Relationship Between Profitability and Corporate Social Responsibility Disclosure: Evidence from Vietnamese Listed Banks

In view of integration and development, compliance with regulations on information disclosure has important implications for users. Corporate social responsibility disclosure (CSRD) is an increasing concern of the community and society. CSRD always poses many challenges for the profitability of banks. The article uses the ordinary least square method to examine this relationship and employs timeseries data of five years from 18 Vietnamese listed banks from 2015 to 2019. The analysis is informed by Jensen and Meckling’s Agency theory, Freeman’s Stakeholder theory, and Dowling and Pfeffer’s Legitimacy theory. The study results show that, with the CSRD dependent variable, return on assets (ROA) and net interest margin (NIM) have an opposite influence, but return on equity (ROE) has no effect on CSRD, while on the profitability dependent variable, CSRD has a different influence from ROA, ROE, and NIM. To enhance the relationship between CSRD and profitability, Vietnamese listed banks need to comply with CSRD as well as demonstrate responsibility to the community and society. Managers need to have clear development policies and strategies to ensure both profitability and responsibility regarding social and community activities. The State Securities Commission of Vietnam should enforce strict sanctions, conduct inspection, and complete evaluation criteria for Vietnamese listed banks.