The Growing Importance Of Integrated Reporting For Corporate Social Responsibility

The recent scandal of Volkswagen AG has demonstrated one of the weaknesses of Corporate Social Responsibility–how much people can trust CSR reporting. At a time when CSR is moving from voluntary initiative to a required component for businesses in many countries, sustainability and the environmental standards of Environmental/Social/Governmental CSR have gained importance because there are existing regulations, especially in the emissions area. However, this focus has meant that CSR reporting can lack strategic focus and neglect profit reporting. This paper will briefly describe the ethical and stakeholder theories that underlie CSR, the importance of CSR and the consumer response to CSR based on the current Cone, LLC consumer research on CSR. It will then describe the current reporting organizations and the current CSR focus of different companies and the value of adopting integrative reporting. As the number of organizations that act as third-party assessors and that announce awards for being social responsible grows, the fact that there is an Integrated model on the horizon may be the solution to standardizing what is meant by being socially responsible and ensuring that the consumers’ belief in the importance of CSR is translated into performance in reporting.