Corporate social responsibility disclosures by South African mining companies: The Marikana massacre

Abstract

Following the strike at Lonmin Plc. which led to the death of 34 miners and the wounding of 78 others on 16 August 2012, we evaluate whether the extent of corporate social responsibility (CSR) disclosures by South African mining companies, in total and per disclosure category, was affected by this event. Content analysis is used to measure the extent of CSR disclosures before and after the Marikana massacre in the integrated annual and stand-alone CSR reports of companies. CSR disclosure was not affected by the Marikana massacre. Our results suggest that the extent of CSR disclosure may be influenced by other factors than only the need by companies to gain or repair legitimacy in response to a legitimacy-threatening event. The only variable in our analysis that had a positive and significant association with CSR disclosure, in total and for each of the different CSR disclosure categories, is whether a company is a member of the Social Responsibility Index (SRI) or not. We use the Marikana massacre, which, following many prior research using legitimacy theory, should have an effect on disclosure, to consider whether legitimacy theory in isolation can be used to evaluate why companies make certain choices regarding the extent of their CSR disclosures.