The impact of board profiles and CSR practices towards firms´ accounting return: Top MSWG ranked companies

This paper provides evidence on the relationship between board profiles, corporate social responsibility (CSR) practices and firms´ accounting return in Malaysian companies. Age of directors, education background, term of tenure and number of directorship are used for board profiles proxy, while CSR disclosure report is used as a proxy for CSR practices. Following traditional approach, the firm financial performance is measured using accounting return which is return on assets (ROA) and profit margin (PROFIT). The sample of the study is the 2008 top 150 Minority Shareholder Watchdog Group (MSWG) ranked companies over a period of 3 years from 2006 to 2008. The findings indicate within the period of analysis there is a positively significant relationship between term of tenure and firms´ accounting return measured by ROA. The result also suggests the education background and CSR practice have significant and positively relationship with firms´ accounting return measured by profit margin. On the other hand, firm size is found to have an adverse impact on profit margin. The present paper provides useful information that offer great value to Malaysian companies, policymakers, academics and other stakeholders to take into consideration in identifying the corporate governance characteristics and CSR disclosure that will enhance firms´ accounting return.