Determinants of Global Reporting Initiative report: A comparative study between USA and European companies

Abstract

The paper intends to increase the understanding of the diffusion of the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) report standard. It specifically investigates the main determinants which influence the decision behind publishing the CSR report according to Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) guideline standards. Two different samples were employed for the year 2019: United States (US) listed companies in S&P 500 and European companies listed in STOXX Europe 600. Three main aspects were considered regarding the potential determinants: Board of Directors (BoD) attributes, company commitment to CSR network, such as United Nations Global Compact (UNGC), and interactions with CSR management standardization institutions (such as ISO 14000). BoD's attributes comprise of three main dimensions, namely, non-executive directors, Chief Executive Officers' (CEO) duality situations, and board gender diversity (BGD). From an agency-oriented theory, US companies with more non-executive directors in BoD are more likely to publish a CSR report in accordance with GRI guideline standards. In addition, CEO duality situation is a crucial factor behind publishing a GRI report only for the US companies reducing the likelihood of companies to publish a GRI report. Furthermore, the results revealed that BGD (more women) favorably affects the decision for the CSR information dissemination under GRI requirements for both US and European companies. Under the prism of legitimacy theory, the commitment to CSR networks and the interaction with CSR management standardization institutions seems to increase the likelihood to publish GRI so as to obtain the social “license to operate” to continue their business operations. The obtained results are crucial since they provide useful implications to dominant stakeholders, mainly to shareholders and BoD, socially responsible investors (SRI) and to regulators and policymakers.