scholarly journals Corporate Social Responsibility Reporting – a Stakeholder’s Perspective Approach

2017 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 30-42 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thorsten Litfin ◽  
Gunther Meeh-Bunse ◽  
Katja Luer ◽  
Özlem Teckert

Abstract Background: International financial reporting standards have constantly been facing fast-growing significant development. This has mainly been driven by the aim of better serving the needs of the investors. Awareness that corporate financial reporting provides short-sighted information and measures has been rising among politicians, in the society and on the financial markets. Therefore, Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) reporting as a form of non-financial reporting has made it to limelight. Various reporting types developed, but the type of reporting is hardly codified. Objective: The goal of this paper is to identify the superior CSR reporting type from a stakeholder’s perspective. After identifying and analyzing central guidelines on CSR reporting and presenting different approaches, the authors will apply a positive-empirical methodology. Methods/Approach: In this first innovative joint attempt, eye-tracking technology is combined with a questionnaire for approaching CSR quality. Results: This study demonstrates the validity of the used methodology for the analysis of search and information browsing behavior in various types of sustainability reports. Conclusions: Overall our findings indicate that the reporting type "reference sustainability report" may not be advisable from a stakeholder’s perspective.

Author(s):  
Janet Luft Mobus

This chapter examines and compares two deliberations on developing Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) reporting: mandatory reporting within the financial reporting framework and voluntary reporting within the Global Reporting Initiative’s (GRI) Sustainability Guidelines reporting framework. While the organizational sponsors of these initiatives differ, similar interests actively participated in each – corporate actors, accountancy organizations, and financial sector participants. In addition, members of civil society interested in advancing transparency in corporate social and environmental performance joined the GRI development. Institutional theory provides the underlying approach to understanding these developments (Barley & Tolbert, 1997) and includes the perspective of meta-conversation developed by Robichaud et al. (2004). Content analysis is used to examine rhetorical strategies in the comment letters received by the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) and the GRI as part of these two deliberations. Evidence suggests preparers of reports undertake CSR reporting as a defense against more coercive regulatory regimes, and accountancy-related organizations attempt to negotiate CSR norms as replicates of norms in financial reporting, supporting institutional theory.


MedienJournal ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 42 (1) ◽  
pp. 33-50
Author(s):  
Maria Gruber

Corporate Social Responsibility reporting has grown increasingly in importance for companies in terms of portraying themselves as good corporate citizens. However, when confronted with a major corporate crisis that evoked an extensive loss in stakeholders’ trust, it remained unclear, how to further deal with the need for CSR communication without presenting oneself as exceedingly hypocritical. In the course of this study, the questions of how and to what extent crises cause change in a corporation’s CSR rhetoric were addressed. Therefore, the utilization of the rhetorical dimensions of logos, ethos, pathos, cosmos and autopoiesis as well as the amount of negative disclosure in the CSR reports of the world’s leading automobile companies (Toyota, General Motors, Volkswagen) were analyzed, one year before and one year after they had maneuvered themselves into a corporate crisis. The rhetorical analysis revealed that the distinctive context of each case (including the corporations’ responsibility for the crisis) dictated the rhetorical adjustments of the CSR reporting after the crisis. Moreover, it could be shown, that when reporting on the crisis cause itself, corporations tend to apply the dimension of ethos more frequently to counter the audience’s potential perception of their hypocrisy.


2017 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 167-191 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christopher Marquis ◽  
Juelin Yin ◽  
Dongning Yang

ABSTRACTDespite the prevalence of global diffusion, little is known about the processes by which international practices are adopted and adapted within organizations around the world. Through our qualitative research on the introduction of corporate social responsibility (CSR) reporting at two leading Chinese companies, we identify a unique set of political mechanisms that we labelstate-mediated globalization, whereby powerful nation-state actors influence the ways in which corporations adopt and adapt global norms and practices. We find that businesses’ needs for political legitimacy from a key stakeholder, in this case the government, leads them to deviate systematically from the global practice in bothformandcontent. These intentional practice adaptations are then legitimized by the government to createinternationalization toolsandlocalized standardsto aid adoption by other organizations. Our findings illustrate previously unidentified mechanisms by which powerful stakeholders such as the Chinese government may mediate, and thereby direct, the ways in which corporations adopt and adapt global CSR practices. Contributions to understanding the political processes of institutional translation in the context of globalization are discussed.


2017 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 87-99 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nurulyasmin Binti Ju Ahmad ◽  
Afzalur Rashid ◽  
Jeff Gow

This study aims at determining the effectiveness of board meeting frequency on Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) reporting by public listed companies on the Main Market of Bursa Malaysia. A CSR reporting index consisting of 51 items was developed based on six themes: General, Community, Environment, Human Resource, Marketplace and Other. A content analysis was used to determine the extent of CSR reporting. An Ordinary Least Square (OLS) regression was employed in determining the association between board meeting frequency and CSR reporting. The finding of the study is that advising tendency (frequency of board meetings) is not associated with CSR reporting. Overall this study strengthens the idea that advising tendency of the board is essential to companies in order to safeguard all stakeholders’ interests. Accordingly, regulators and policymakers should be more stringent in monitoring company’s conformance towards regulations. This study provides a new avenue of knowledge and contributes to the literature on the practices of the board of directors and corporate social responsibility reporting in the context of a semi-developed country.


2018 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
pp. 158-178 ◽  
Author(s):  
Afzalur Rashid

Purpose This study aims to examine whether corporate social responsibility (CSR) and relevant reporting enhances firms’ economic performance among the listed firms in Bangladesh. Design/methodology/approach This study uses a content analysis to examine specific CSR-related attributes from 115 non-financial publicly listed firms in Bangladesh. Firm CSR reporting is evaluated against accounting and market performance measures, with a simultaneous equation approach used to control the potential endogeneity problem. Findings This study finds that CSR reporting significantly influences firm performance under both performance measures, although a firm’s economic performance does not influence CSR reporting. Research limitations/implications This study is subject to some limitations, such as the subjectivity or judgement associated in the coding process. Practical implications The findings imply that although CSR reporting by firms in Bangladesh is discretionary in nature, the ones that report add value to their firm. Originality/value This study contributes to the literature on the practices of CSR reporting in the context of the developing countries.


2016 ◽  
Vol 28 (2) ◽  
pp. 53-76 ◽  
Author(s):  
Long Chen ◽  
Bin Srinidhi ◽  
Albert Tsang ◽  
Wei Yu

ABSTRACT Prior studies show that corporate social responsibility (CSR) reporting is informative to investors but lacks credibility. This study examines whether a commitment to audits of financial outcomes, proxied by audit fees, is associated with greater CSR reporting credibility. We find that audit fees are positively associated with the likelihood of standalone CSR report issuance, and this positive association becomes stronger when managers perceive a greater need for credibility, i.e., when CSR reports are longer or issued with external assurance, when firms have strong CSR concerns, and when reports are issued sporadically. Corroborating our results, we find that CSR reports issued by firms committing to high audit fees accelerate the incorporation of future earnings information into current stock price. Taken together, our findings suggest that a commitment to higher financial reporting quality has the potential to bring positive externality to firms' nonfinancial disclosures and ultimately affects the issuance of CSR reports.


2020 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Afzalur Rashid

Purpose This study aims to examine the influence of institutional shareholding on a firm’s corporate social responsibility (CSR) practices in Bangladesh. Design/methodology/approach This study uses a content analysis to capture a firm’s CSR practices, based on various attributes of social and environmental reporting made by the firm. Based on these attributes, a corporate social responsibility reporting index (CSRI) is constructed. To examine the causal relationship between institutional shareholding and firm CSR practices, this study uses a simultaneous equations approach to control the endogeneity problem. Findings The finding of this study is that both CSR reporting and institutional shareholding negatively influence each other. Research limitations/implications This study is subject to some limitations such as the subjectivity or judgement associated in the coding process. Practical implications If the institutional investors are not concerned with its environmental and societal issues, there will be a sustainability issue for the business because companies will continue ignoring the employee health and hygiene, education, training and welfare. Their ignorance of these societal issues will lead to compromising the quality of living for important stakeholders within the society. Originality/value This study contributes the literature on CSR reporting.


2019 ◽  
Vol 26 (4) ◽  
pp. 1203-1215 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maria Teresa Bianchi ◽  
Patrícia Monteiro ◽  
Graça Azevedo ◽  
Jonas Oliveira ◽  
Rui Couto Viana ◽  
...  

Purpose This paper aims to examine the relation between firms’ political connections and corporate social responsibility (CSR) reporting in Portugal. The authors argue that in settings where the existence of political connections are viewed as damaging collective interests of stakeholders, political connected firms can deal with legitimacy issues from such connections by resorting to CSR practices and the reporting thereof. Design/methodology/approach Using archival data from a panel sample of 36 firms from Portugal between 2009 and 2012, the authors examine the relationship between political connections and CSR reporting by way of regression analysis. Findings The authors find a positive relationship between political connections and CSR reporting. Originality/value This study draws on legitimacy theory to highlight that CSR can be used to deal with stakeholder activism and vigilance pertaining to suspicion related to the existence of political connections.


2019 ◽  
Vol 44 (2) ◽  
pp. 209-223 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shafat Maqbool ◽  
M. Nasir Zamir

This study examines the corporate social responsibility (CSR) disclosure of Indian firms in the wake of the Companies Act, 2013. The annual reports of SENSEX companies for 2016–2017 were scanned to observe the dominant field of CSR reporting related to ‘community development’, ‘environmental activities’, ‘human resources’, ‘products & customer relations’ and ‘fair business practices’. Analysis of annual reports reveals that ‘fair business practices’ received most attention followed by ‘community development’ and ‘environmental activities’. Likewise, the most reported items have been ‘education’, ‘health’ and ‘energy conservation’. The results show that the CSR disclosure is pronouncedly communicated by ‘mining and mineral’ companies followed by ‘power sector’ companies.


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