COMPANY CHARACTERISTICS
IMPACTING ON DISCLOSING OF CSR
INFORMATION
Hanna Arhe
CSR AND CSR REPORTING
CSR
CSR REPORTING
• A way to inform stakeholders about companies’ CSR activities
and investments for CSR issues
• Increasing stakeholder interest in ethical issues of business
and production
 Trend towards reporting more about environmental and social
aspects of business
• Benefits:
•
•
•
•
•
Company image and reputation
Employee motivation, retention and recruitment
Cost savings
Positive effects on sales and market share
CSR-related risk reduction or management
• Frameworks (e.g. Global Reporting Initiative (GRI))
• Differencies between companies’ practices in CSR disclosing
RESEARCH QUESTIONS
• How can a design framework for analysing CSR disclosing be
created?
• Do the company characteristics contribute on CSR reporting
practices?
• Are there differences between service sector and industrial sector?
DESIGN FRAMEWORK FOR CSR
REPORTING
DATA AND HYPOTHESES
DATA
HYPOTHESES
• 50 biggest Finnish companies in 2013
(Talouselämä)
• Hypotheses are formed based on earlier academic
literature
• Data consists of CSR data and company data
• Company characteristics are collected on company
websites and search engines on the Internet
• CSR information is gathered through annual reports,
CSR reports and sustainability reports
• H1: Visibility affects to CSR disclosing
• H2: Firm profitability has an effect on CSR disclosing
• H3: Amount of shareholders is related to CSR disclosing
• H4: Firm size is affecting to CSR disclosing
• H5: Industry membership affects to CSR disclosing
METHODOLOGY
5 VARIABLES DESCRIBING CSR REPORTING
• CSRREP1 and CSRREP2 (CSR reports)
• ENVIR, SOC and SUMWOR (Amount of keywords)
CONTENT ANALYSIS
• Abdolmohammadi (2005): “The main premise of the
content analysis is that the frequency with which a unit
of analysis appears in a text indicates the importance of
the unit”
• Unit of analysis in this thesis is term
• Based on GRI (G3) indicators
CORRELATION ANALYSIS
• Relation between company characteristics and
CSR reporting
• Testing various samples:
1. Total sample
2. Total sample excluding financing sector
3. Industrial companies
4. Service companies
5. Service companies excluding financial sector
RESULTS
kaup1
kaup2
csrrep1 0.2754 0.0581
csrep2 0.2964 0.0407 0.2984 0.0393
7
7
0.3149
0.0373
envir
3
0.3193
0.0346
soc
9
0.3294
0.0290
sumwor
2
kaup2.1
VISIBILITY
kaup 2.2
kaup3
lex1
0.4811 0.0019 0.4604 0.0054 0.3018 0.0371 0.2463 0.0915 0.3862
2
9
7
1
3
0.4015
0.0138 0.3474
0.0476 0.3266
0.0305
0.3118
5
8
0
3
0.4626
0.0039 0.3917
0.0242 0.3213
0.0334 0.2738 0.0720 0.2638
9
1
2
7
8
0.4520
0.0050 0.3865
0.0263 0.3358
0.0258
0.2948
1
4
2
6
• According to correlation tables visibility, profitability, shareholder
structure, industry and firm size are related to CSR disclosing
(signifinact values)
• Without financing sector there are more indicators showing
correlation, especially profitability indicators
FIRM SIZE
lemp
lass
0.3468 0.0227 0.2677 0.0689
0.0096
-0.3520 0.0445 0.2600 0.0743 0.4542 0.0022
2
1
0.0501 0.3057 0.0698
0.4303
0.0035
0
6
0.0999
0.3909
0.0087
3
0.0647
0.4234
0.0042
lex2.2
PROFITABILITY SHAREHOLDER
prof
SHARE2
INDUSTRY
ind
8
roa
PROFITABILITY
margin
SHAREHOLDER
FIRM SIZE
prof
SHARE2
lemp
lass
0.25961 0.0969 0.45617 0.0076 0.45844 0.0020 0.55988 <.0001
0.28765 0.0647
0.55878 <.0001 0.54886 0.0001
0.32966 0.0433 0.37110 0.0398
0.58877 0.0001
0.29140 0.0719 0.32202 0.0456 0.37108 0.0200 0.42137 0.0163 0.27067 0.0956 0.61995 <.0001
0.31720 0.0821 0.18449 0.2675 0.59399 <.0001
FINDINGS
HYPOTHESES:
FINDINGS:
• H1: Visibility affects to CSR disclosing
• All the company indicators in this study correlate with CSR reporting
• Many signifcant indicators
• Correlation is not very strong, varying from 0,2463 to 0,4811
• H2: Firm profitability has an effect on CSR disclosing
• The correlation is relative weak
•
CSR reporting and firm characteristics are linked to each other
•
Any specifc characteristics impacting strongly CSR disclosing cannot be
distinguished
• Total sample: correlation 0,3057 (p-value 0,0698)
• Without financing sector: more correlations (range 0,25961 - 0,37108)
• H3: Amount of shareholders is related to CSR disclosing
• Without financing sector: significant correlations (range 0,31720 - 0,45617)
• H4: Firm size is affecting to CSR disclosing
• Correlation range: 0,2677 – 0,4542
• Excluding the financing sector: more significant and stronger correlations
(biggest correlation value 0,61995)
• H5: Industry membership affects to CSR disclosing
• Correlation range: 0,2600 - 0,4303
• Correlation analysis cannot be used for causal links, which means that
it cannot be argued which variable was the effect for the other variable
• There were differences (especally in profitability correlations) when
analysing total sample and sample excluding financing sector
•
The profitability measurements should be selected according to industry
sector
• Due to small sample the more in-depth industry categorisation is not
possible. In future, would be interesting to focus in one industry sector.
THANK YOU !
• Do you have any questions?