Corporate social responsibility disclosure in Chinese railway companies

Abstract

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to focus on the corporate response of Chinese railway companies after the deadly Wenzhou train accident in China which happened on July 23, 2011. Few studies on corporate social responsibility (CSR) in developing countries have looked into whether the information disclosed by companies is satisfactory with sufficient response after a major incident has happened. Design/methodology/approach – Five companies with the largest market value in the Chinese railway industry involved in the production of trains and railway systems connected to the “7.23” incident were taken as the observations in this study. Information published by the companies and the media related to the accident, including CSR and sustainability reports, company Web sites, news and press releases and Internet postings, were investigated in detail in a qualitative manner. Findings – The findings show that disclosure of information related to the “7.23” incident was very low or almost inexistent in the observed companies. For those that claimed that they had followed CSR reporting standards and guidelines, the disclosed information appeared to be insufficient to reveal practical information and fulfill stakeholders’ requirements. The study also sheds light on the corporate reporting behaviors of Chinese state-owned enterprises by applying legitimacy, stakeholder and institutional theories to the unique social and political environment in the country. Originality/value – This paper critically reveals the poor corporate response after the “7.23” incident in Chinese railway companies. The case serves as an example for the companies to ponder on what improvements are called for in terms of social reporting and relevant corporate actions after a major accident. Also, the study contributes to the CSR disclosure literature concerning developing countries by examining the case of China and the little studied railway industry run by the state.

Political connections and corporate social responsibility reporting in Portugal

“…The results of the examination reported in this paper are in line with those of the studies that use legitimacy theory as a lens of analysis of the way in which legitimacy threatening events impact on the social exposure of an industry and lead to the usage of CSR communication to deal with it (Patten, 1992;Coetzee and van Staden, 2011;Watson, 2011;Noronha et al, 2015). They are also consistent with the findings of the plethora of empirical studies on CSR reporting that, grounded on legitimacy theory, report evidence that a company's higher public visibility is positively related to CSR reporting (Branco and Rodrigues, 2006;Cho, 2009;Brown and Deegan, 1998;Deegan, 2002;Milne and Patten, 2002;Patten, 1991).…”

“…Numerous studies that adopt legitimacy theory as theoretical framework examine how a company or companies operating in the same industry react to events that are considered as threats to their legitimacy through CSR reporting (Brown & Deegan, 1998;Cho, 2009;Coetzee & van Staden, 2011;Deegan, 2002;Deegan and Rankin, 1996;Deegan et al, 2002;Milne & Patten, 2002;Noronha, Leung, & Lei, 2015;Patten, 1991;Patten, 1992;Vourvachis, Woodward, Woodward, & Patten, 2016;Watson, 2011). The overall conclusion is that companies change CSR reporting practices following major events that affect the company and the industry in which it operates.…”

Emerging phenomenon of corporate social and environmental reporting in China

“…Compared with more developed countries, CSER is still at a preliminary stage in China (Noronha et al, 2015;. In general, there are no specific requirements for companies to release social and environmental information in annual reports.…”

Can Corporate Governance Improve Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Accounting Disclosure in Egyptian Banks?

“…First, it advances social reporting in emerging economies (e.g. Naser et al, 2006;Kamla, 2007;Noronha et al, 2015;Hossain et al, 2017;Yu and Rowe, 2017), particularly in Africa (e.g. De Villiers, 1999;Rahman et al, 2004;Amaeshi et al, 2006;Kolk and Lenfant, 2010;Muthuri and Gilbert, 2011).…”