The effect of national culture on the association between profitability and corporate social and environmental disclosure: A meta-analysis

This paper aims to investigate the moderating effect of cultural dimensions (masculinity, individualism and long-term orientation) on the association between profitability and corporate social and environmental disclosure (CSED).

The authors apply the meta-analysis technique developed by Hunter et al. (1982) and Hunter and Schmidt (2000) for a sample of 48 published studies over the period of the past 20 years.

The authors find that masculinity, individualism and long-term orientation moderate the association between profitability and CSED. Given the weight of US studies on the overall sample, the authors conduct a sensitivity analysis to examine how this factor may affect the findings. After excluding these studies, only long-term orientation and individualism remain strong moderators of the association between profitability and CSED.

This study provides further evidence on the impact of institutional frameworks on CSED. It has, also, policy implications for managers of multinational corporations.