Corporate Social Responsibility Reporting in South Africa: A Descriptive and Comparative Analysis

Abstract

In this article, the authors compare the corporate social responsibility reporting (CSRR) of companiesenvironment, human relations, community, human rights, and diversity dimensions-in the emerging market economy of South Africa with that of companies in the leading economies represented by the Fortune Global 100. The descriptive analysis extends earlier empirical work on the CSRR of emerging market economies, and the impact of culture on CSRR, by examining annual report data from the top 100 companies listed on the Johannesburg Stock Index and the Fortune Global 100. Generally, the frequency and level of CSRR in South African companies was significantly higher than that of the Fortune Global 100, which indicates a greater willingness to convey social responsibility in their disclosure practices. This lends credence to the notion that emerging market economies may be more receptive to stakeholder concerns and social responsibility than peer institutions in leading economies.

MNC Reporting on CSR and Conflict in Central Africa

“…In our sample, two thirds of the companies do report on CSR, which shows that not only South Africa is characterised by CSR reporting as other studies found (Dawkins and Ngunjiri, 2008;Visser, 2002). Different from overall CSR disclosure, however, information about conflicts in host countries is scarce.…”

“…Interestingly, the relative lack of interest for human rights issues in CSR reporting (compared to other CSR topics) was also found in recent research on South Africa, where the environment (81%) and community (83%) were mentioned most, while only 29% of the companies reported on human rights (Dawkins and Ngunjiri, 2008). In a study on MNC CSR reporting generally, the provision of some specific information on human righst was even less prevalent (11%), although more companies vaguely referred to or only mentioned the term (Fortanier and Kolk, 2007b).…”

“…Here, particularly South Africa may serve as comparison to some extent as this is the country for which CSR reporting has been investigated (Dawkins and Ngunjiri, 2008;Hamann and Kapelus, 2004;Reichardt and Reichardt 2005;Visser, 2002), likely due to the fact that reporting has really taken off there (KPMG, 2005).…”

“…While relying on corporate information has limitations in view of the fact that it involves self-representations, it has been widely used, particularly for purposes such as the one in this paper, where legitimacy, insight in corporate values and policies, and communication to stakeholders of companies' perceptions is important (see e.g. Baskin, 2006;Dawkins and Ngunjiri, 2008;Kolk, 2007a, 2007b). …”

Voluntary employee reporting by the wholesale and retail companies listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange

“…In addition, they assumed that the factors that drives' non-disclosure equilibrium are the financial market and a union. Dawkins and Ngunjiri (2008), compare Corporate Social Responsibility Reporting (CSRR) for 2006 in leading South African companies to that of leading companies representing economically advanced countries, which are the United States, Japan, Germany, and Great Britain. They found that there was a significant difference in CSRR on the employee relations by South African companies dimension from those of leading global companies.…”