Corporate Social Responsibility Of Csr Disclosure Essay

Managers and shareholders are the utmost contributors of these conflicts, hence affecting the entire structural organization of a company, its managerial system and eventually to the company's societal responsibility. A corporation is well organized with stipulated division of responsibilities among the arms of the organizational structure, shareholders, directors, managers and corporate officers. However, conflicts between managers in most firms and shareholders have brought about agency problems. Shares and their trade have seen many companies rise to big investments. Shareholders keep the companies running

On the other side, as the legal personality of the corporations evolved in the 1800s, enterprises were no longer responsible for serving the public interest. Consequently, any social welfare was symbolic and procured from the economic function of organizations (Banerjee, 2008). Furthermore, it seems that corporations are using CSR strategies as a window to present favorable images and obtain economic benefits. Historically the relationship between revenues and investment in CSR programs is a controversial issue. Furthermore, the power of the economic CSR rhetoric lies in the ability to validate particular ideologies to consolidate the power of larger corporations (Banerjee,

Although I consider CSR disclosures important information for investors to determine whether a company is worthy to be invested in, I do not agree that the SEC should The SEC should require CSR disclosures in 10-Ks. The reasons are as following. First, the issue of “information overload” is quite crucial nowadays. The recent 10K forms, along with other filings, have already included a great deal of financial and nonfinancial information. If CSR disclosures are required to be included in 10Ks, the overwhelming information contained may cause difficulty for financial report users to filter out the information they truly look for. Second, if the SEC requires companies to include CSR disclosures in 10Ks, the workload for the accountants and auditors

Drawing from these debates, Archie Carroll has developed “the Pyramid of Corporate Social Responsibility”, one of the most significant concepts of CSR. There are four kinds of social responsibilities that contribute total CSR, he suggested, Economic, Legal, Ethical, and Philanthropic (1991). Therefore being socially responsible does not mean forgetting the fundamental aspect of business, to make profit. The obligation of Law restricts business activities and they are the rules of the game which businesses have to obey. Being ethical is to perform actions that are fair, morally good, and of stakeholders’ interests, even outside the boundary of law. Considering corporate citizenship, philanthropic responsibilities are responses to the rising society’s expectations to business (Carroll, 1991). The notion of discretionary and voluntary distinguishes philanthropic responsibilities to ethical responsibilities. A good CSR firm should “strive to make a profit, obey the law, be ethical, and be a good corporate citizen” (Carroll, 1991, p.43) and without simultaneous fulfillment of the four responsibilities, the business should not be characterized as operating within CSR.

1. It is hard for companies to communicate their efforts in CSR to shareholders and investors. Although companies have progressed from only 20% of public companies publishing CSR reports to 72% from 2011 to 2013, there are still no universal standards established for reporting CSR information. Therefore, even the best CSR efforts can lose their value simply because the efforts are not communicated to users of financial statements. This is also in part due to CSR efforts being ill-defined. While some CSR ideas are universal many of the aspects of CSR are industry specific and hard to translate into meaningful disclosures for interested parties.

Archie Carroll defines corporate social responsibility (CSR) as “the social responsibility of business encompassing the economic, legal, ethical, and discretionary expectations that society has of these organizations at a given point in time.” (Crane, 5) Interesting enough, there has been an abrupt growth of firm’s engagement in CSR within all industries. This is the result of growing requests from the civil society demanding firms, of all sizes, to legitimize their practices. (Crane, 4)

Do corporate social responsibility (CSR) reports provide shareholders and stakeholders with useful information on corporate social and environmental performance or are they merely a public relations vehicle? Answer this question by reference to a variety of accounting theories.

The global electronics industry comprises of many partners that make up a complex international supply chain. Due to globalisation, TNCs have set up subsidiaries that operate in under developed foreign countries like Asia. They operate in the areas of manufacturing of components for computers, assembly, contractors, suppliers, software, technical

Last spring, I worked for Special Olympics New York as an office volunteer, assisting with the preparation of the incoming Game and recording volunteer information. When examining the sign-up information for volunteers, I found it impressive, seeing numerous private company groups in the New York State register as volunteer groups and some of them had done such work for many years. When talking about the reasons for their actions, many companies considered that their volunteer behaviors would not only build employee solidarity but also demonstrate their care about disabled groups. This realization stimulated my interests in the corporate volunteerism, the idea of social corporate responsibility, and the often ongoing relationships between for-profit corporations and non-profit organizations. Building on this experience, I decided to examine this topic as a senior thesis for my sociology major thesis project. This project is expected to last for six months and recently, I have already begun a preliminary literature review by reviewing previous academic research in corporate social responsibility. In my thesis, I primarily focus on questions like how do firms and nonprofits collaborate and maintain social networks for mutual benefit, why is corporate social responsibility an important mission for private companies, as well as how does it influence a company’s financial performance, employee selection and performance, and corporate reputation.

While it is important for a company to make a profit, a business also has a responsibility to help better the community, this is referred to as a company’s Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). Some elements of CSR that corporations focus on are sustainability, community service, and consumer affairs. A company’s CSR is featured on its website, however, some corporations fail at following through with their social and environmental responsibilities. For example, Gazprom, a Russian company focused on exploring new ways to use natural gas, plays a large role in the destruction of many natural environments. Gazprom was founded in 1989 and it is headquartered in Moscow, Russia. Gazprom’s website highlights many charitable acts done by the company, but it does not mention much of what the company has done in terms of the environment. This is because Gazprom is notorious for being environmentally unfriendly. Not only is Gazprom unconcerned with the environment, the company also abuses its strong market power and charges unfair prices to customers.

This is essay will focus on analyzing how corporate social responsibility (CSR) influences the investor relations of a corporation and whether it is good for the society, using Gasland and FrackNation as examples. In the contemporary society, CSR sounds like a commendatory term for the society. Over decades, it seems like that both the public and the media are trying to encourage corporations to behave more responsibly, and corporations are gradually becoming more socially aware in the contemporary society because they know they cannot afford the consequence of ignoring it. (Bernstein, 2009:606) However, CSR is not always beneficial. One of the major practices of public relations is investor relations, because the concerns of a corporation’s investors can directly relate to its welfare. When the corporations paid more attention on CSR, their investors will inevitably somehow feel ignored. As a public which has real material input to the corporations, investors are seeking for future returns, they want to be treated specially by the corporations that they invest. Also, value too much about CSR can make corporations become the victim of being morally hijacked, which may harm both a corporation’s financial success and the whole society’s harmony.

It is obvious that people have become more conscious of the ethical and social responsibilities of business over recent decades, suggesting that the modern businesspeople should not only consider about profitability but also extent to what they can contribute to the whole society. A quote by Anita Roddick generally demonstrates the spirit of being ethically and socially responsible: “The business of business should not be about money. It should be about responsibility. It should be about public good, not private greed.” With the increasing significance of the harmonization of society, the view about whether businesses should be responsible for both ethics and society has been sparked off a heated discussion. From some people’s perspective,

On September 13, 1970, Milton Friedman wrote and article, Social Responsibility of Business is to Increase its Profits. One of Milton’s theories suggested that the only legitimate incentive for a corporation to exist is to maximize its profits with its shareholders. As companies progress over time, so does the reason for the company existence. “What makes a stake holder?” Isabel Hilton (GE Stakeholders 2009)

That is in compliance with applicable law and consistent with international norms of behavior, and

‘Corporate social responsibility’ (CSR) means that the firm has wider responsibilities in relation to objectives and people apart from the owners or shareholders (Beal and Goyen 2005). These responsibilities are achieved when the firm adapts all of its practices to ensure that it operates in ways that meet, or exceed, the ethical, legal, commercial and public expectations that society has of business. Objectives often associated with CSR include a responsibility to manage natural assets sustainably and not to pollute by chemical discharge, smell, noise, dust or other irritants; fair treatment of employees and ethical attitude towards clients. The other people include employees, customers, suppliers,