Corporate Social Responsibility and Islamic Business Organizations: a Proposed Model

The issue of corporate social responsibility (CSR) has been of growing concern among business communities in recent years. Various corporate leaders maintain that business is considered to contribute fully to the society if it is effi cient, profi table and socially responsible. Islam is considered as addin (a way of life), thus, providing comprehensive guidelines in every aspects of the believers' life. It is the aim of this paper to propose an Islamic model of corporate social responsibility based on human relationships with the God (hablun min'Allah); with other fellow human being (hablun min'an-nas) and with the environment

Empowering the society through companies CSR agenda

Topic of socioeconomic issue is one of the most widely discussed globally as it gives effects to occupation, education, income, wealth, and place of residence of individuals.These social challenges should be addressed and resolved because to enhance individuals’ contribution to economic and social life of their society and reduce social tensions and conflicts that negatively affects country’s economic development. For this reason, in the Eleventh Malaysia Plan (2016-2020), the Malaysian Government stresses on the importance of participation of companies in empowering society to improve socioeconomic that could support equitable society.The empowerment programs aim to improve the education, quality of life and wellbeing of individuals and groups in society through reducing wealth gap, racial imbalance and promoting employment equity. One way to initiate greater involvement of the companies in socioeconomic development of the society is through CSR agenda.Specifically, the CSR agenda through empowerment activities (such as trainings programs, educational sponsorship mentorship program and learning and development programs) is believed to have a positive implication on society by way of improving wealth, education and skills of the individuals.Hence, this paper aims to develop measurement of empowerment in companies CSR agenda

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) and Islamic banks: a synthesis of literature review

In the past 30 years, Islamic banks have developed tremendously across the various countries. Currently, challenges occurring in the global financial market operations have affected the development of Islamic banking practice.Key reports in the field have suggested that CSR activities are important in tackling this issue. Although the literature pertaining to CSR activities is extensive, the insights emerging from this to date have been limited.Whilst it is acknowledged that there are various dimensions to the study of CSR, including exploring CSR practices, the CSR concept, the CSR framework, CSR measurement, CSR dimension, CSR relationships, CSR impact and CSR determinants, the primary focus of this paper is to explore CSR practices.The findings from the current literature have found that CSR activities are not at a satisfactory level. The present paper will suggest that CSR activities should be integrated with Islamic and conventional elements in accordance with Shariah principles under the ‘Urf (customs) principle.It is expected that integrated CSR activities will attract practitioners to improvise current CSR strategies.It is suggested in addition that such a move would improve knowledge of CSR and Islamic banking in the academic world

Peptidase Polymorphism in Natural Populations of the Cocoa Pest, Helopeltis theobromae Miller

Helopeltis theobromae caught off cocoa plants in Kuala Selangor and off Acalypha plants in Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia were investigated electrophoretically for nine biochemical markers: peptidase, a -glycerophosphate dehydrogenase, 6-phosphogluconate dehydrogenase, xanthine dehydrogenase, aldehyde oxidase, phosphoglucose isomerase, isocitrate dehydrogenase, glutamate transaminase and adenylate kinase. Only peptidase-2 polymorphism could be easily interpreted

Past, present, and future of corporate social responsibility and earnings management research

For decades, corporate social responsibility (CSR) has been an area at the heart of business research. The aspects of CSR that researchers have been focusing on have grown exponentially. Most research efforts have dwelled on its positive effects, including good behavioural changes, promising financial performance, social investment and development, and environmental preservation and protection. On the other hand, several scholars have questioned the credibility of CSR and its link to unethical financial conduct, particularly earnings management. This review paper uses a systematic literature review to conduct bibliometric analysis, content analysis, and thematic analysis in order to identify trends and outcomes of CSR reporting and earnings management research. The literature review search is guided by PRISMA and analyses 152 Scopus-indexed articles between 2005 and 2021. As a result, this paper reveals the most influential authors and articles, leading journals and countries, and research cluster networks. This review also outlines the theoretical perspectives and future direction of CSR and earnings management research. In addition, this review paper provides critical and beneficial insights for stakeholders and researchers

Analysis of Earnings Management Practices and Sustainability Reporting for Corporations that Offer Islamic Products & Services

Earnings management is generally viewed as unethical behaviour as it involves the use of managerial discretion of accounting numbers, which may result in the distortion of financial information provided to stakeholders. However, the engagement in socially responsible initiatives by companies demonstrates their concern for the societal well-being which goes beyond profit making. The aim of this study is to examine the earnings management practices and sustainability reporting among corporate sectors that offer Islamic products. An Islamic perspective is used to underpin the theoretical arguments for this study. This study uses longitudinal panel data analysis to examine the sustainability reporting of 16 public-listed companies in Malaysia that offer Islamic financial products for a three year period from 2011 to 2013. Content analyses on corporate annual and stand-alone reports used Global Reporting Initiatives (G3) guidelines to measure the quality of the sustainability disclosure, while the earnings management related data was obtained using the Modified Jones Model. The results of the study provide evidence that the sustainability reporting practices among companies in Malaysia that offer Islamic products are generally good over the three-year period and that financial performance improved the quality of sustainability reporting. The insignificant results between earnings management and the quality of sustainability reporting suggest that sustainability reporting is not being manipulated to cover their earnings management practices

Past, Present, and Future of Corporate Social Responsibility and Earnings Management Research

For decades, corporate social responsibility (CSR) has been an area at the heart of business research. The aspects of CSR that researchers have been focusing on have grown exponentially. Most research efforts have dwelled on its positive effects, including good behavioural changes, promising financial performance, social investment and development, and environmental preservation and protection. On the other hand, several scholars have questioned the credibility of CSR and its link to unethical financial conduct, particularly earnings management. This review paper uses a systematic literature review to conduct bibliometric analysis, content analysis, and thematic analysis in order to identify trends and outcomes of CSR reporting and earnings management research. The literature review search is guided by PRISMA and analyses 152 Scopus-indexed articles between 2005 and 2021. As a result, this paper reveals the most influential authors and articles, leading journals and countries, and research cluster networks. This review also outlines the theoretical perspectives and future direction of CSR and earnings management research. In addition, this review paper provides critical and beneficial insights for stakeholders and researchers

CSR initiatives by companies for employees through social protection measures

Poverty has always been the main concern globally as it alienates and distresses particular groups of citizen that affects their emotion and psychological behaviour, and may have impact on the socioeconomic aspect of the country. Hence, it is critical for the government to address the poverty problem, as this would lead to inequality. One way to minimise income inequality is through the provision of social protection to maintain the basic consumption and living standard of the needed members of the society.The government highlights the importance of increasing involvement of the private sector to improve social protection through their CSR programmes. Thus, the main purpose of this paper is to unearth the concept of social protection and its role in minimising inequality in the society as well as to develop an instrument to measure the social protection dimension of companies’ CSR activities

Decomposing the trade-environment nexus for Malaysia: What do the technique, scale, composition and comparative advantage effect indicate?

This paper investigates the impact of trade openness on CO2 emissions using time series data over the period of 1970QI-2011QIV for Malaysia. We disintegrate the trade effect into scale, technique, composition and comparative advantage effects to check the environmental consequence of trade at four different transition points. To achieve the purpose, we have employed ADF and PP unit root tests in order to examine the stationary properties of the variables. Later, the long-run association among the variables is examined by applying ARDL bounds testing approach to cointegration. Our results confirm the presence of cointegration. Further, we find that scale effect has positive and technique effect has negative impact on CO2 emissions after threshold income level and form inverted-U shaped relationship – hence validates the environmental Kuznets curve hypothesis. Energy consumption adds in CO2 emissions. Trade openness and composite effect improve environmental quality by lowering CO2 emissions. The comparative advantage effect increases CO2 emissions and impairs environmental quality. The results provide the innovative approach to see the impact of trade openness in four sub-dimensions of trade liberalization. Hence, this study attributes more comprehensive policy tool for trade economists to better design environmentally sustainable trade rules and agreements