Corporate Social Responsibility Websites Research Articles

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Website Reporting: Evidence from Sub-Saharan Africa’s Top-Ranked Companies

This study aims to examine how Sub-Saharan Africa’s top ranked companies themselves convey their role as social-economic development partners and/or agents in their corporate communications, and to what extent country- and industry-specific characteristics influence their reporting, i.e., via CSR websites reporting. Using Forbes’ 2,000 world-largest-corporations ranking, based on 2017 ranking list, we select the largest corporations. We then filter our search to select Africa-largest-corporations. A content analysis of the CSR reports and/or Websites of the sample companies was conducted to identify the motives for CSR practices, CSR managerial processes and stakeholder issues addressed in CSR reporting. Several of the “motives underlying CSR practices”, “CSR managerial processes” and “stakeholder issues addressed” in CSR reporting appear to converge around similar themes (or issues), given that all three sample companies operate in the financial services industry within the specificities of South Africa’s context. The findings suggest that the specificities of South Africa’s historical development and/or socio-cultural realities, legislation and industry charters are important factors that influence CSR (or sustainability) practices in the context of Sub-Saharan Africa. Although, studies that mainly focus on the contents of corporate website are uncommon, this study has limitations as we solely relied on publicly accessible CSR reporting, rather than, for example, interviewing employees, customers (or clients) and/or regulators to verify the claims by the sample companies. As this study examines CSR website reporting practices by organisations, it provides a useful insight for competitor benchmarking that can be used by organisations to imrpove their CSR website reporting practices. This study contributes to extant CSR research as its provides empirical evidence of the contextuality of CSR in Sub-Saharan Africa, as well as explores how country- and industry-specific characteristics may influence CSR website reporting.

Contents and determinants of CSR website communication toward international stakeholders: evidence from Chinese MNCs

With Chinese companies increasingly transforming into powerful social and economic institutions in the global market, they have begun to face progressive pressure to sustain communication with international stakeholders in a socially responsible fashion. This study represents a preliminary attempt to explore Chinese MNCs’ corporate social responsibility (CSR) communication to their international audiences through corporate websites, as well as its company-level determinants. The CSR information posed by 149 leading Chinese MNCs on their official English websites was analyzed in terms of their visibility, extent, and themes, and the impact of four company-level factors on the communication was tested. The findings indicated that Chinese MNCs generally presented CSR information in a visible and readily accessible way, yet the extent of the communication was relatively low. The communication focused on issues related to consumers and stakeholders, followed by the community and employees, with inadequate addressing of suppliers. The positive impact of company-level determinants (i.e. degree of internationalization, overseas experience of top management, and industry affiliation to polluting sectors) on communication was confirmed. Theoretical and practical implications for online CSR communication in the global context are subsequently discussed.

Corporate Social Responsibility of Islamic Banks: CSR website visibility, CSR initiatives, CSR strategy

Purpose: The concept of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) has been widely known in the Islamic banking sector yet there is criticism and lack of trust which exists among stakeholdersDesign/Method/Approach: To reduce negative concern and to fill the gap in the literature, this research reinforces the integration of ethical and moral principles in the banking business.Findings: One of the integral and core elements of Islamic economics is ‘falah’; which focuses on wellness and the concept of reward in this world and hereafterOriginality/Values: To fulfil the needs of the ethical aspect of Islamic banks which leads to ‘falah’, this research has extracted the underlying theoretical issues of Islamic bank Corporate Social Responsibility (web visibility, initiatives, strategy). This research also determines the extent of CSR visibility in twelve leading Islamic banks’ corporate websites.

Does your corporation “care”? Exploring an ethical standard for communicating CSR relationships online

A qualitative content analysis of corporate social responsibility (CSR) webpages of top-ranked corporations was conducted to determine the ethical nature of online communications surrounding nonprofit partnerships. Are corporations giving nonprofits their fair share of online publicity? All CSR-related webpages from the top 30 Fortune’s 500 Most Admired Corporations for 2017 were examined. Ethical principles from public relations communications regarding open, honest, and transparent information sharing guided textual analysis. Evidence shows that CSR website communications often engage in self-promotion rather than genuine and mutually beneficial support for nonprofit partners. Through corporate branding of CSR activities, advertising through philanthropy stories, and exploiting employee volunteerism and donations, the balance of CSR relationships tilts heavily in the corporation’s favor. Yet, public relations practitioners have a special calling to be the “ethical conscience” of their organizations. Understanding how corporations can provide ethical communications about their nonprofit partners helps guide ethical voice of the practice. This study is unique for looking specifically at the ethics of corporate CSR communications themselves and for addressing the nonprofit perspective of CSR, which is often overlooked. While nonprofits may benefit from CSR relationships, this article shows that opportunities for mutually beneficial communications about these relationships may be lacking.

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) website disclosures: empirical evidence from the German banking industry

PurposeContent analysis was used to examine the CSR disclosures of 78 bank websites based on four categories: environment and energy, human resources, customers and products and community involvement. Furthermore, sample units were grouped according to their characteristics, and nonparametric tests were employed to determine significant differences between these groups.Design/methodology/approachThis study (1) examines the extent of corporate social responsibility (CSR) disclosure on bank websites and (2) analyzes the relationship between online CSR disclosure and bank characteristics (i.e. size, profitability, capital market orientation, government ownership, media visibility and bank category).FindingsThe results reveal that the most-disclosed (least-disclosed) CSR information by banks relates to customers and products (environment and energy). Moreover, characteristics such as size, capital market orientation, government-ownership and media visibility are significant in explaining CSR website disclosures, while profitability (bank category) is not (only partially) significant.Research limitations/implicationsAlthough the sample constitutes all the relevant banks in Germany, it is small and limited to a single national context. Thus, the results may not be generalizable.Originality/valueThis study contributes to the relatively scarce literature concerning CSR disclosures on banks' websites, provides new empirical data and extends prior research that compares CSR practices among different types of banks. Recommendations for action are also formulated that are relevant for banking practitioners in the present and future.

Is Femvertising the New Greenwashing? Examining Corporate Commitment to Gender Equality

This study examined the potential for a new area of corporate social responsibility (CSR) washing: gender equality. Companies are increasingly recognized for advertisements promoting gender equality, termed “femvertisements.” However, it is unclear whether companies that win femvertising awards actually support women with an institutionalized approach to gender equality. A quantitative content analysis was performed assessing company leadership team listings, annual reports, CSR reports, and CSR websites of 61 US-based companies (31 award winners and 30 non-winning competitors) to compare the prevalence of internal and external gender-equality CSR activities of companies that have (versus have not) won femvertising awards. When controlling for number of employees and annual revenue, award-winning companies committed to more internal efforts that support women than non-award-winning companies. However, no significant differences were found in the number of external efforts or representation in female leadership between companies with and without award-winning femvertisements. Overall, a majority of award-winning companies (81%) engaged in less than ten of the possible 23 gender-equality CSR activities, suggesting these companies’ female empowerment commercials were often not in line with their broader CSR activities. While more research is needed in this area, we propose the term “fempower-washing” to describe CSR-washing in the context of gender equality.

Science-Based Targets: On Target?

Companies are increasingly seeking to align their actions with the goals of the Paris Agreement. Over 1000 such companies have committed to the science-based targets initiative which seeks to align corporate carbon reduction targets with global decarbonisation trajectories. These ‘science-based targets’ are developed using a common set of resources and target-setting methodologies, then independently assessed and approved by a technical advisory group. Despite the initiative’s rapid rise to public prominence, it has received little attention to date in the academic literature. This paper discusses development of the initiative based upon a quantitative assessment of progress against each component of the science-based targets set by 81 early adopters, using information gathered from company annual reports, corporate social responsibility websites and Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) responses. The analysis reveals a mixed picture of progress. Though the majority of targets assessed were on track and, in some cases, had already been achieved, just under half of the companies assessed were falling behind on one or more of their targets. Progress varied significantly by target scope, with more limited progress against targets focused on Scope 3 emissions. Company reporting practices were highly variable and often of poor quality. This paper concludes with a range of recommendations to improve the transparency, consistency and comparability of targets within this key agenda-setting initiative.

Difference of CSR Practice for Chinese Automakers – Comparison with Japanese & Korean Automakers

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) has already become an important issue in Japan & Korea as well as in China. However, a relatively clear difference of CSR practice of China has existed due to it being government-led CSR practice. The Chinese government actively promotes its CSR standards, the CASS CSR 3.0 while emphasizing Chinese characteristics. This study traces the difference of CSR practice for Chinese firms by looking into twenty-four automakers’ CSR websites and reports in Japan, Korea and China. Firstly, this study analyzes CSR reports and website accessibility from a local language barrier perspective, and does Paired t-Test for comparing two national populations means of accessibility between two groups; Japanese-Korean automakers vs. Chinese automakers by using survey results. Secondly, the coverage rates of each automaker’s CSR report for GRI G4 are examined, and Two-Sample t-Tests are made to compare the two nationalities means of coverage rate between Japanese-Korean automakers and Chinese ones. As a result, the CSR practices of Chinese automakers differ greatly from CSR practices of Japanese-Korean ones. But it needs to be considered that if the major stakeholders of Chinese firms are local people or partners, the core of CSR activities would be oriented for local stakeholders.

CSR website disclosure: the influence of the upper echelons

PurposeUsing upper echelons theory (UET), the purpose of this paper is to unravel the influence of a CEO’s ethical ideology on the presence of corporate social responsibility (CSR) disclosure on corporate websites. It also considers the CEO’s perception of the importance of CSR (i.e. the extent of the CEO’s detachment from the stockholder-oriented logic and attachment to the stakeholder-oriented logic).Design/methodology/approachFirst, a survey was sent to CEOs of large unlisted Belgian companies. Its intention was to assess CEOs’ ethical ideology along the idealism and relativism dimensions and their perceptions on the importance of CSR (PRESOR-detachment-from-stockholder view; PRESOR-attachment-to-stakeholder view), and to gather some demographics. Second, a content analysis of corporate websites was conducted so as to classify companies as being either CSR disclosing or non-disclosing. Third, the annual accounts of these corporations were investigated and follow-up phone calls were conducted to obtain data on managerial discretion (MD).FindingsCEOs’ ethical ideology influences the degree to which they detach from the stockholder-oriented logic and attach to the stakeholder-oriented logic. Moreover, when MD is high, the degree of these CEOs’ attachment to the stakeholder-oriented logic is the factor that influences the presence of CSR disclosure on their corporate websites. Finally, CEO’s idealism indirectly influences the presence of CSR disclosure through the effect of idealism on the degree to which CEOs attach to the stakeholder-oriented logic.Originality/valueThis paper shows that, when MD is high, CEOs’ values and perceptions influence CSR disclosure decisions. This study thereby enhances our knowledge regarding the internal drivers of CSR disclosure practices and offers UET as a lens through which the importance of CEOs’ personal characteristics in the decision-making process might be further explored.

Contents and Determinants of Corporate Social Responsibility Website Reporting in Sub-Saharan Africa: A Seven-Country Study

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) in developing countries has recently received increasing attention, and scholars have pointed to the strong contextuality of CSR in the respective regions. Regarding the latter, however, sub-Saharan Africa has been scrutinized only marginally by academia. Moreover, empirical research on the impact of the institutional context has been scant, despite its attributed importance for CSR. Our article seeks to fill a part of this research gap by investigating CSR website reporting of 211 companies in seven sub-Saharan countries. The study’s aim is twofold: First, we identify to what extent sub-Saharan companies report on CSR and which contents they disclose. Second, by building on institutional theory, we investigate how the socio-economic and political environments influence CSR reporting. For this purpose, we examine the impact of country-level and company-level determinants. We find that the sample African companies’ CSR efforts focus strongly on local philanthropy and therefore differ substantially from Western CSR approaches. Furthermore, we evidence that GDP and level of governance standard positively affect CSR reporting. Our study contributes to the literature by empirically evidencing the contextuality of CSR in Africa and by explaining how specific country- and company-level determinants contribute to or hamper the development of CSR in developing countries.

Evaluating the Enhancement of Corporate Social Responsibility Websites Quality Based on a New Hybrid MADM Model

Corporations would utilize advanced information technologies for generating corporate social responsibility (CSR) reports and communicating with their stakeholders. However, corporations often could not determine whether their CSR websites are capable of effective communication with the stakeholders. The purpose of this study would be to analyze websites of benchmark companies for establishing an evaluation model to be a reference for CSR website design. Information from expert interviews carried out in this study underwent DEMATEL method for analyzing the mutual relationships between the quality criteria and dimensions of CSR websites. DANP was then used to calculate the weight of each criterion. Finally, we would make use VIKOR method to prioritize the performance CSR website satisfaction. The following provides the recommended improvement priorities according to results of the expert interviews: service quality (C) followed by information quality (B) followed by technical quality (A).