Online Disclosure of Corporate Social Responsibility Information in Leading Anglo-American Universities

Abstract

ABSTRACTUniversities are destined to play a fundamental role in terms of the incorporation of corporate social responsibility (CSR) in their teaching and research, as well as in the disclosure of CSR information in order to meet their accountability to community. The development of information and communication technology could further encourage the implantation of these requirements. Focusing on the question of information disclosure, the objective of this article is twofold: (a) to analyse if, in the framework of accountability, universities are using the Internet as a means of disclosing CSR information and (b) to assess whether or not CSR information plays a relevant role in the communication policies of universities on the Internet. The conclusions suggest that universities attach little importance to online disclosure of specific information about CSR and, therefore, it cannot be considered to be a key aspect of their communication policy, in comparison to the webometrics ranking that measures the online disclosure of information.