Corporate social and environmental responsibility in web-based reports: Currency in the banking sector?

Abstract

Abstract The argument that accounting is an interested endeavour, premised on social practices, suggests that an examination of the quantity of corporate social reporting (CSR) in shareholder reports is too simplistic an avenue of exploration. An analysis of web-based financial and CSR reports, using a discourse/textual analytic approach, has raised questions regarding how these issues are given (and denied) prominence in this context by virtue of their physical positioning and persuasive language. In the study, web-based forms of reports of five banking groups are examined, Lloyds/TSB, the Royal Bank of Scotland, HSBC, Barclays and the Co-operative Bank. It is argued that, rather than the production of stand-alone reports signalling the growing importance of CSR considerations, in this context they function to peripheralise the information. Although it is evident that organizations are beginning to articulate a stance with regard to CSR, as increasingly more attention is being paid to social and environmental issues, simple articulation is no longer sufficient.