The Goals of Sustainable Development

Abstract

The aim of this study is to analyse the reporting of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) through the framework of neo-institutionalism. To explore this, the study focuses on the CSR reports published by three Australian firms, BHP, Westpac and Westfield from 1992 until 2015 and has applied the neo-institutional framework developed by Schultz and Wehmeier (2010) as a social constructivist representation of how macro, meso and micro-level triggers may influence the institutionalisation of CSR. Results show that the neo-institutionalisation of CSR has affected the development of CSR and CSR reporting in these three companies. Additionally, the absence of government regulation has increased the likelihood that macro-environmental institutional influences, namely mimetic pressures, have enabled manipulative communication and sensemaking strategies to be transferred from one firm to another, thereby affecting the credibility of CSR reporting.