Corporate social reporting in Irish financial institutions

Abstract

This paper proposes a four-state framework for measuring corporate social responsibility reporting and argues that TQM or excellent organisations should be in an advanced state of social responsiveness, and that this should be reflected in their reporting of such activities. A study of six Irish financial institutions is used to demonstrate the extent of social reporting in company annual reports and Web sites with a view to positioning them on the framework. Social reporting in the annual reports is compared with four European "best practice" financial institutions as well as the organisations' Web sites. Analysis shows that Irish banks are well behind the leading European banks with regard to the quality and quantity of social disclosure in their annual reports. It further shows that they disclose a greater volume of social information on their Web sites than in their annual reports. Reasons for such poor performance are attributed to the voluntary nature of social disclosure in Ireland.

Análisis de las memorias de sostenibilidad de la banca internacional

“…Si bien, en el sector bancario, como apuntan Orozco, Martínez & Boton (2012), existen investigaciones que se han encargado de la divulgación de la información sobre RSC, estas se han limitado a estudiar un país o entorno en particular (Douglas, Doris & Johnson, 2004;Castelo & Lima, 2006;Vázquez & análisis de las memorias de sostenibilidad de la banca internacional Vol. 6, No.…”

Developing a model corporate records management system for sustainability reporting: A case of the Iringa region in Tanzania

“…Many researchers investigating existing records management practices (e.g. Chinyemba and Ngulube 2005;Ndibalema 2001) and corporate social responsibility and sustainability strategies (Brady 2005;Douglas, Doris and Johnson 2004) in business organisations used the survey methods for data collection and analysis. Their data collection techniques included interviews, observations, questionnaires and scenario modelling.…”

CSR and indirect impacts of core business products/services of financial services institutions

“…A study on social disclosures in the annual reports of six Irish and four international banks by Douglas et al (2004) found that the Irish banks reported less information than the international banks. The social issues reported provided no quantifiable information, mainly addressed shareholders' concern, ignored issues such as public complaints received, legal challenges and employee satisfaction were considered 'at a fairly superficial level' [Douglas et al, (2004), p.394].…”