session 12, lock & seele
TRANSCRIPT
“Analyzing industry-specific CSR reporting to investors”
CSR Communication Conference 2011, Amsterdam
Faculty of Communication – Institute of Marketing and Communication Management
Irina Lock & Peter Seele
The Relevance of CSR Reports
Irina Lock & Peter Seele 27.10.2011 Institute of Marketing and Communication Management
• receive legitimacy from stakeholders (Arvidsson 2010)
• “social reports represent a prime channel for companies to communicate their response to CR issues“ (Dawkins 2004)
• CSR reports must “give sense“ and “make sense“ (Morsing and Schultz 2006)
• “responses to both public pressure and increased media attention“ (Hooghiemstra 2000)
Investors & CSR Reporting
27.10.2011 Institute of Marketing and Communication Management
• Investors = “stakeholders with whom communication is inevitable” (Podnar and Jančič 2011)
• Tailor-made CSR communication necessary (Johansen and Nielsen 2011)
Sarasin Sustainability Rating
• company and industry risk assessment
• focus on social and environmental risks
Irina Lock & Peter Seele
The Study
27.10.2011 Institute of Marketing and Communication Management
Researched industries:
• Chemicals • Banking & Insurance
Researched countries:
• Germany• Switzerland
• Quantitative content analysis of 437 articles in 20 stand-alone CSR reports
• Period: 2009• Sample taken from Swiss and German stock exchange indices• Codebook benchmarked by Sarasin Sustainability rating
Irina Lock & Peter Seele
RQs & Hypotheses
27.10.2011 Institute of Marketing and Communication Management
Industry-specific analysis
RQ1: Do companies in the chemicals and banking & insurance industry report information in CSR reports according to the social and environmental risks of the industry they are operating in?
H1: Companies in the chemicals and the banking & insurance industry do not report information regarding their industry’s social and environmental risks.
Country-specific analysis
RQ2: Do companies in the chemicals and banking & insurance industry report industry risks differently according to their country of origin?
H2: Companies in the chemicals/banking & insurance industry report the same industry risks in Switzerland and in Germany.
Irina Lock & Peter Seele
Study Results - General
27.10.2011 Institute of Marketing and Communication Management
CHEMICALS The main topic of the article Environmental Social Philanthropic Product OtherNo. of words 23,2 % 31,6 % 1,0 % 16,4 % 27,9 %
BANKING & INSURANCE The main topic of the article
Environmental Social Philanthropic Product Other
No. of words 17,8 % 23,6 % 9,4 % 10,1 % 39,0 %
45 % (chemicals industry) and 58 % (banking & insurance) of the information covered in CSR reports are not investor-relevant
Irina Lock & Peter Seele
Study Results - Industries
27.10.2011 Institute of Marketing and Communication Management
Chemicals Industry
Hypothesis 1 rejected
Banking & Insurance Industry
Hypothesis 1 accepted
Irina Lock & Peter Seele
Study Results - Countries
27.10.2011 Institute of Marketing and Communication Management
Hypothesis 2 rejected
Irina Lock & Peter Seele
Conclusions & Recommendations
27.10.2011 Institute of Marketing and Communication Management
• There is a difference of reporting from industry to industry
• Swiss and German firms report differently
• CSR reports are very heterogeneous and contain unspecific information
• Standardization of reporting would overcome these differences
• Integrated reports focus more on investor-relevant content
Irina Lock & Peter Seele
Limitations & Suggestions
27.10.2011 Institute of Marketing and Communication Management
• Countries’ biggest firms according to market capitalization
Limitations:
• Extension of analysis to more industries and countries
• Examination of multiple stakeholder groups
• Inclusion of integrated reports
Suggestions:
Irina Lock & Peter Seele
Thank You!
27.10.2011 Institute of Marketing and Communication Management
Contact information:
Irina Lock – [email protected] Peter Seele – [email protected]
Irina Lock & Peter Seele
Study Approach
Irina Lock & Peter Seele 27.10.2011 Institute of Marketing and Communication Management
Sarasin Bank Benchmark
Envir
onm
enta
l
Socia
l
Repo
rt a
s a w
hole
Phot
osAr
ticle
s
3 variables
14 variables
4 variables
30
70
30
70
40
60
0
100
33
67
Result of content analysis
Target ActualWeighting
Exp.: Banking & Insurance
Study Results
Irina Lock & Peter Seele 27.10.2011 Institute of Marketing and Communication Management
Environmental: Social:
Chemicals Industry
60 % 40 %
Environmental: Social:
Banking & Insurance
30 % 70 %
Sarasin Bank: Sarasin Bank: