The influence of stakeholder engagement on the quality of CSR reports
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2016-07-11
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en
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Abstract
The quality of corporate social responsibility (CSR) reports has been taken into question because of its voluntary nature. The lack of regulation and monitoring of CSR reporting and involvement of stakeholders, and the recent environmental and social corporate scandals have raised questions about the quality and credibility of sustainability reports, which has led to increased stakeholder pressure. This study expects that stakeholders engagement changes companies’ behaviors and positively affects the quality of sustainability reports. Using a sample of 91 Dutch companies that published CSR reports between 2012 and 2015, linear regression analysis is done to examine to which extent stakeholder engagement influences the disclosure quality of CSR. Data from the Transparency Benchmark and the Sustainability Disclosure Database are used as proxies for stakeholder engagement and the quality of CSR reports. The results support the hypothesis, suggesting that stakeholder engagement positively affects the quality of sustainability reports. The results also show that external assurance positively influences CSR reporting quality, and results indicated that listed firms have a higher quality CSR report than unlisted firms. This study extents current literature, since there is a lack of empirical evidence supporting the examined assumption, and distinguishes itself for explaining results by using theories.
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Faculteit der Managementwetenschappen