An Investigation of Corporate Social Disclosures in U.K. & China Accountancy Firms

ABSTRACT This study provides an empirical analysis of practices and characteristics of accounting firms in both UK and China relating to corporate social disclosure in annual reports and on their official web sites. It found that country of domicile, company size and industry group were all significant factors influencing corporate social reporting patterns in the accounting sector. Analysis shows that Chinese accounting firms are well behind the U.K. accounting firms with regard to website corporate social disclosure, while UK local accounting firms disclose less than the U.K. member firms of big international four. It further shows that the large international accounting firms adopt different disclosure policies in different regions with a much greater disclosure in the U.K. compared to China. Also UK accounting firms seem to report less on their corporation social responsibilities compared to other industries