Stakeholder Engagement Disclosures by Electric Utilities in Malaysia: An Exploratory Research

Abstract

Stakeholder engagement has been increasingly acknowledged as important governance mechanism in steering corporate sustainability and reputation. Electricity companies impacted a wide spectrum of stakeholders through their operation of generating, transmitting and distributing electricity. This research aims to explore the stakeholder engagement disclosures among electric utilities in Malaysia. Using Bursa Malaysia’s Sustainability Reporting Guide as the benchmark, we content analysed the latest corporate reports (annual reports and/or stand-alone sustainability reports) for disclosure related to stakeholder engagement. We find the disclosures ranged between two to four items (out of five). Nonetheless, the reports were somewhat inconsistent across the companies and lacking of discussion on stakeholder identification and selection. The research findings provide support for the importance of company’s internal stakeholder engagement framework and more structured reporting guideline by the regulatory bodies for more consistent and quality engagement and disclosures.