IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/kap/jbuset/v146y2017i2d10.1007_s10551-017-3654-8.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Uncommitted Deliberation? Discussing Regulatory Gaps by Comparing GRI 3.1 to GRI 4.0 in a Political CSR Perspective

Author

Listed:
  • Rea Wagner

    (USI Lugano)

  • Peter Seele

    (USI Lugano)

Abstract

In this paper, we compare the two Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) reporting standards, G3.1, and the most current version G4.0. We do this through the lens of political corporate social responsibility (CSR) theory, which describes the broadened understanding of corporate responsibility in a globalized world building on Habermas’ notion of deliberative democracy and ethical discourse. As the regulatory power of nation states is fading, regulatory gaps occur as side effects of transnational business. As a result, corporations are also understood to play a “political role” to fill regulatory gaps and contribute to a global governance system by voluntarily engaging in self-regulation. Such corporate political action, however, is not always legitimate as it suffers from a democratic deficit (corporations/managers are not democratically elected or controlled). Consistent with scholars in the field of political CSR, this paper argues that only by means of communication and discourse can this drawback be avoided. That is why CSR reporting and guidelines for standardizing the disclosed CSR information is key for political CSR. By comparing the GRI standards from a political CSR perspective, one can see whether these often-used reporting guidelines fulfill the communicative requirements and whether they are adequate tools to face the challenges of the twenty-first century. We present results from a theory-derived and criteria-driven comparison of the two guidelines. Indication of the effectiveness of voluntary self-regulation is, for example, important considering the 2014 directive of the European Union to make CSR reporting mandatory. We offer a guideline-based view on current CSR theory as well as CSR reporting practice. We discuss implications for CSR theory, particularly the appropriateness of (idealized) deliberation in the Habermasian sense, which is the basis of political CSR theory. We do so by introducing the notion of “uncommitted deliberation” with regard to the refined concept of materiality in GRI 4.0, which induces subjectivity and reduces data-driven comparability. Finally, we address the limitations of this research as well as research questions for future studies.

Suggested Citation

  • Rea Wagner & Peter Seele, 2017. "Uncommitted Deliberation? Discussing Regulatory Gaps by Comparing GRI 3.1 to GRI 4.0 in a Political CSR Perspective," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 146(2), pages 333-351, December.
  • Handle: RePEc:kap:jbuset:v:146:y:2017:i:2:d:10.1007_s10551-017-3654-8
    DOI: 10.1007/s10551-017-3654-8
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s10551-017-3654-8
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s10551-017-3654-8?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.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Hess, David, 2007. "Social Reporting and New Governance Regulation: The Prospects of Achieving Corporate Accountability Through Transparency," Business Ethics Quarterly, Cambridge University Press, vol. 17(3), pages 453-476, July.
    2. Klaus Dingwerth & Margot Eichinger, 2010. "Tamed Transparency: How Information Disclosure under the Global Reporting Initiative Fails to Empower," Global Environmental Politics, MIT Press, vol. 10(3), pages 74-96, August.
    3. Friederike Schultz & Itziar Castelló & Mette Morsing, 2013. "The Construction of Corporate Social Responsibility in Network Societies: A Communication View," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 115(4), pages 681-692, July.
    4. 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.
    5. Scherer, Andreas Georg & Palazzo, Guido & Baumann, Dorothée, 2006. "Global Rules and Private Actors: Toward a New Role of the Transnational Corporation in Global Governance," Business Ethics Quarterly, Cambridge University Press, vol. 16(4), pages 505-532, October.
    6. Whelan, Glen, 2012. "The Political Perspective of Corporate Social Responsibility: A Critical Research Agenda," Business Ethics Quarterly, Cambridge University Press, vol. 22(4), pages 709-737, October.
    7. Hess, David, 2008. "The Three Pillars of Corporate Social Reporting as New Governance Regulation: Disclosure, Dialogue, and Development," Business Ethics Quarterly, Cambridge University Press, vol. 18(4), pages 447-482, October.
    8. Stephen Chen & Petra Bouvain, 2009. "Is Corporate Responsibility Converging? A Comparison of Corporate Responsibility Reporting in the USA, UK, Australia, and Germany," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 87(1), pages 299-317, April.
    9. Kolk, Ans, 2010. "Trajectories of sustainability reporting by MNCs," Journal of World Business, Elsevier, vol. 45(4), pages 367-374, October.
    10. Andreas Georg Scherer & Guido Palazzo, 2011. "The New Political Role of Business in a Globalized World: A Review of a New Perspective on CSR and its Implications for the Firm, Governance, and Democracy," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 48(4), pages 899-931, June.
    11. Kristy Hodge & Nava Subramaniam & Jenny Stewart, 2009. "Assurance of Sustainability Reports: Impact on Report Users' Confidence and Perceptions of Information Credibility," Australian Accounting Review, CPA Australia, vol. 19(3), pages 178-194, September.
    12. Dorothée Baumann-Pauly & Andreas Scherer, 2013. "The Organizational Implementation of Corporate Citizenship: An Assessment Tool and its Application at UN Global Compact Participants," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 117(1), pages 1-17, September.
    13. Guido Palazzo & Andreas Scherer, 2006. "Corporate Legitimacy as Deliberation: A Communicative Framework," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 66(1), pages 71-88, June.
    14. Mäkinen, Jukka & Kourula, Arno, 2012. "Pluralism in Political Corporate Social Responsibility," Business Ethics Quarterly, Cambridge University Press, vol. 22(4), pages 649-678, October.
    15. Renzo Junior & Peter Best & Julie Cotter, 2014. "Sustainability Reporting and Assurance: A Historical Analysis on a World-Wide Phenomenon," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 120(1), pages 1-11, March.
    16. Peter Seele & Lucia Gatti, 2017. "Greenwashing Revisited: In Search of a Typology and Accusation‐Based Definition Incorporating Legitimacy Strategies," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 26(2), pages 239-252, February.
    17. Mena, Sébastien & Palazzo, Guido, 2012. "Input and Output Legitimacy of Multi-Stakeholder Initiatives," Business Ethics Quarterly, Cambridge University Press, vol. 22(3), pages 527-556, July.
    18. Wettstein, Florian, 2010. "For Better or For Worse: Corporate Responsibility Beyond “Do No Harm”," Business Ethics Quarterly, Cambridge University Press, vol. 20(2), pages 275-283, April.
    19. Frank Hond & Kathleen A. Rehbein & Frank G. A. Bakker & Hilde Kooijmans-van Lankveld, 2014. "Playing on Two Chessboards: Reputation Effects between Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and Corporate Political Activity (CPA)," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 51(5), pages 790-813, July.
    20. Marta Cominetti & Peter Seele, 2016. "Hard soft law or soft hard law? A content analysis of CSR guidelines typologized along hybrid legal status," Sustainability Nexus Forum, Springer, vol. 24(2), pages 127-140, November.
    21. Stefan Schaltegger & Marcus Wagner, 2006. "Integrative management of sustainability performance, measurement and reporting," International Journal of Accounting, Auditing and Performance Evaluation, Inderscience Enterprises Ltd, vol. 3(1), pages 1-19.
    22. David Wheeler & John Elkington, 2001. "The end of the corporate environmental report? Or the advent of cybernetic sustainability reporting and communication," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 10(1), pages 1-14, January.
    23. Ans Kolk, 2008. "Sustainability, accountability and corporate governance: exploring multinationals' reporting practices," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 17(1), pages 1-15, January.
    24. Oosterhout, J. (Hans) van, 2010. "The Role of Corporations in Shaping the Global Rules of the Game: In Search of New Foundations," Business Ethics Quarterly, Cambridge University Press, vol. 20(2), pages 253-264, April.
    25. Ulrich Mueckenberger & Sarah Jastram, 2010. "Transnational Norm-Building Networks and the Legitimacy of Corporate Social Responsibility Standards," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 97(2), pages 223-239, December.
    26. 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)

    Citations

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


    Cited by:

    1. Michael S. Aßländer & Tobias Gössling, 2017. "Thematic Symposium: Business Ethics, Peace and Environmental Issues (T0004)," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 146(2), pages 255-256, December.
    2. Tsalis, Thomas A. & Nikolaou, Ioannis E. & Konstantakopoulou, Fotini & Zhang, Ying & Evangelinos, Konstantinos I., 2020. "Evaluating the corporate environmental profile by analyzing corporate social responsibility reports," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 66(C), pages 63-75.
    3. Stephanie Schrage & Dirk Ulrich Gilbert, 2021. "Addressing Governance Gaps in Global Value Chains: Introducing a Systematic Typology," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 170(4), pages 657-672, May.
    4. Nicolas Garcia‐Torea & Belen Fernandez‐Feijoo & Marta De La Cuesta, 2020. "CSR reporting communication: Defective reporting models or misapplication?," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 27(2), pages 952-968, March.
    5. Kouassi Marius Honoré Aké & Olivier Boiral, 2023. "Sustainable development and stakeholder engagement in the agri‐food sector: Exploring the nexus between biodiversity conservation and information technology," Sustainable Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 31(1), pages 334-348, February.
    6. Md. Abdul Kaium Masud & Mohammad Sharif Hossain & Jong Dae Kim, 2018. "Is Green Regulation Effective or a Failure: Comparative Analysis between Bangladesh Bank (BB) Green Guidelines and Global Reporting Initiative Guidelines," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(4), pages 1-19, April.
    7. Lucia Gatti & Peter Seele & Lars Rademacher, 2019. "Grey zone in – greenwash out. A review of greenwashing research and implications for the voluntary-mandatory transition of CSR," International Journal of Corporate Social Responsibility, Springer, vol. 4(1), pages 1-15, December.
    8. Khan, Zaheer & Zeng, Jing & Knight, Gary & Rajwani, Tazeeb & Pattnaik, Chinmay, 2023. "Non-market strategies and disruptive innovation in the platform economy," Journal of International Management, Elsevier, vol. 29(5).
    9. Harald Strotmann & Jürgen Volkert & Melinda Schmidt, 2019. "Multinational companies: can they foster well-being in the eyes of the poor? Results from an empirical case study," International Journal of Corporate Social Responsibility, Springer, vol. 4(1), pages 1-14, December.
    10. Federico Galán-Valdivieso & Laura Saraite-Sariene & Juana Alonso-Cañadas & María del Carmen Caba-Pérez, 2019. "Do Corporate Carbon Policies Enhance Legitimacy? A Social Media Perspective," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(4), pages 1-23, February.
    11. 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.
    12. Seong Mi Bae & Md. Abdul Kaium Masud & Jong Dae Kim, 2018. "A Cross-Country Investigation of Corporate Governance and Corporate Sustainability Disclosure: A Signaling Theory Perspective," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(8), pages 1-16, July.
    13. Muhammad Kamran Khalid & Mujtaba Hassan Agha & Syed Tasweer Hussain Shah & Muhammad Naseer Akhtar, 2020. "Conceptualizing Audit Fatigue in the Context of Sustainable Supply Chains," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(21), pages 1-11, November.

    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. Peter Seele & Irina Lock, 2015. "Instrumental and/or Deliberative? A Typology of CSR Communication Tools," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 131(2), pages 401-414, October.
    2. Laurence Vigneau & Michael Humphreys & Jeremy Moon, 2015. "How Do Firms Comply with International Sustainability Standards? Processes and Consequences of Adopting the Global Reporting Initiative," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 131(2), pages 469-486, October.
    3. Maria Ehrnström-Fuentes & Steffen Böhm, 2023. "The Political Ontology of Corporate Social Responsibility: Obscuring the Pluriverse in Place," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 185(2), pages 245-261, June.
    4. Verena Girschik, 2020. "Managing Legitimacy in Business‐Driven Social Change: The Role of Relational Work," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 57(4), pages 775-804, June.
    5. Judith Schrempf-Stirling, 2018. "State Power: Rethinking the Role of the State in Political Corporate Social Responsibility," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 150(1), pages 1-14, June.
    6. Martin Fougère & Nikodemus Solitander, 2020. "Dissent in Consensusland: An Agonistic Problematization of Multi-stakeholder Governance," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 164(4), pages 683-699, July.
    7. Pasi Heikkurinen & Jukka Mäkinen, 2018. "Synthesising Corporate Responsibility on Organisational and Societal Levels of Analysis: An Integrative Perspective," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 149(3), pages 589-607, May.
    8. Sandra Moog & André Spicer & Steffen Böhm, 2015. "The Politics of Multi-Stakeholder Initiatives: The Crisis of the Forest Stewardship Council," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 128(3), pages 469-493, May.
    9. Gastón de los Reyes & Markus Scholz, 2023. "Assessing the Legitimacy of Corporate Political Activity: Uber and the Quest for Responsible Innovation," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 184(1), pages 51-69, April.
    10. Pies, Ingo & Hielscher, Stefan, 2014. "Miteinander oder Gegeneinander? Zur Verhältnisbestimmung von Unternehmen und zivilgesellschaftlichen Organisationen," Discussion Papers 2014-3, Martin Luther University of Halle-Wittenberg, Chair of Economic Ethics.
    11. Christopher Wickert & Arjen Witteloostuijn, 2023. "Taking the P in political corporate social responsibility seriously," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 54(5), pages 928-937, July.
    12. Julia Rotter & Peppi-Emilia Airike & Cecilia Mark-Herbert, 2014. "Exploring Political Corporate Social Responsibility in Global Supply Chains," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 125(4), pages 581-599, December.
    13. Andrew Crane & Sarah Glozer, 2016. "Researching Corporate Social Responsibility Communication: Themes, Opportunities and Challenges," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 53(7), pages 1223-1252, November.
    14. Thomas M Maak & Nicola M Pless & Christian Voegtlin, 2016. "Business Statesman or Shareholder Advocate? CEO Responsible Leadership Styles and the Micro-Foundations of Political CSR," Post-Print hal-01480535, HAL.
    15. Buhmann, Alexander & Fieseler, Christian, 2021. "Towards a deliberative framework for responsible innovation in artificial intelligence," Technology in Society, Elsevier, vol. 64(C).
    16. Marie-Laure Salles-Djelic & Helen Etchanchu, 2015. "Contextualizing Corporate Political Responsibilities: Neoliberal CSR in Historical Perspective," SciencePo Working papers Main hal-01891961, HAL.
    17. Barkemeyer, Ralf & Preuss, Lutz & Lee, Lindsay, 2015. "On the effectiveness of private transnational governance regimes—Evaluating corporate sustainability reporting according to the Global Reporting Initiative," Journal of World Business, Elsevier, vol. 50(2), pages 312-325.
    18. Araya, Helena Maria Bollas & Mas, Elies Segui & Garrido, Fernando Polo, 2015. "Assurance on sustainability reports in the agri-food industry," Revista Espanola de Estudios Agrosociales y Pesqueros, Ministerio de Medio Ambiente, Rural y Marino (formerly Ministry of Agriculture), issue 242.
    19. José Luis Vázquez-Burguete & Oscar Licandro & Luis Camilo Ortigueira-Sánchez & Patricia Correa, 2024. "Do Enterprises That Publish Sustainability Reports Have a Better Developed Environmental Responsibility and Are They More Transparent?," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(14), pages 1-21, July.
    20. Anna-Lena Maier, 2021. "Political corporate social responsibility in authoritarian contexts," Journal of International Business Policy, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 4(4), pages 476-495, December.

    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:kap:jbuset:v:146:y:2017:i:2:d:10.1007_s10551-017-3654-8. 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: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.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.