University of Vaasa - Vaasan yliopisto

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sufficiently informed only by backward looking or short-term oriented financial
information (Atkinson et al. 1997). Thus, CSR reporting is primarily concerned with
increasing transparency of corporate actions concerning social and environmental
issues (Nielsen, Thomson 2007).
Due to non-existend standards the content of CSR reports varies greatly (KPMG
2008) but is often structured according to the tripartite of economic, environmental
and social/societal issues. Additionally, often several reporting principles are applied
to guide decisions on the content of the report (e.g. materiality, stakeholder
inclusiveness, sustainability context, completeness (GRI 2006)), and the quality of
the report (e.g. balance, clarity, accuracy, timeliness, comparability, reliability (GRI
2006)). Although being one of the most influential pressure groups for more
transparency and CSR reporting, civil society stakeholders still act reserved in
regards of CSR reports, for several reasons (Pallenberg et al 2006, Brown et al 2009):
• lack of trust in company issued information which presents companies in a
good light
• low quality of the reports, due to uneven data quality and selective reporting
• selective choosing of reporting frameworks
• lack of specificity as CSR reports are general in nature, covering relevant
issues superficially
• too much focus on the reporting process than on the performance and impacts
of CSR activities
• lack of experience to properly assess the information provided in CSR reports
(NGOs are interested “in the strategies and plans behind the numbers”
(Brown et al 2009)).
These caveats materialize in companies having problems in recruiting NGOs for their
stakeholder engagement process (Pallenberg et al 2006). Furthermore, a survey of
CorporateRegister shows that primarily students, consultants and corporate CSR
professionals are interested in CSR reports (CorporateRegister 2008). In order to
meet those challenges and needs, “corporations need to develop an effective
mechanism for linking dialogue and control in practice by empowering the
stakeholders in a dialogue way that facilitates decision-making and auditing of both
sustainability processes and performance” (Gao, Zhang 2006). Looking ahead and in
order to show that the future developments needed in the field of CSR reporting are
already addressed in the scientific community the work of Morsing and Schultz on
CSR communication strategies (Morsing and Schultz 2006) as well as Isenmann in
regards of internet-based sustainability reporting (Isenmann 2005, 2004) are
presented.
Future trajectories for CSR reporting
Morsing and Schultz present a suiteable CSR communication strategies table which
underpins typical CSR reporting activities (Morsing, Schultz 2006):