Corporate social responsibility reporting: A comprehensive picture?

Lies Bouten, Patricia Everaert, Luc Van Liedekerke, Lieven De Moor and Johan Christiaens

Accounting Forum, 2011, vol. 35, issue 3, 187-204

Abstract: This study develops a content analysis framework that provides information on the comprehensiveness of corporate social responsibility (CSR) reporting, an important aspect of social and environmental accountability. Comprehensive reporting, as defined here, requires three types of information for each disclosed CSR item: (i) vision and goals, (ii) management approach, and (iii) performance indicators. The feasibility of the framework to assess the comprehensiveness of CSR reporting is demonstrated using the 2005 annual reports of a sample of publicly traded Belgian companies. The content analysis reveals a low level of comprehensive reporting. This finding complements those of prior studies on the completeness of CSR reporting and, therefore, feeds the debate regarding the extent to which CSR reporting can be considered a mechanism for discharging social and environmental accountability.

Date: 2011
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (67)

Downloads: (external link)
http://hdl.handle.net/10.1016/j.accfor.2011.06.007 (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
Journal Article: Corporate social responsibility reporting: A comprehensive picture? (2011)
Working Paper: Corporate social responsibility reporting: A comprehensive picture? (2011)
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:taf:accfor:v:35:y:2011:i:3:p:187-204

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.tandfonline.com/pricing/journal/racc20

DOI: 10.1016/j.accfor.2011.06.007

Access Statistics for this article

Accounting Forum is currently edited by Carol Tilt

More articles in Accounting Forum from Taylor & Francis Journals
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Chris Longhurst ().