Paper Title
The Impact of Board of Directors Members Characteristics and Audit Committee on Social Responsibility Disclosure
Abstract
This study aimed to measure the extent of disclosure of social responsibility in the financial statements issued by banks and insurance companies listed on the Palestine Stock Exchange (PEX), examining the impact of the characteristics of the board members on the disclosure of social responsibility in the financial statements for the selected companies, and examining the impact of the characteristics of the members of the Audit Committee on the disclosure of social responsibility in the financial statements, in addition to that, the study also aimed to assess the impact of the Audit Committee and the Board of Directors on the disclosure of social responsibility in the financial statements by banks and insurance companies listed on the (PEX).
The study population consisted of all the banks and insurance companies listed on the (PEX), which totaled to thirteen companies, including six banks and seven insurance companies. In order to achieve the objectives of the study, the study utilized the descriptive analytical method. In which the study depended on quantitative analysis methods by analyzing the data of the time series (Panel Data), which represent the data from the 13 companies for the period from 2008 to 2017, for the data analysis purposes, the researcher used the statistical program (E views) mainly to apply all statistical and standard methods.
The study has come out with different results, of the main results that were reached is that the number of members of the Board of Directors, the experiences of members of the Board of Directors, and the independence of the members of the Audit Committee has no impact on the disclosure of social responsibility, while the number of meetings of directors has an impact on the disclosure of social responsibility. The results of the study showed that the members of the Board of Directors and the Audit Committee have no role in applying or influencing the disclosure of social responsibility.
Thus, the study recommended that the role of the members of the Board of Directors and the Audit Committee should be activated. In addition to that, it is recommended that the members of the Board of Directors of the banks and insurance companies listed on (PEX) should have financial background, and that
the audit committees of the banks and insurance companies listed on the (PEX) should be formed have accounting background and have experience in auditing and financial control. Finally, the study recommended that the laws, and regulations issued by the Palestinian Monetary Authority and the Palestine Stock Exchange on governance and disclosure of social responsibility should beupdated and developed in a way that places more emphasis on social responsibility.
Keywords - Board of Directors, Audit Committee, Disclosure, Social Responsibility.