Ownership Structure, Industry sector and Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) practices: The case of Swedish listed companies

Abstract

In recent times, CSR reporting has gained tremendous attention due to the impact of company activities to society. A company‟s CSR practices/performance may be influenced by its ownership structure and industry sector. In this paper, we intend to find out if the company‟s ownership structure and industry sector influence their CSR practices/performance. Using the GRI performance indicators as proxies for measuring CSR performance for 49 Swedish listed and government owned companies, we analyse the relationship between ownership structure, industry sector and CSR practices/performance in these companies. The results obtained indicate that some pro-CSR investors like the government and institutional investors put more pressure on the companies in which they invest to be more economically, environmentally and socially responsible. Furthermore, there was a relatively strong link between certain sectors (like Machinery, Oil and Gas, Real Estate, Pharmaceutical, Transportation, Building and construction, Energy) to certain environmental Performance Indicators. Again, there was a dispersed relationship between Industry sectors and some Economic and Social performance indicators since no set of activities could be conveniently linked to a particular sector.