Date of Publication: Dec 20, 2017

Author: M. L. Borges , R. Anholon , R. E. Cooper Ordoñez , O. L. G. Quelhas , L.A Santa-Eulalia and W. Leal Filho

Summary:

In a world where companies have major influence over the economy, politics, and environment, they must be held accountable for their actions. With this in mind, the publication of sustainability reports is in a company’s best interest, since the disclosure of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and sustainable practices can bring enormous advantages, largely related to a company’s image. The amount of information presented in sustainability reports turns them into valuable sources for research data, allowing analyses related to CSR and management practices, stakeholder relations, language used, among others. However, there is no a paper in the literature that analyzes theses information jointly for the Brazilian companies, and then we decided to explore this theme. This research aimed to identify advances and gaps of CSR practices performed by Brazil companies, through the analysis of 30 sustainability reports published between 2014 and 2015. The main findings indicate that, in general, the analyzed companies are experienced in sustainability reporting; however, there is still room for improvements, including a better mapping and reporting of practices involving the integration of CSR to organizational structure, stakeholder engagement, and continuous improvement practices.

Link to Full Reading:

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13504509.2017.1416700