IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eme/jaarpp/v10y2009i3p176-207.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Formal corporate social responsibility reporting in Finnish listed companies

Author

Listed:
  • Ulla Kotonen

Abstract

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to analyse CSR reporting in large Finnish listed companies, focusing on the following questions: what kinds of motives and objectives appear behind CSR reporting, what kinds of documents are used in CSR reporting, and what kind of information related especially to CSR policy, stakeholders, as well as economic, social and environmental responsibilities, is presented? Finally, the idea is to compare large Finnish listed companies' CSR information with corresponding international results. Design/methodology/approach - The study is based on the analysis of qualitative data consisting of formal CSR reports, including annual reports and special CSR reports, of 2006. The empirical analyses are supplemented with interviews with four company representatives and with two auditors. The information of special CSR reports is analysed by using the content method. Findings - Companies understand responsibility as a duty to act responsibly towards their stakeholders and CSR reporting as a response to stakeholders' expectations and demands. The study indicates that especially corporate characteristics such as industry group and internationalization stage as well as general contextual factors such as social and cultural context affect voluntary CSR reporting. It shows that the large Finnish listed companies define corporate social responsibility as being based on Elkington's triple bottom line (TBL) model. In CSR reporting companies follow more or less GRI guidelines. Formal CSR information is presented based on the TBL model but companies emphasize different issues in their reporting. Research limitations/implications - First, the research is based on interpretative understanding and these kinds of analyses are always more or less subjective. Second, the analysis is based on CSR information produced by large Finnish listed companies. Thus, the study does not give an extensive description of the CSR reporting in all Finnish listed companies or in non‐listed companies. Third, the research is a cross‐sectional study based on CSR information published in one particular year. And fourth, the research data include only certain formal CSR information, not all CSR disclosures. Thereby, the analysis gives a snapshot or a glimpse of Finnish CSR reporting practices. The analysis does not tell anything about history, development or future of CSR reporting practices or anything about other kinds of CSR communication of the large Finnish listed companies. Thus, the reality reconstructed in the study must not be generalized, but used to understand CSR reporting in the context. Originality/value - The paper analyses CSR reporting in large Finnish listed companies, focusing on motives and objectives, documents used, and information related particularly to CSR policy, stakeholders, and economic, social and environmental responsibilities.

Suggested Citation

  • Ulla Kotonen, 2009. "Formal corporate social responsibility reporting in Finnish listed companies," Journal of Applied Accounting Research, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 10(3), pages 176-207, November.
  • Handle: RePEc:eme:jaarpp:v:10:y:2009:i:3:p:176-207
    DOI: 10.1108/09675420911006406
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/09675420911006406/full/html?utm_source=repec&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=repec
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers

    File URL: https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/09675420911006406/full/pdf?utm_source=repec&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=repec
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1108/09675420911006406?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Sohail Ahmad Javeed & Lin Lefen, 2019. "An Analysis of Corporate Social Responsibility and Firm Performance with Moderating Effects of CEO Power and Ownership Structure: A Case Study of the Manufacturing Sector of Pakistan," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(1), pages 1-25, January.
    2. Jolanta Maj, 2018. "Embedding Diversity in Sustainability Reporting," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(7), pages 1-18, July.
    3. Kansal, Monika & Joshi, Mahesh & Batra, Gurdip Singh, 2014. "Determinants of corporate social responsibility disclosures: Evidence from India," Advances in accounting, Elsevier, vol. 30(1), pages 217-229.
    4. Michel Coulmont & Sylvie Berthelot & Vincent Gagné, 2022. "Sustainability performance indicator trends: a Canadian industry-based analysis," International Journal of Corporate Social Responsibility, Springer, vol. 7(1), pages 1-17, December.
    5. Piotr Zientara, 2017. "Socioemotional Wealth and Corporate Social Responsibility: A Critical Analysis," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 144(1), pages 185-199, August.
    6. Zam Zuriyati Mohamad & Hatijah Mohamed Salleh & Nur Diyana Ismail & Ibrahim Tamby Chek, 2014. "Does Quality of Non-Financial Information Disclosure Influence Firms’ Profitability in Malaysia?," International Journal of Academic Research in Accounting, Finance and Management Sciences, Human Resource Management Academic Research Society, International Journal of Academic Research in Accounting, Finance and Management Sciences, vol. 4(4), pages 297-306, October.
    7. Garstecki Dawid & Kowalczyk Magdalena & Kwiecińska Karolina, 2019. "CSR Practices in Polish and Spanish Stock Listed Companies: A Comparative Analysis," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(4), pages 1-19, February.
    8. Colin Higgins & Markus Milne & Bernadine Gramberg, 2015. "The Uptake of Sustainability Reporting in Australia," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 129(2), pages 445-468, June.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eme:jaarpp:v:10:y:2009:i:3:p:176-207. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Emerald Support (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.