Corporate social responsibility reports: A review of the evolution, approaches and prospects

Abstract

In recent years, the corporate social responsibility (CSR) report has gained strategic importance within organizations, especially after the development of strategies and different international regulations, such as the Global Compact and the United Nations’ 2030 Agenda or Directive 2014/95/EU. This, together with the boom in CSR research and business management, has given rise to heterogeneity in the conceptualization and management of CSR report. Consequently, this research study proposes a bibliometric and systematic analysis of 4966 research articles, available in the Scopus repository and published during the period of 2001–2021, to improve the conceptualization and management of CSR communication. The documents analyzed were research articles that included concepts such as CSR, communication, and reporting in the title, abstract and keywords and that were published in the 21st century. The results show an exponential growth in scientific production in recent years, coinciding with the development of strategies and international regulations, and with a high percentage of authors, institutions and countries coming from the European Union. Additionally, the main characteristics of the research are obtained alongside data on the most productive authors, institutions, journals, and countries, in addition to information about their international cooperation networks. Finally, the results present the most relevant contributions in regard to the four research topics detected, namely: (a) accountability; (b) disclosure of performance; (c) management of the organization; (d) corporate strategy; and (e) corporate reputation. These results indicate a broad multidisciplinarity of this line of research. Finally, future lines of research that can contribute to improving or expanding the current findings in this research area are established.