Corporate social responsibility disclosure by state-owned enterprises in Indonesia

Abstract

Purpose: This article aims to investigate the extent to which State-Owned Enterprises (SOEs) in Indonesia disclose their Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) programs to the general public. Design/Methodology/Approach: Quantitative design is used as the main method in the study. Corporate profiling is used for analyzing SOEs profile and program profiling is used to analyze the profile of CSR programs implemented by SOEs. Findings: The study concludes that, first, SOEs under study disclose their CSR programs to the general public. In terms of indicators it is difficult to conclude that CSR programs disclosed by SOEs signify corporate virtuous citizenship embedding the initial ideas of CSR. Practical implications: Practical implications of the study are two-folds. First, that SOEs in Indonesia, need to strengthen the institutional drivers of CSR, and put pressure on companies to move beyond philanthropy, rhetoric, legitimization, imagery, and public relations to substantive engagement in CSR and genuine attempts at change and development. Second, the implementation of CSR programs by SOEs is judicially liable to public auditing. Originality/Value: The value of this study strengthens arguments which hold that the implementation of CSR, even implemented by SOEs, functions more as corporate survival mechanism rather than for solving social and environmental problems.