Institutional environment, the ultimate controller's characteristics and CSR disclosure in China

Using a dataset of Chinese listed companies from 2009 to 2018, this study empirically examines the relationship between a company's institutional environment, the ultimate controller's characteristics and its level of corporate social responsibility (CSR) disclosure in China. The results show that Chinese companies operating in better institutional environments have higher CSR disclosure. Moreover, the type of the ultimate controller of a company is significantly related to the level of CSR disclosure, which is higher in state‐controlled companies than in nonstate‐controlled companies. The results are robust to different proxies of CSR disclosure.