ECONOMIC AND REPORTING ASPECTS OF CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY

This dissertation aims to contribute to an ongoing discussion about the economic and reporting aspects of corporate social responsibility (CSR). The study includes three themes: (1) a review of different operationalisation and measurement approaches previously used in literature for determining the relationship between CSR and corporate financial performance (CFP), (2) an analysis of bidirectional effects between CSR and CFP at the level of overall CSR and separately for seven stakeholder groups and (3) an exploratory investigation research of voluntary CSR reporting practises. Chapter 1 includes the review of alternative operationalisations and measurement approaches for the CSR and CFP concepts that have been deployed in empirical literature concerned with the CSR–CFP relationship. The main objective of this review was to identify the advantages and drawbacks of these approaches. Alternative operationalisations of multidimensional construct CSR include: reputation indices, content analyses, questionnaire-based surveys and one-dimensional measures. As for CFP measures, they are measured using accounting-based measures, market-based measures or a combination of the two. The review has shown that there is no perfect measure of CSR and CFP since drawbacks have been identified for all measures. However, the problem of an adequate measurement approach is more evident for CSR construct since financial reporting has a long history and is largely standardized, while the development of CSR reports started more recently with a low level of standardization. Subjectivity of the researcher and selection bias have been identified as a common problem of most (if not all) approaches. Additionally, the use of reputation indices, content analysis and questionnaire-based surveys can be biased toward detecting a positive relationship. A potential solution for a significant part of drawbacks of CSR measurement approaches could be resolved with further CSR reporting standardization and making CSR reporting mandatory by law. Standardized CSR reports would resolve the problem of subjectivity in research, while mandatory disclosure would resolve the problem related to response bias. In chapter 2, the results of testing bidirectional effects between CSR and CFP at the level of overall CSR and separately for seven stakeholder groups on a sample of Croatian medium-sized and large-sized companies are presented. The results of quantitative analysis have shown that current CSR activities have positive effect on future profitability. Therefore, being socially responsible pays off in terms of profitability and costs of being socially responsible are lower than financial benefits of CSR. On the other side, results failed to confirm the posited positive effects of past profitability on current CSR. Therefore, current CSR is a driver of future profitability, but past profitability is not a driver of current CSR. Contrary to the results of quantitative analysis, interviews with company representatives indicated that profitability has a positive effect on CSR. At the stakeholder group level, results have shown positive effects of CSR activities toward transacting stakeholders (employees, customers, competitors) and natural environment and future generation as expected. However, positive effects for non-transacting stakeholders (NGOs and society) were also found although negative effects were expected. It looks like the activities toward non-transacting stakeholders are recognized by and incorporated into decisions of transacting stakeholders and in this way positive effects are realized. Another outcome of this research is the positive effect of stakeholder pressure on CSR activities toward all stakeholders taken together and on CSR activities toward all stakeholders separately. In chapter 3, voluntary CSR reporting practises have been investigated. Contingences of voluntary CSR reporting, content of reports, motives and challenges of CSR reporting have been investigated on a sample consisting of 94 voluntary reporting companies from Croatia, Slovenia and Serbia. Results indicate that larger companies are more prone to disclose CSR reports since such companies have the potential to affect, and be affected by a larger group of stakeholders. As for industry sector, companies operating in the manufacturing sector and financial and insurance activities sector are leading in CSR reporting. As for what is being reported, content analysis revealed that employees, customers, society (community), natural environment and suppliers are the most important stakeholders for companies since they are mostly represented in CSR reports. These stakeholders are all important for a company and without considering them while running a business the company’s future would be questionable. Content analysis also revealed that the content of reports could be determined by guidelines/standards implemented for CSR reports preparation. As for the motives for voluntary CSR reporting, building trust and informing stakeholders about the economic, social and environmental performance of the company and progress made are the most important. The main challenges that companies face while preparing CSR reports are related to data collection issues (including data verification, associated costs, collecting data from different stakeholders, etc.). Data on CSR issues are mostly non-financial, which makes them harder to collect and analyse. Overall, the study shows that CSR activities are beneficial also to the bottom line as CSR is positively related to financial performance. In order to manage CSR activities properly, companies need to dispose with relevant CSR information. It was observed that many companies report voluntarily but noted issues related to low standardization of CSR reporting. The current trend towards CSR reporting standardization and instating it as mandatory is likely to continue in the future.