The aim of this paper is to analyze the level of acceptance of social responsibility practices in Italy and in particular to evaluate the degree of social responsibility arising from the websites of Italian listed companies. CSR communication contributes to a corporation's corporate social disclosure, whose main purpose is to enhance a corporate image in order to promote customer and community relations and indirectly promote products to customers. To reach this goal, transparency is crucial. However, transparency in the field of CSR is a difficult matter for two reasons: there is not uniformity in social reporting and the preparation of this document is not mandatory ( except that large company forced by the UE Directive 2014/95/UE to prepare a non-financial statement). The research is divided into two sections and the approach used is mainly descriptive: in the first part, the concept of social balance as a means to interact with all the stakeholders of a firm is exposed. In the second part the paper analyses the web sites of a panel of selected listed Italian companies. The data are able to demonstrate that we can still identify a CSR divide among the country according to 2 different points of view: 1. The size of the company, it still represents a barrier to CSR reporting and communication since require efforts and investment in term of time and resources, and 2. the geographical localization of the selected companies, the concentration of corporates identifying CSR as part of their strategy is still centralized in specific region of the country, mainly due to historical reasons of the country, the openness of those company to the international market and the managerial approach of the company. The research is also able to demonstrate that those companies identified as "best practice" in the selected panel have a common strength, besides financial reporting, social and environmental responsibility is becoming more and more relevant and considered. The higher the level of CSR acceptance of the company, the best is the image from the perspective of the multiple stakeholders.
Social responsibility and Italian listed companies: a Web analysis
Amelio, S;
2017-01-01
Abstract
The aim of this paper is to analyze the level of acceptance of social responsibility practices in Italy and in particular to evaluate the degree of social responsibility arising from the websites of Italian listed companies. CSR communication contributes to a corporation's corporate social disclosure, whose main purpose is to enhance a corporate image in order to promote customer and community relations and indirectly promote products to customers. To reach this goal, transparency is crucial. However, transparency in the field of CSR is a difficult matter for two reasons: there is not uniformity in social reporting and the preparation of this document is not mandatory ( except that large company forced by the UE Directive 2014/95/UE to prepare a non-financial statement). The research is divided into two sections and the approach used is mainly descriptive: in the first part, the concept of social balance as a means to interact with all the stakeholders of a firm is exposed. In the second part the paper analyses the web sites of a panel of selected listed Italian companies. The data are able to demonstrate that we can still identify a CSR divide among the country according to 2 different points of view: 1. The size of the company, it still represents a barrier to CSR reporting and communication since require efforts and investment in term of time and resources, and 2. the geographical localization of the selected companies, the concentration of corporates identifying CSR as part of their strategy is still centralized in specific region of the country, mainly due to historical reasons of the country, the openness of those company to the international market and the managerial approach of the company. The research is also able to demonstrate that those companies identified as "best practice" in the selected panel have a common strength, besides financial reporting, social and environmental responsibility is becoming more and more relevant and considered. The higher the level of CSR acceptance of the company, the best is the image from the perspective of the multiple stakeholders.
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