The road to verifiability - A case study of Volvo Cars’ Corporate Citizenship reports

Abstract

Background and research issue: The concept of Corporate Social Responsibility, CSR, has evolved since the 1950’s and is a debated subject. CSR reporting is voluntary for companies but is becoming increasingly common. Because there are no accepted standards there has recently been a growing demand for developing and promoting standardised methods for producing and verifying CSR reports. In order for a CSR report to be verifiable it has to be valid, controllable and consistent. Purpose: The purpose of this thesis is to investigate the verifiability of a CSR report in order to find out if the report is useful and could be audited in a possible future when more requirements of the reports have been set. The purpose is further to gain an understanding of a company’s reason to produce a CSR report. Delimitations: This thesis aims at thoroughly investigate the verifiability of a CSR report and therefore focuses on one company, Volvo Cars, and the company’s printed CSR reports for the years 2000 to 2003. Methodology: This thesis is a qualitative study with its main focus on Volvo Cars’ CSR reports, examined with the help of a model for analysis. A complementary interview was conducted with the responsible manager at Volvo Cars. Results and conclusion: The opinions of standardisation and audit of CSR reports differ greatly but the research shows that standardisation increases. The main reason for Volvo Cars to produce a CSR report is to inform stakeholder of the company’s work with CSR and to strengthen the brand. There are great differences between the reports concerning validity, controllability and consistency. The analysis shows that only the 2003 report can be considered verifiable. Suggestions for further research: The main question of this thesis could also be answered by conducting a larger comparative study in order to draw a more general conclusion on the verifiability of CSR reports.