The regulation of transparency in the field of CSR

Franck Aggeri () and Morgane Le Breton ()
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Franck Aggeri: CGS i3 - Centre de Gestion Scientifique i3 - Mines Paris - PSL (École nationale supérieure des mines de Paris) - PSL - Université Paris Sciences et Lettres - I3 - Institut interdisciplinaire de l’innovation - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique
Morgane Le Breton: CGS i3 - Centre de Gestion Scientifique i3 - Mines Paris - PSL (École nationale supérieure des mines de Paris) - PSL - Université Paris Sciences et Lettres - I3 - Institut interdisciplinaire de l’innovation - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique

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Abstract: What does it mean for a corporation to be transparent in terms of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)? The search for transparency is presented as a key driver of a sustainability policies (Gray, 1992; Milne, Kearins, & Walton, 2006). Yet, transparency in practice – as it is materialized through standards – is far from transparency in principle. The gap between the ostensive and performative aspects of transparency have to be analyzed (Latour, 1984). In this paper, we propose to study practices and processes, i.e. the way in which transparency is materialized into specific instruments and technologies that currently govern corporate conducts: private CSR reporting standards. For that purpose, we analyze two widely diffused CSR corporate standards (the GRI and the CDP), stressing the shiftings between the original discourses on transparency of their promoters to their implementation into a set of tools and technologies. We highlight and discuss a risk of capture of transparency principles by the auditing profession who is at the forefront of such standards.

Keywords: CSR Disclosure; Standards; Audit; Transparency; Governmentality; Instrument; Management technology (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2016-07-06
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-acc
Note: View the original document on HAL open archive server: https://shs.hal.science/halshs-01368029v1
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Published in EGOS, Jul 2016, Naples, Italy

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