Internal organisational factors influencing voluntary CSR disclosure -The case of three Swedish state-owned companies

Abstract

Background and research issue: Due to an increased stakeholder awareness about sustainability issues, companies face tougher demands from various groups within society to take corporate social responsibility (CSR) for how their actions impact society. To legitimate company actions, there has been an increase in voluntary CSR disclosures made by companies. Research focusing on voluntary CSR disclosure has attempted to explain how and why the extent and nature of reporting differs between companies. The explanatory factors have until recent been external, but recent studies have discovered that internal contextual factors also have a significant influence on the voluntary CSR disclosure. The Swedish Government have recently imposed requirements on state-owned companies to report according to the GRI-principles starting with the accounting year of 2008. The research issue of this study is to determine what internal contextual factors influence the nature and extent of the voluntary CSR disclosure in Swedish state-owned companies. Purpose: The purpose of the study is to explore and analyse the influence of the internal contextual factors on the voluntary CSR disclosure practices in the annual reports or standalone reports produced by state-owned companies in Sweden. Specifically, the study provides insight to the reporting processes and corporate attitudes impacting the voluntary disclosure in the accounting report. Delimitations: The study is limited to only examine Swedish state-owned companies and their annual report and/or sustainability report for the accounting year of 2007. Methodology: An explorative study is used to investigate the research issue. By conducting primary data through semi-structured personal interviews, the companies’ internal processes and attitudes can be analysed. Empirical results and conclusion: The main conclusion of this study is that the internal contextual factors deriving from reporting processes and corporate attitudes have a significant influence on the voluntary CSR disclosures in the annual reports and stand-alone reports of the three Swedish state-owned companies researched. Suggestions for further research: Further research could extent the scope of this study, having a larger sample of companies and focus on the quality and type of information disclosed using a content analysis in order to also explain the extensiveness, quality, quantity and completeness of reporting.