Sustainability Performance and CSR Disclosure: The Missing Link

Siyuan Seth Li, Marie-Claude Boudreau, Mark Huber and Richard T. Watson
Additional contact information
Siyuan Seth Li: Terry College of Business, University of Georgia, Athens, GA, USA
Marie-Claude Boudreau: Terry College of Business, University of Georgia, Athens, GA, USA
Mark Huber: Terry College of Business, University of Georgia, Athens, GA, USA
Richard T. Watson: Terry College of Business, University of Georgia, Athens, GA, USA

International Journal of Social Ecology and Sustainable Development (IJSESD), 2013, vol. 4, issue 2, 34-47

Abstract: Sustainability disclosure is a topic of great interest among academics and practitioners. As a key means of disclosing an organization’s sustainability information, the corporate social responsibility (CSR) report is adopted by most organizations nowadays. It also becomes an important information source for stakeholders. However, there is a concern that many stakeholders perceive CSR reports are reflections of the sustainability performance of organizations. This misunderstanding could lead to undesired outcomes (e.g., lower the expected risks than actual risks). In this study, the authors explore the relationship between organizations’ CSR disclosure and their sustainability performance. Their result shows that there is a significant relationship between an organizations’ sustainability performance and its sustainability disclosure level. At the same time, they observe many organizations that have inconsistent levels of sustainability performance and disclosure (e.g., good sustainability performance but low level of CSR disclosure). In order to a have comprehensive view of all possible scenarios, the authors propose four archetypes that categorize organizations according to their CSR disclosure levels and sustainability performances. Underpinning theories and rationales are discussed for each archetype.

Date: 2013
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://services.igi-global.com/resolvedoi/resolve. ... 018/jsesd.2013040103 (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:igg:jsesd0:v:4:y:2013:i:2:p:34-47

Access Statistics for this article

International Journal of Social Ecology and Sustainable Development (IJSESD) is currently edited by Elias G. Carayannis

More articles in International Journal of Social Ecology and Sustainable Development (IJSESD) from IGI Global
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Journal Editor ().