IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v12y2020i21p9075-d438314.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

CSR in Non-Large Public Interest Entities: Corporate Talk vs. Actions

Author

Listed:
  • Joanna Krasodomska

    (Department of Financial Accounting, Cracow University of Economics; Rakowicka, 27, 31-510 Krakow, Poland)

  • Justyna Godawska

    (Department of Economics, Finance and Environmental Management, AGH University of Science and Technology, Gramatyka 10, 30-067 Krakow, Poland)

Abstract

Smaller companies’ understanding of and attitude toward corporate social responsibility (CSR), both in terms of actions and disclosure, is distinct from that of other organizations, including large public interest entities (PIEs) that dominate the existing literature in the field. In this study, we examine the interdependencies between non-large PIEs’ CSR practices and disclosures with the use of the organizational hypocrisy concept as a theoretical lens. Our sample consists of 111 companies operating in Poland and pursuing 646 CSR-related practices in 2017. We perform content analysis of their websites using the disclosure index to assess the extent of their CSR disclosures. The total number of observations equals 1227. Both practices and disclosures are analyzed according to ISO 26000 standards. The relationship between the sample companies’ CSR talk and actions is analyzed by means of the Pearson coefficient. Our findings suggest that CSR practices and disclosures of non-large PIEs are loosely coupled. For the whole sample and for the non-SMEs (small and medium sized entities) subsample, the strongest association between the two was observed as regards the organizational governance area. As far as the SMEs are concerned, the statistically significant association between their CSR reporting and actions was identified for the environmental area. Our study contributes to the CSR literature, as it provides new insights into the relation between voluntary CSR talk and actions of non-large PIEs operating in a relatively unexplored setting.

Suggested Citation

  • Joanna Krasodomska & Justyna Godawska, 2020. "CSR in Non-Large Public Interest Entities: Corporate Talk vs. Actions," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(21), pages 1-19, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:12:y:2020:i:21:p:9075-:d:438314
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/12/21/9075/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/12/21/9075/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Frank Li & Taylor Morris & Brian Young, 2019. "The Effect of Corporate Visibility on Corporate Social Responsibility," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(13), pages 1-16, July.
    2. Waris Ali & Jedrzej George Frynas & Zeeshan Mahmood, 2017. "Determinants of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Disclosure in Developed and Developing Countries: A Literature Review," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 24(4), pages 273-294, July.
    3. She, Chaoyuan & Michelon, Giovanna, 2019. "Managing stakeholder perceptions: Organized hypocrisy in CSR disclosures on Facebook," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 61(C), pages 54-76.
    4. Edward Kassem & Oldrich Trenz, 2020. "Automated Sustainability Assessment System for Small and Medium Enterprises Reporting," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(14), pages 1-23, July.
    5. Matias Laine & Janne T. Järvinen & Timo Hyvönen & Hannele Kantola, 2017. "Ambiguity of financial environmental information," Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 30(3), pages 593-619, March.
    6. Xavier Giroud & Holger M. Mueller, 2011. "Corporate Governance, Product Market Competition, and Equity Prices," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 66(2), pages 563-600, April.
    7. David Murillo & Josep Lozano, 2006. "SMEs and CSR: An Approach to CSR in their Own Words," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 67(3), pages 227-240, September.
    8. Cristian Carini & Laura Rocca & Monica Veneziani & Claudio Teodori, 2018. "Ex-Ante Impact Assessment of Sustainability Information–The Directive 2014/95," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(2), pages 1-24, February.
    9. Elizabeth Stanny & Kirsten Ely, 2008. "Corporate environmental disclosures about the effects of climate change," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 15(6), pages 338-348, November.
    10. Laura Sierra-Garcia & Maria Antonia Garcia-Benau & Helena Maria Bollas-Araya, 2018. "Empirical Analysis of Non-Financial Reporting by Spanish Companies," Administrative Sciences, MDPI, vol. 8(3), pages 1-17, July.
    11. Lisa Koep, 2017. "Tensions in Aspirational CSR Communication—A Longitudinal Investigation of CSR Reporting," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 9(12), pages 1-28, November.
    12. Stephen Brammer & Stephen Pavelin, 2008. "Factors influencing the quality of corporate environmental disclosure," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 17(2), pages 120-136, February.
    13. Cho, Charles H. & Laine, Matias & Roberts, Robin W. & Rodrigue, Michelle, 2015. "Organized hypocrisy, organizational façades, and sustainability reporting," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 40(C), pages 78-94.
    14. Patrizia Gazzola & Roberta Pezzetti & Stefano Amelio & Daniele Grechi, 2020. "Non-Financial Information Disclosure in Italian Public Interest Companies: A Sustainability Reporting Perspective," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(15), pages 1-16, July.
    15. Christopher Wickert & Andreas Georg Scherer & Laura J. Spence, 2016. "Walking and Talking Corporate Social Responsibility: Implications of Firm Size and Organizational Cost," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 53(7), pages 1169-1196, November.
    16. Manuel Branco & Lúcia Rodrigues, 2008. "Factors Influencing Social Responsibility Disclosure by Portuguese Companies," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 83(4), pages 685-701, December.
    17. Łukasz Matuszak & Ewa Różańska, 2017. "CSR Disclosure in Polish-Listed Companies in the Light of Directive 2014/95/EU Requirements: Empirical Evidence," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 9(12), pages 1-18, December.
    18. Dorothée Baumann-Pauly & Christopher Wickert & Laura Spence & Andreas Scherer, 2013. "Organizing Corporate Social Responsibility in Small and Large Firms: Size Matters," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 115(4), pages 693-705, July.
    19. Andrea Venturelli & Fabio Caputo & Rossella Leopizzi & Simone Pizzi, 2018. "The state of art of corporate social disclosure before the introduction of non-financial reporting directive: a cross country analysis," Social Responsibility Journal, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 15(4), pages 409-423, December.
    20. Mădălina Dumitru & Justyna Dyduch & Raluca-Gina Gușe & Joanna Krasodomska, 2017. "Corporate Reporting Practices in Poland and Romania – An Ex-ante Study to the New Non-financial Reporting European Directive," Accounting in Europe, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 14(3), pages 279-304, September.
    21. Matthias S. Fifka, 2013. "Corporate Responsibility Reporting and its Determinants in Comparative Perspective – a Review of the Empirical Literature and a Meta‐analysis," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 22(1), pages 1-35, January.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. María Luisa Pajuelo Moreno & Teresa Duarte-Atoche, 2019. "Relationship between Sustainable Disclosure and Performance—An Extension of Ullmann’s Model," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(16), pages 1-33, August.
    2. Giorgio Mion & Cristian R. Loza Adaui, 2019. "Mandatory Nonfinancial Disclosure and Its Consequences on the Sustainability Reporting Quality of Italian and German Companies," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(17), pages 1-28, August.
    3. Cristian R. Loza Adaui, 2020. "Sustainability Reporting Quality of Peruvian Listed Companies and the Impact of Regulatory Requirements of Sustainability Disclosures," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(3), pages 1-22, February.
    4. Fabio Caputo & Rossella Leopizzi & Simone Pizzi & Virginia Milone, 2019. "The Non-Financial Reporting Harmonization in Europe: Evolutionary Pathways Related to the Transposition of the Directive 95/2014/EU within the Italian Context," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(1), pages 1-13, December.
    5. Cecília Carmo & Cristiana Ribeiro, 2022. "Mandatory Non-Financial Information Disclosure under European Directive 95/2014/EU: Evidence from Portuguese Listed Companies," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(8), pages 1-23, April.
    6. Giorgio Mion, 2020. "Organizations with Impact? A Study on Italian Benefit Corporations Reporting Practices and Reporting Quality," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(21), pages 1-21, October.
    7. Adriana Tiron-Tudor & Cristina Silvia Nistor & Cristina Alexandrina ªtefãnescu & Gianluca Zanellato, 2019. "Encompassing Non-Financial Reporting in A Coercive Framework for Enhancing Social Responsibility: Romanian Listed Companies’ Case," The AMFITEATRU ECONOMIC journal, Academy of Economic Studies - Bucharest, Romania, vol. 21(52), pages 590-590, August.
    8. Riccardo Torelli & Federica Balluchi & Katia Furlotti, 2020. "The materiality assessment and stakeholder engagement: A content analysis of sustainability reports," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 27(2), pages 470-484, March.
    9. Hina Ismail & Muhammad A. Saleem & Sadaf Zahra & Muhammad S. Tufail & Rao Akmal Ali, 2021. "Application of Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) Principles for Measuring Quality of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Disclosure: Evidence from Pakistan," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(20), pages 1-19, October.
    10. María Consuelo Pucheta‐Martínez & Isabel Gallego‐Álvarez, 2018. "Environmental reporting policy and corporate structures: An international analysis," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 25(5), pages 788-798, September.
    11. Balluchi, Federica & Lazzini, Arianna & Torelli, Riccardo, 2020. "Credibility of Environmental Issues in Non-Financial Mandatory Disclosure: Measurement and Determinants," OSF Preprints g73w5, Center for Open Science.
    12. Andrea Stübner & Svenja Jarchow, 2023. "Family oblige: the link between CSR and succession intention in small and medium family firms," Journal of Business Economics, Springer, vol. 93(3), pages 389-431, April.
    13. Grueso Gala, Melanie & Camisón Zornoza, César, 2022. "A bibliometric analysis of the literature on non-financial information reporting: Review of the research and network visualization," Cuadernos de Gestión, Universidad del País Vasco - Instituto de Economía Aplicada a la Empresa (IEAE).
    14. Hamed, Ruba Subhi & Al-Shattarat, Basiem Khalil & Al-Shattarat, Wasim Khalil & Hussainey, Khaled, 2022. "The impact of introducing new regulations on the quality of CSR reporting: Evidence from the UK," Journal of International Accounting, Auditing and Taxation, Elsevier, vol. 46(C).
    15. Ho-Tan-Phat Phan & Francesco De Luca & Lea Iaia, 2020. "The “Walk” towards the UN Sustainable Development Goals: Does Mandated “Talk” through NonFinancial Disclosure Affect Companies’ Financial Performance?," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(6), pages 1-20, March.
    16. Karaman, Abdullah S. & Orazalin, Nurlan & Uyar, Ali & Shahbaz, Muhammad, 2021. "CSR achievement, reporting, and assurance in the energy sector: Does economic development matter?," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 149(C).
    17. Waris Ali & Maha Faisal Alsayegh & Zubair Ahmad & Zeeshan Mahmood & Javed Iqbal, 2018. "The Relationship between Social Visibility and CSR Disclosure," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(3), pages 1-32, March.
    18. Adriana TIRON-TUDOR & Teodora Viorica FĂRCAŞ & Ioana DRAGU & Ecaterina Monica MOISE, 2020. "The Road to Transposing the Non-Financial Reporting EU Directive within the Romanian Context – The 2013-2020 Period," CECCAR Business Review, Body of Expert and Licensed Accountants of Romania (CECCAR), vol. 1(6), pages 63-72, June.
    19. Ewelina Zarzycka & Joanna Krasodomska, 2021. "Environmental key performance indicators: the role of regulations and stakeholder influence," Environment Systems and Decisions, Springer, vol. 41(4), pages 651-666, December.
    20. Waris Ali & Jedrzej George Frynas & Zeeshan Mahmood, 2017. "Determinants of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Disclosure in Developed and Developing Countries: A Literature Review," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 24(4), pages 273-294, July.

    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:gam:jsusta:v:12:y:2020:i:21:p:9075-:d:438314. 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.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with 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: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    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.