and FP by the public companies of Maldives. This study used a mixed-method research choice and is longitudinal research. The study period was from 2014 to 2018.

  4. "Share Capital : Exploring the backbone of Company Law"

    This paper examines the economic case for rules of company law which regulate the raising and maintenance of share capital by companies. The enquiry has practical relevance because the...

  5. PDF A Study on The Performance of Initial Public Offering of Companies

    An initial public offering (IPO) is a company's first offering of equity to the public. IPO is a major source of capital for firms. IPO's are important milestone in any company's growth as it progresses from being a start- up/private limited company to public limited. Successful IPO can generate tremendous

  6. Advantages and disadvantages of a public limited company

    Need a little help managing your plc? An important part of managing an unlisted plc in the UK is keeping its statutory books and filings up to date. Inform Direct is the perfect tool to help make this task a whole lot easier, meaning you can focus more on running your business. Start now Find out more | Log on Public limited company advantages

  7. Measuring Financial Health of a Public Limited Company Using ...

    The principal objective of this article is to ascertain the financial health of Wendt (India) Limited company and consistency of financial performance for five financial years 2001-02 to 2004-05. The research findings are that the company is maintaining good financial performance throughout the study period.

  8. Receivables Management in a Public Limited Company

    Receivables Management in a Public Limited Company - A Case Study International Symposium on, "Management Research", Bharathidasan Institute of Management, Trichy, Tamilnadu, India, February 2008 10 Pages Posted: 25 Apr 2011 Last revised: 14 Mar 2013 M. Kannadhasan Indian Institute of Management Raipur Date Written: April 22, 2011 Abstract

  9. Business Organization in the Long Run: Private Limited Companies Rule

    7. Conclusions. business. The PLLC was such a form, and the bulk of our paper is devoted to tracing its. United States. 52. In the process we have not only challenged the conventional idea that ...

  10. Corporate Governance in Public Limited Company

    Academia.edu is a platform for academics to share research papers. Corporate Governance in Public Limited Company ... Hafeez Critical analysis of organization of Air Blue 12-17 Dr. Imam ud Din Corporate Governance in Public Limited Company 18-24 Dr. Rukhsar Ahmed Competition strategies of multinational cola drinks in Asia 25-29 Urooj Ahmed ...

  11. Company Research

    Company Research Industry Research Market Research Research Tips Company research can include a lot of different types of Information. This guide focuses on the best databases the Commerce Research Library has to offer for corporate profiles and corporate family research.

  12. What Public Limited Company (PLC) Means in the U.K.

    Public Limited Company - PLC: A public limited company (PLC) is the legal designation of a limited liability company which has offered shares to the general public and has limited liability. A PLC ...

  13. PDF Factors Influencing Financial Performance of Public Limited Companies

    Factors Influencing Financial Performance of Public Limited Companies in Kenya Vol. 7, Issue 4, pp: (67-76), Month: October - December 2020, Available at: www.paperpublications.org Factors Influencing Financial Performance of Public Limited Companies in Kenya Benson Barasa Shuli1, Gregory Namusonge2

  14. Difference between private and public company structure under the

    Difference between private and public company structure under the Corporations Act Governance Foundations (1) Types of companies Public vs private Type of company Differences in regulation Regulated by Percentage of registrations Proprietary = private Must have at least one member - Limited by shares Sub-classified as small or large ASIC The majority of registered and up to a maximum of 50 non ...

  15. (PDF) INCORPORATION A PUBLIC LIMITED COMPANY

    To summarize the main features of a public limited company are: The minimum number of directors should be 3 and one of the directors should be a resident in India. The minimum number of shareholders should be 7 and there is no maximum number. The public limited company should comply with the compliances listed under the Companies Ac...

  16. Legal System of Public Limited Liability Companies

    Request PDF | LEGAL SYSTEM OF PUBLIC LIMITED LIABILITY COMPANIES | Whithin this scientific paper, we examine, especially from the perspective of the provisions in the New Civil Code and the law...

  17. Issue Of Shares In Public And Private Limited Companies

    This research paper starts with the meaning of public and private company. It also consists of the various types of issue of shares and the share issue procedure that are being undertaken by the respective companies. It further elaborates the requirements of a company for issue of shares.

  18. Bibliographies: 'Public limited companies (plcs)'

    Abstract: Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate the role of independent non-executive directors (INEDs) in Malaysian public listed companies (PLCs), other than the control role prescribed by agency theory and reformatory documents such as the Malaysian Code of Corporate Governance.

  19. The Limited Liability Company: A Study of the Emerging Entity

    This article reflects the thinking of business and tax lawyers at the dawn of the development of limited liability companies. It provides a thorough discussion of the few things known and many questions that existed in 1992 when only a handful of states had LLC legislation. ... Suffolk University Law School Legal Studies Research Paper Series ...

  20. PTT Global Chemical Public Company Limited

    PTT Global Chemical Public Company Limited's (PTTGC) ratings benefit from a two-notch uplift from its Standalone Credit Profile (SCP) for parental support. PTTGC's ratings reflect its position as a leading petrochemical company in the region, its cost-competitive feedstock supply and product offtake agreements with its parent, PTT Public ...

  21. Essay about "Limited Liability Company"

    Essay about "Limited Liability Company" Abderahman Rejeb he limited liability company is juridically a German concept dated in 1882. It was introduced in the French incorporation law in 7 mars 1925. In Tunisia, LLC (as known as SARL) was provided by the incorporation law of the state and it was promulgated by the article n°59-129 in 5 October 1959.

  22. Sora

    Prompt: Several giant wooly mammoths approach treading through a snowy meadow, their long wooly fur lightly blows in the wind as they walk, snow covered trees and dramatic snow capped mountains in the distance, mid afternoon light with wispy clouds and a sun high in the distance creates a warm glow, the low camera view is stunning capturing the large furry mammal with beautiful photography ...

  23. (PDF) AN ANALYSIS OF LIMITED LIABILITY PARTNERSHIPS AND ...

    In this paper, we have distinguished three different positions along the reform strategy spectrum of company law. The first position is located on the left side of the spectrum and closest to ...

  24. The Story of Limited Liability Company: Combining the Best ...

    U of Alabama Public Law Research Paper No. 07-13. 22 Pages Posted: 27 Jul 2005. See all articles by Susan Pace Hamill ... 2005) describes the emergence of the limited liability company from obscurity into a mainstream business organization choice during the last quarter of the 20th century. In addition to providing the inside story of the ...

  25. How technology is reinventing K-12 education

    Study finds public pension plans on shaky ground. New research calls attention to a huge funding gap and growing risk exposure, raising alarms about the long-term viability of government pensions.

  26. (PDF) Private Limited Companies

    Academia.edu is a platform for academics to share research papers. Private Limited Companies ... Small amount of resources The credit standing of a private limited company is lower than that of a public limited company because a private limited company cannot have members more than 50. ...

  27. OpenAI teases an amazing new generative video model called Sora

    OpenAI has built a striking new generative video model called Sora that can take a short text description and turn it into a detailed, high-definition film clip up to a minute long.. Based on four ...