Referring to its components, the relevance of the information provided in the assessed reports is at the higher level than its credibility. The findings show that the quality level of the studied reports is generally low. In order to assess the quality of examined reports, the authors aggregated the indicators related with the reporting practices. The assessment questionnaire consists of seventeen criteria grouped into two categories (relevance and credibility of information). The authors have used a specific evaluation tool in the examination of the individual reports. The study included separate CSR reports as well as annual reports with CSR sections and integrated reports published in 2012 in six selected EU Member States.
The purpose of this article is to present the current state of CSR reporting practices in selected EU Member States and identify the differences in the quality and level of this kind of practices, taking into account the mandatory and voluntary model of disclosure. This paper is one of the first attempts to perform a quantitative and qualitative analysis of corporate sustainability reporting practices in several European Union countries. Differences also occur between reporting models used in different EU countries caused by, inter alia, differently applied EU legislation on the disclosure of non-financial information in different Member States. CSR reports do not always provide complete data that readers desire, which in turn intensifies the problem with the evaluation and comparison of the organization’s results achieved in this scope. Despite the increase in the number of such reports their quality is different. Today, we can observe a growing number of companies issuing such reports as a part of their annual reports or as stand-alone CSR reports. The organization may communicate its engagement in sustainability and may presents results achieved in this field by creating and publishing corporate social responsibility (CSR) reports. Changes in business surroundings has forced enterprises to widen the scope of their activities, pay more attention to company’s culture and ethics, and to respect the rights of others. In addition, a lack of unified measurement method relating to the level of goal achievement as well as difficulty in defining objectives in social responsibility activities were observed.Īnalysis of corporate social responsibility reports together with financial reports of modern Polish enterprises shows that obligation for economic effectiveness coexists with social responsibility of a business conduct. It is highly possible that different objectives constitute the biggest difficulty for business entities. It can be observed that the objectives and fulfillment criteria derived from corporate social responsibility idea are different from the objectives set by a business unit making rational decisions based on short-term profit. Concessive arguments include diversity of actions’ range and complexity of social responsible activities, as well as the quality of reports. In summary, the analysis of reports published by RESPECTIndex companies shows that awareness of corporate social responsibility in Poland is increasing. With regard to corporate social responsibility, actions described in reports were classified into one of four areas: business surroundings, employees, society and the natural environment. The qualitative analysis included all 23 companies that were present in RESPECTIndex since 2011 till 2014. Modern enterprises are important members of every society, which gives them privileges and creates obligations as well.
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Managers cannot treat an entity as independent unit separate from other participants of free market economy and from society. It is a manager of an enterprise to decide whether he wants an entity to comply with the rules and how he wants a company to fulfill the standards. Corporate social responsibility is a part of business doing and ethical standards of modern societies.