Disclosure Level of Social Responsibility and Dividend Policy in Companies Listed in Tehran Stock Exchange

Abstract

This study aims to examine the relationship between level of social responsibility and dividend policy in the Iranian companies listed in the Tehran Stock Exchange. To measure the disclosure level of social responsibility, content analysis method was used. Responsibility ranking was measured through a check list that contains 17 factors and 60 criteria, in which 3 aspects of social, economic and environmental issues for social responsibility were considered. The findings of the content analysis showed that 48 indices, or 80 percent of total indices, measured in this study were not disclosed in the annual reports of the board’s activities. The low level of social responsibility disclosure reflects the gap between current situation and stakeholders’ expectations. This implies that creating appropriate standards and requirements for disclosing indices of social responsibility in annual reports is necessary to meet expectations of stakeholders in the Iranian capital market. Also the results showed that there is positive and significant relationship between the level of social responsibility and the percentage of dividend distribution. In other words, managers of the companies with higher level of social responsibility disclosure, provide more profit distribution among stockholders to increase their interests.

Keywords

• disclosure rate of corporate social responsibility
• dividend policy
• stakeholder theory
• life-cycle theory