NDLI: The Supply of Corporate Social Responsibility Disclosures Among U.S. Firms

Content Provider	Springer Nature Link
Author	Holder Webb, Lori Cohen, Jeffrey R. Nath, Leda Wood, David
Copyright Year	2008
Abstract	Corporate social responsibility (CSR) is a dramatically expanding area of activity for managers and academics. Consumer demand for responsibly produced and fair trade goods is swelling, resulting in increased demands for CSR activity and information. Assets under professional management and invested with a social responsibility focus have also grown dramatically over the last 10 years. Investors choosing social responsibility investment strategies require access to information not provided through traditional financial statements and analyses. At the same time, a group of mainstream institutional investors has encouraged a movement to incorporate environmental, social, and governance information into equity analysis, and multi-stakeholder groups have supported enhanced business reporting on these issues. The majority of research in this area has been performed on European and Australian firms. We expand on this literature by exploring the CSR disclosure practices of a size- and industry-stratified sample of 50 publicly traded U.S. firms, performing a content analysis on the complete identifiable public information portfolio provided by these firms during 2004. CSR activity was disclosed by most firms in the sample, and was included in nearly half of public disclosures made during that year by the sample firms. Areas of particular emphasis are community matters, health and safety, diversity and human resources (HR) matters, and environmental programs. The primary venues of disclosure are mass media releases such as corporate websites and press releases, followed closely by disclosures contained in mandatory filings. Consistent with prior research, we identify industry effects in terms of content, emphasis, and reporting format choices. Unlike prior research, we can offer only mixed evidence on the existence of a size effect. The disclosure frequency and emphasis is significantly different for the largest one-fifth of the firms, but no identifiable trends are present within the rest of the sample. There are, however, identifiable size effects with respect to reporting format choice. Use of websites is positively related to firm size, while the use of mandatory filings is negatively related to firm size. Finally, and also consistent with prior literature, we document a generally self-laudatory tone in the content of CSR disclosures for the sample firms.
Starting Page	497
Ending Page	527
Page Count	31
File Format	PDF
ISSN	01674544
Journal	Journal of Business Ethics
Volume Number	84
Issue Number	4
e-ISSN	15730697
Language	English
Publisher	Springer Netherlands
Publisher Date	2008-03-29
Publisher Place	Dordrecht
Access Restriction	One Nation One Subscription (ONOS)
Subject Keyword	corporate disclosure non-financial information corporate social responsibility reporting content analysis Quality of Life Research Management/Business for Professionals Economic Growth Ethics
Content Type	Text
Resource Type	Article
Subject	Arts and Humanities Business and International Management Law Economics and Econometrics

Sl.	Authority	Responsibilities	Communication Details
1	Ministry of Education (GoI), Department of Higher Education	Sanctioning Authority	https://www.education.gov.in/ict-initiatives
2	Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur	Host Institute of the Project: The host institute of the project is responsible for providing infrastructure support and hosting the project	https://www.iitkgp.ac.in
3	National Digital Library of India Office, Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur	The administrative and infrastructural headquarters of the project	Dr. B. Sutradhar bsutra@ndl.gov.in
4	Project PI / Joint PI	Principal Investigator and Joint Principal Investigators of the project	Dr. B. Sutradhar bsutra@ndl.gov.in Prof. Saswat Chakrabarti will be added soon
5	Website/Portal (Helpdesk)	Queries regarding NDLI and its services	support@ndl.gov.in
6	Contents and Copyright Issues	Queries related to content curation and copyright issues	content@ndl.gov.in
7	National Digital Library of India Club (NDLI Club)	Queries related to NDLI Club formation, support, user awareness program, seminar/symposium, collaboration, social media, promotion, and outreach	clubsupport@ndl.gov.in
8	Digital Preservation Centre (DPC)	Assistance with digitizing and archiving copyright-free printed books	dpc@ndl.gov.in
9	IDR Setup or Support	Queries related to establishment and support of Institutional Digital Repository (IDR) and IDR workshops	idr@ndl.gov.in

A Survey of Governance Disclosures Among U.S. Firms

Determinants of Corporate Social Responsibility Disclosure Ratings by Spanish Listed Firms

Corporate Governance and Corporate Social Responsibility Disclosures: Evidence from an Emerging Economy

Corporate Social Responsibility and Financial Disclosures: An Alternative Explanation for Increased Disclosure

Corporate Governance and the Responsibility of the Board of Directors for Strategic Financial Reporting

Corporate Social Responsibility Reporting: A Content Analysis in Family and Non-family Firms

The Evolution of Corporate Social Reporting Practices in Mexico

Multinational Firms’ Leadership Role in Corporate Social Responsibility in Latin America

Corporate Social Responsibility and Credit Ratings

The Supply of Corporate Social Responsibility Disclosures Among U.S. Firms

Similar Documents

A Survey of Governance Disclosures Among U.S. Firms

Determinants of Corporate Social Responsibility Disclosure Ratings by Spanish Listed Firms

Corporate Governance and Corporate Social Responsibility Disclosures: Evidence from an Emerging Economy

Corporate Social Responsibility and Financial Disclosures: An Alternative Explanation for Increased Disclosure

Corporate Governance and the Responsibility of the Board of Directors for Strategic Financial Reporting

Corporate Social Responsibility Reporting: A Content Analysis in Family and Non-family Firms

The Evolution of Corporate Social Reporting Practices in Mexico

Multinational Firms’ Leadership Role in Corporate Social Responsibility in Latin America

Corporate Social Responsibility and Credit Ratings

The Supply of Corporate Social Responsibility Disclosures Among U.S. Firms