Integrated reporting stimulates strategic communication of corporate social responsibility? A marketing perspective analysis based on Maignan, Ferrell and Ferrell’s stakeholder model of corporate social responsibility in marketing

Nuno Baptista

doi:10.14195/2183-5462_33_3

Abstract

Integrated reporting brings the promise of a new approach to corporate reporting based on integrated thinking, long-term focus, a broader view of value creation and a better articulation of organizations’ strategy and business models and further integration of corporate social responsibility and sustainability in business. Despite the potential of integrated reporting to drastically change the way corporate social responsibility is currently reported, marketing scholars focusing on ethics and social responsibility seem to be alienated from the discussion occurring in academia about integrated reporting. In this article we evaluate if integrated reports, as conceptualized by the International Integrated Reporting Council, may be used as a relevant source of information to operationalize Maignan, Ferrell and Ferrell’s stakeholder model of corporate social responsibility. We conclude that integrated reports present some important limitations, mostly related with being exclusively focused on the information needs of investors and not requiring companies to report on the full impact of their activities on other stakeholders. This study contributes to this special issue dedicated to the topic of strategic communication by framing the potential contribution of integrated reporting to strategic communication of corporate social responsibility.

Highlights

The importance of using corporate reports as marketing tools has been highlighted by several authors and is mostly grounded on the principle that all organizational communications should be used as part of an integrated marketing communication strategy (Dumitru, Gușe, Feleagă, Marian, & Feldioreanu, 2015; Jianu, Turlea, & Gusatu, 2016; McKinstry, 1996)
Judging by the scarce amount of literature, it seems that marketing researchers focusing on corporate social responsibility (CSR) and ethics are not participating in the intense discussions occurring in academia concerning this topic
Research question Based on the theoretical framework that guides the present research, this study investigates the following research question: Can integrated reports serve to operationalize Maignan’s et al (2005) model of corporate social responsibility?

Summary

Introduction

The importance of using corporate reports as marketing tools has been highlighted by several authors and is mostly grounded on the principle that all organizational communications should be used as part of an integrated marketing communication strategy (Dumitru, Gușe, Feleagă, Marian, & Feldioreanu, 2015; Jianu, Turlea, & Gusatu, 2016; McKinstry, 1996). Corporate reports tend to be accessible to all stakeholder groups, due to their public availability and receive a higher level of trust from stakeholders than other communication tools (Dumitru et al, 2015). Judging by the scarce amount of literature, it seems that marketing researchers focusing on CSR and ethics are not participating in the intense discussions occurring in academia concerning this topic. Existing research on integrated reporting is mainly limited to the accounting and financial disciples. In this research it is assumed that marketing scholarship can enrich the current discussion on integrated reporting by analyzing the utility of integrated reports as communication tools. As stressed by Freeman, Harrison, Wicks, Parmar, & Colle (2010), marketing as a discipline tends to be more outwardly focused than the financial/accounting areas. “marketing is in a strong position to work on problems associated with monitoring and communicating with external stakeholders.”(p. 161)

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