Hien Nguyen Thi Thu

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) disclosure plays a pivotal role in expanding investment opportunities, enhancing operational efficiency, and strengthening transparency and accountability to meet stakeholder demands. This study investigates the determinants influencing CSR disclosure’s extent and quality, aiming to provide a comprehensive understanding of how organizational, institutional, and stakeholder-driven factors shape transparent reporting practices. Using time-series data spanning six years (2017–2022) collected from 200 Vietnamese-listed enterprises annually, this research employs the ordinary least squares (OLS) method for quantitative analysis. The findings reveal that board independence, awards, company size, and financial performance significantly and positively influence both the extent and quality of CSR disclosure. Conversely, industry sensitivity negatively impacts CSR disclosure, while financial leverage exhibits mixed effects – positively affecting the extent but negatively influencing the quality of disclosures. Notably, company size emerges as the strongest determinant of CSR disclosure, underscoring the critical role of larger firms in driving transparent reporting practices. In contrast, industry sensitivity demonstrates the weakest effect on the extent of CSR reporting, suggesting that internal firm characteristics may outweigh industry-specific pressures. Based on these findings, the study recommends that Vietnamese regulatory bodies prioritize company size over industry type when designing CSR disclosure policies. This study provides valuable insights into the evolving dynamics of CSR disclosure in emerging markets like Vietnam, highlighting the need for context-specific strategies to enhance corporate accountability and sustainable development.

Acknowledgment
The author thanks everyone who helped make this study possible.

Type of the article: Research Article

Abstract
Board characteristics play a critical role in shaping corporate transparency and preventing financial misreporting in emerging markets. This study investigates how the independence, size, gender diversity, and meeting frequency of boards of directors influence the likelihood of financial statement fraud among listed firms in Vietnam, while also examining the moderating effect of audit committees. Using a balanced panel dataset of 2,584 firm-year observations from 323 non-financial companies listed on the Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi Stock Exchanges during 2015–2022, logistic regression analysis (Stata 17) was used to test the proposed hypotheses. The results show that board independence and board size significantly reduce the likelihood of financial statement fraud, aligning with agency and resource dependence theories. Although gender diversity has no significant effect in the baseline model, it becomes negatively significant when the audit committee is included, indicating that effective oversight enhances the governance role of diverse boards. Additionally, the previously positive relationship between meeting frequency and fraud becomes insignificant when an audit committee is present, confirming its neutralizing effect. These findings highlight that the audit committee is a vital governance mechanism that enhances monitoring quality, reinforces accountability, and promotes ethical behavior. The study provides important insights for regulators and firms in Vietnam by emphasizing the need to strengthen audit committee independence, promote board diversity, and advance professional governance to reduce fraudulent reporting and support sustainable corporate integrity in emerging economies.