Research Of Corporate Social Responsibility Report

Research of Corporate Social Responsibility Report The recent fifteen years saw a dramatic increase of the corporate social responsibility (CSR) report. There were more than 3300 CSR reports in 2008 while the number of 2002 was less than 100. More and more companies especially some multinational corporations among the world are keen to proving the sustainability, in order to improve their corporate image and credibility (Adams, 2002). This essay will explain why there are an increasing number of companies are willing to make CSR report annually, and discuss whether reporting on social and environmental activities is equal to good social and environmental performance in reality. The system-oriented theory provides a way to consider the†¦show more content†¦For example, the increase of environmental disclosure in recent 20 years can be understood as an attempt to make profits by responding to environmental groups (Gray et al.). In fact, the regulations are changing all the time, so the companies are required to respond to the society continually. The legitimacy is a condition that an entity s value is agreeing with the value of the social system where the entity is an element (Lindblom, 1993). Legitimacy is so important that the entity s survival can rely on it (Dowling and Pfeffer, 1975). Furthermore, it is what the society knows about the company shapes its legitimacy rather than the real conduct done by the company. The information disclosed is significant to establish corporate legitimacy. An entity may deviate significantly from the social standards but still remain legitimacy because the difference is unobserved (Suchman, 1995). Social contract is the base of legitimacy theory, which exists between the organization and the society. It represents the combination of many underlying and obvious expectations which the society has about how the entity is supposed to operate. Under this concept, the company s profit maximization can be achieved by proving multiple measures of organizational legitimacy (Ramanathan, 1976). Gray et al. (1995) did a review of UK CSR reports during 1979 to 1991, which shows that the focus and orientation of these disclosures are corresponding with the legitimacy