CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY (CSR): THE PATTERN OF CORPORATE PHILANTHROPY SHOWN BY SELECTED PUBLICLY LISTED COMPANIES IN MALAYSIA

Abstract

This study explored patterns in corporate philanthropy activities by selected publicly listed companies in Malaysia. Possible seasonal trends in such activities were investigated to determine whether contributions and volunteerism occurred mostly during festival seasons. Data was collected from 142 annual reports from the Bursa Malaysia main market and 51 respondents from these firms. The means and standard deviations of variables were analysed descriptively; Chi-square tests were used to test for statistically significant seasonal trends. No seasonal trends in corporate philanthropic activities were found. While such patterns had been previously reported by other researchers, these findings indicate that corporate responsibility reporting standards may be changing philanthropic patterns in Malaysia. This study was conducted during the COVID-19 pandemic, and was thus limited to online methodology. Further such studies are recommended that focus not only on publicly listed companies, but also on other types of businesses.