University of Vaasa - Vaasan yliopisto

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14001 and the GRI guideline 7 are completely voluntary self-regulation for
information disclosure. Therefore my assumption in this paper is that CSR is a
voluntary based action to build institutions which reduce the information costs of
stakeholders.
In sum, this paper discusses about
1. whether a company reduces the information costs on a voluntary basis (it
must not start as a voluntary action),
2. whether this transition made the relationship change (it does not mean
friendly),
3. and whether this change is permanent.
Case study
Debate about Social Responsibility in both Countries
How did social responsibility in both countries look like before CSR started to
develop? Japan and Germany’s social responsibility was oriented by compliance and
corporate citizenship. Especially strong influence of compliance was a significant
deference in Anglo-Saxon CSR and that of Japan and Germany. This was affected by
the political institution of these countries. Jerfrey Broadent and Yoshito Ishio
described Japan’s policy system as an ‘embedded broker’. The government exercises
much weaker formal regulatory control over companies, but it engages and “guides”
companies in more subtle ways. Through such networks and mutual trust the
Japanese government has provided business with guidance that allowed coordinating
collective efforts. Companies in trusted the government to absorb their concerns and
give good collective guidance based on it. The Shingikai (Advisory Council) Method
is a typical Japanese way of group decision making. To avoid open confrontation
ministries organise their Shingikai to which they invite key interest groups and
opinion leaders with the purpose of according to special provisions of relevant laws.
However, there has been criticism of this ‘closed’ method, because, according to
Suda and Nakamura, the selection and nominations of committee members are up to
the discretion of government (Imura 2005). In Japan, thus, the state has actively
engaged in the market. There has been considerable deregulation in Japan following
the American example. Yet, government continues to play (or try to play) an
important role in many economic areas negotiating with industry over how to address
various policy concerns. This is true in the environmental realm as well (Schreurs
2003).
The European countries including Germany traditionally try to regulate companies
through legislation. Typically it enacted direct regulations. Social Market Economies
influences unemployment, health, and environmental policy choices in Germany.
Germany has not embraced deregulation in the way the USA has. Instead, taxes
remain high and government regulations to tame market forces to promote social
equality and environmental protection are generally accepted even through the cost
of doing this is straining the government’s budget and raising some concerns about
7 The GRI guideline is a de facto standard on responsible reporting produced by the Global Reporting Initiative.