Do different industries report Corporate Social Responsibility\ud differently? An investigation through the lens of stakeholder theory

摘要

The social responsibility of business has become a major issue in recent years and\udthe reporting of such activity is becoming more prevalent. Companies are\udattuning to the benefits of being seen as socially responsibly and many industries\udare jumping on the bandwagon of reporting CSR and using different media to\udcommunicate their activities in this arena to their stakeholders. This paper\udconsiders the content of one type of such communications, the annual report, and\udlooks at how organisations are taking a focused stakeholder view of CSR rather\udthan a wider view as would be expected from the ambiguity of definitions of the\udconcept. Differences in reporting practices were found by an analysis of the\udannual and CSR reports of 28 FTSE4Good firms focusing on a variety of\udindustries. Findings show that there is a significant difference between how\udorganisations in different industries report on CSR consistent with a stakeholder\udview of CSR, and that this reporting follows for the most part the expectations of\udthe CSR communications literature. It is suggested that firms report on CSR in\udline with what their key stakeholders expect, thus giving evidence for CSR\udreporting as another tool in the marketing communicators toolbox.