Self-Reporting CSR Activities: When Your Company Harms, Do You Self-Disclose?

Abstract

Companies increasingly view corporate social responsibility (CSR) as an important dimension of corporate reputation. This is at least partly motivated by the understanding that a strong CSR reputation can enhance profits. This research examines how self-reporting of CSR activities links to corporations’ CSR reputation. Broadly, a company can opt to (a) voluntarily embrace self-reporting and describe its CSR policies and performance to stakeholders or (b) stay silent in this regard. We find a positive link between CSR self-reporting and a company’s social responsibility reputation and, more interestingly, show that companies are more apt to report this information when (a) their activities have a greater adverse environment impact and (b) have policies that are evaluated favorably by a third party. CSR self-reporting mediates the effects of third-party evaluations and improves the CSR reputation of companies. Moreover, consistent with prior research, we show that improvements in CSR reputation enhance profits.