Get 20M+ Full-Text Papers For Less Than $1.50/day. Start a 14-Day Trial for You or Your Team.

Learn More →

Determinants of voluntary CSR disclosure: empirical evidence from Germany

Determinants of voluntary CSR disclosure: empirical evidence from Germany Currently, companies spend a great deal of effort on Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) disclosures. CSR disclosure relates to the provision of information on companies’ environmental and social performance. From an economic perspective, companies might disclose this information to avoid or decrease potential political costs. We construct a CSR disclosure index based on the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) guidelines. Using content analysis, we analyze 130 listed German companies’ CSR disclosures (470 firm-year observations) to investigate the determinants of these voluntary disclosure activities. Our results show that, consistent with the political cost theory, German companies’ disclosures of all CSR issues are affected by their visibility, shareholder structure, and relationship with their US stakeholders. In addition, higher profitability is associated with more environmental disclosures. Finally, size and industry membership affect the amount of CSR disclosure. http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Review of Managerial Science Springer Journals

Determinants of voluntary CSR disclosure: empirical evidence from Germany

Loading next page...
 
/lp/springer-journals/determinants-of-voluntary-csr-disclosure-empirical-evidence-from-co0vX0hMT1

References (116)

Publisher
Springer Journals
Copyright
Copyright © 2010 by The Author(s)
Subject
Business and Management; Business and Management, general; Accounting/Auditing; Banking; Marketing; Business Strategy/Leadership
ISSN
1863-6683
eISSN
1863-6691
DOI
10.1007/s11846-010-0052-3
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

Currently, companies spend a great deal of effort on Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) disclosures. CSR disclosure relates to the provision of information on companies’ environmental and social performance. From an economic perspective, companies might disclose this information to avoid or decrease potential political costs. We construct a CSR disclosure index based on the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) guidelines. Using content analysis, we analyze 130 listed German companies’ CSR disclosures (470 firm-year observations) to investigate the determinants of these voluntary disclosure activities. Our results show that, consistent with the political cost theory, German companies’ disclosures of all CSR issues are affected by their visibility, shareholder structure, and relationship with their US stakeholders. In addition, higher profitability is associated with more environmental disclosures. Finally, size and industry membership affect the amount of CSR disclosure.

Journal

Review of Managerial ScienceSpringer Journals

Published: Nov 5, 2010

There are no references for this article.