CSR Disclosure in Russian Systemic Companies: Driving Force of International Environment and Domestic Institutions

AbstractThe paper explores a unique phenomenon of systemic companies and their corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities in a weak institutional environment and extensive institutional voids that push them to take diverse obligations. The paper uses the data from 223 Russian public companies and employs conventional statistical methods to test hypotheses. Our results show that systemic companies are inclined to disclose information about their CSR activities, especially, in their social dimension due to their social obligations in the local markets and necessity to gain legitimacy in host markets. Moreover, Russian companies with international activities are more active in CSR disclosure than purely domestic ones.Keywords: CSRdisclosureinstitutional voidslegitimizationmonocitiesRussiasystemic companies Disclosure statementNo potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).Additional informationFundingThis work was supported by Saint Petersburg State University, grant ID 60419171.