Exploring the Link between Corporate Stakeholder Orientation and Quality of Corporate Social Responsibility Reporting

Abstract

Increased requests for transparent business operations as well as stakeholder pressures led to an increase in the number of corporate social responsibility (CSR) reports published by companies around the world. Still, the quality and quantity of these reports vary. As stakeholder orientation can be seen as a significant indicator of the quality of CSR reporting, the goal of this article is to explore the link between stakeholder orientation and quality of CSR reporting. Quality and stakeholder orientation were assessed from CSR reports retrieved from the GRI Database and from companies’ official websites. Stakeholder orientation index included an analysis of orientation towards shareholders, suppliers, employees, local community and customers. The empirical analysis was done on a sample of 69 companies from 10 European countries. Research results indicate a positive link between the level of corporate stakeholder orientation and the quality of CSR reporting as well as the variable shareholders and employees to have a statistically significant positive influence on the quality of CSR reporting. Additionally, characteristics and quality of current CSR reporting among sampled companies are presented.

Keywords

• corporate social responsibility
• stakeholder
• stakeholder orientation
• CSR reporting