Corporate Social Responsibility Reporting in the Post-mandate Period: An In-Depth Content Analysis of Indian Top-Listed Companies

Abstract

AbstractThe purpose of this study is to examine the pattern of corporate social responsibility reporting of top Indian companies in the post-mandatory period. To this end, the study selected 30 SENSEX companies for four years (2014–15 to 2017–2018). Content analysis has been used to compute the disclosure under four dimensions of corporate social responsibility, namely community welfare, environmental stewardship, human resources and product and customer. The results of the study indicate that corporate social responsibility reporting in selected companies has increased during the period of study. The most disclosed dimension of corporate social responsibility is community development, and the least disclosed dimension is product development. The study further reveals that oil exploration and refineries have the highest corporate social responsibility disclosure and the pharmaceutical industry stands at the bottom-most position in corporate social responsibility disclosure. The result suggests that Indian companies have made significant development in corporate social responsibility reporting after the introduction of recent reforms.KeywordsCorporate responsibilityCorporate disclosureSENSEX companiesContent analysisCompanies Act