Invisible inclusion: an exploratory analysis of neurodiversity reporting practices in the most successful companies

Jan van Rijswijk and Petru Lucian Curșeu

Social Responsibility Journal, 2026, vol. 22, issue 9, 2074-2098

Abstract: PurposeThis study aims to examine deep-level diversity reporting by examining how companies disclose their neurodiversity related efforts.Design/methodology/approachThe authors combine qualitative content analysis and quantitative techniques to analyze references to neurodiversity practices in a sample of 318 company reports from the top 45 companies from the Fortune Global 500. Based on content analysis, they derive the key topical areas for neurodiversity reporting, then they report the results of a Multidimensional Scaling Analysis and discuss the emerging topical clusters related to neurodiversity reporting. Based on a fuzzy set QCA analysis, they tested the effects of company size, geographical location and gender diversity of the board on neurodiversity reporting.FindingsThe results reveal five topical areas for neurodiversity reporting: financial and material donations, product and customer experience development, employee stories, neurodivergent hiring and employee resource groups. Moreover, they show that major corporations with comparatively smaller workforces, those located in North America, and those having in their top management teams more than 20% women, tend to report more on neurodiversity practices as compared to their counterparts.Originality/valueOur study reports the first empirical attempt to explore the research field of deep-level diversity reporting, specifically the way in which the top leading companies report on their neurodiversity-related practices.

Keywords: Neurodiversity; CSR reporting; ESG reporting; Diversity washing; Top companies (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2026
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eme:srjpps:srj-12-2024-0868

DOI: 10.1108/SRJ-12-2024-0868

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