محددات الافصاح المحاسبي عن المسؤولية الاجتماعية في الشركات السعودية

This study addresses the social responsibility disclosure in one of the largest markets in the Middle East and Arab Region; namely, Saudi Arabia Market, especially after the increasing attention paid by researchers to the social responsibility of companies towards the societies they operate in. The study aims to determine the magnitude and determinants of social responsibility disclosure in Saudi Arabia. Moreover, the study examines the impact of seven variables; company size, company age, company profitability, company leverage, independence of board chairman, family ownership, and industry type. Further, the study sample comprises of 361 firm-year observations during the study period 2007-2011. We construct a social responsibility disclosure index consists of 17 items, and use the content analysis and the multiple regression analysis to examine the sample data. Consequently, the results indicate that the magnitude of social responsibility disclosure in the study sample is about 24 %, which is relatively small compared to other countries. However, this magnitude found to increase gradually through the study years. The results also indicate that there is a positive significant correlation between company size, company age, industry type and the social responsibility disclosure magnitude. However, a negative significant correlation found between company leverage and the extent of social disclosure. While no significant correlation found for the remaining variables.