The Stakeholders Perceptions towards the Corporate Social Responsibility Reporting

Abstract

A study on Corporate Social Responsibility has growing rapidly in the corporate world and become part of the business. Many organization introduced Corporate Social Responsibility into their business activities and encourage communication through many types of channel on their Corporate Social Responsibility activities to stakeholder. In this era, an organization will face high expectation from the stakeholder group that showing they are expecting more from the organization. An organization become an attention because of the pressure on social and environmental problem. Its lead to the preparing the Corporate Social Responsibility report which is the preparation of a sustainability report that will become one of the challenging part for the company concern. The preparer will need to analyse based on his common sense in providing diverse framework and guidelines. A lack of unity and accurate legal regulation can be noticed in this era causes companies incurred on various but so far the companies applied the guidelines when it is the time to report on Corporate Social Responsibility. Some companies will prepare a separate sustainability show that the separate sustainability report will only contain information and business that related to economy, ecology and social sustainability. The concept of sustainability become a new challenge to the companies because taking a consideration on ecological and social aspect that is not become a focus on company day to day management. It’s depending on the reporting type, structure and the level of knowledge which the viewer of those information with regard to the perception of Corporate Social Responsibility or Sustainability reporting is hard to investigate. This research is to encourage awareness for preparer and also the stakeholder that the choice might be different be different International Journal of Academic Research in Business and Social Sciences Vol. 8 , No. 11, Nov, 2018, E-ISSN: 2222-6990 © 2018 HRMARS 1305 depends on what type of report it is. As a way to determine the different in perception, an eyetracking technology is applied. The contribution of Eyes-tracking will determine the different sustainability report types from a stakeholder perspective. BACKGROUND Corporate social responsibility reporting is a method of a companies to combine Corporate Social Responsibility and sustainability into a decision making process. Corporate Social Responsibility will help the companies to identified risk and opportunities that exist the world of business. By having this report, company will be able to engage with the stakeholder to know where actually the direction of the business. Corporate Social Responsibility were able to build a good reputation or image of a company. A good Corporate Social Responsibility report that are relevant and useful will increase the quality of being trust by stakeholder and also the public. In return, the company will gain a competitive advantage and also will improve the employee morale and motivation to gain a confident to perform their job within the company. Corporate Social Responsibility reporting are useful to the internal user and external user. Internal user refer to the company management and employees within the company that use financial information for making decision and next managing the business. For external user, they are an entities who do not involve in running the business but interested in performance of the company. Based on the article, this corporate social responsibility are important to both user because ability to directly know and ability to measure are necessary for the basis of respective strategies and aims. They must understand how the sustainability three pillar mode start from the ecology which is preservation of environment and nature for future. It’s also include economy which is assurance of lasting prosperity that lead to the careful of using the available resource. Lastly, social aspect which is the future oriented development of society. LITERATURE REVIEW Corporate social responsibility (CSR) concept is now change to a new integrated design known as corporate sustainability and responsibility. CSR is defined as "the continuous dedication by business to act morally and grant to economic improvement while make a better life for the employees and their household who is also the citizen and society". Besides, Australian government had defined the corporate sustainability as “hold within strategies and applications that have purpose to fulfil the stakeholders need today and at the same time secure, support and intensify all resources that are essential in the future (Pirnea, Olaru, & Moisa, 2011). CSR is more towards the non-financial activities but corporate sustainability focus on the effect of environmental factors that will give impacts to the environment. Companies concerned nowadays are the way on how to prepare a sustainability report in order to tell the stakeholders about what they want to be informed. Sustainability report is demanded by the stakeholders to increase the transparency and accountability, increase corporate reputation and brand value, legitimation of corporate activities; comparison and benchmarking against competitors; signalling competitiveness; establishing and supporting employee motivation and supporting corporate internal information and control processes (Konuk, 2017). International Journal of Academic Research in Business and Social Sciences Vol. 8 , No. 11, Nov, 2018, E-ISSN: 2222-6990 © 2018 HRMARS 1306 Stakeholders are groups of people that have relationship with the company such as creditors, directors, employees, suppliers, union and government (Konuk, 2017) . Stakeholder’s perspective need to be considered in the process of preparing that report. Stakeholder theory is one of the theories that can explain why companies disclose information sustainability. This is because the companies have to maintain their relationship with the stakeholders in order to survive for a long term in business. Stakeholders pursue different economic, environmental and social interest, that determines the success of an organization (Konuk, 2017). However, it is impossible for the companies to meet all of the stakeholder’s interest equally. According to (Konuk, 2017), the companies will give more importance to more powerful stakeholders. Therefore, the information that will be disclosed in the reports will be based on the needs of those stakeholders. If a is responsive to the needs of its stakeholders, the developed good relationships provide a competitive advantage for the company (Fontaine, 2006). METHODOLOGY Methodology is a system of broad principles or rules from which specific methods or procedure may be derived to interpret or solve different problems within the scope of a particular discipline. A methodology is not a formula but a set of practice. In the research paper Corporate Social Responsibility Reporting – a Stakeholder’s Perspective Approach produce by Thorsten Litfin, Gunther Meeh-Bunse, Katja Luer, Ozlem Teckert, it is stated that methodology used in collecting the information is using the eye-tracking approach combine with conventional approach; opinion survey. Using the equipment “Tobii Pro Glasses 2” eye-tracking approach is a modern and latest method that is used by researchers to study human behaviour by showing exactly what a person is looking at in real time as they move freely in any real-world setting. Understand how people interact with their environment, what catches their attention, drives their behaviour, and influences decision making. Wearable and mobile eye tracking system opens up entirely new opportunities for behavioural studies. It is an equipment with the latest technology to study human behaviour and also can be used to collect data or information. This modern approach is combine with conventional method in gathering information, opinion survey where the researchers meet the subject or participant face-to-face and asking question. It is more reliable and convincing for the information if it is acquire directly from the subject. The participant or subject of this study were 12 business students specialized in financial accounting. These students are required to answer some questions that is related to the real world situation of corporate social responsibility reporting. The question is about what did the real stakeholder want to know about the CSR and the students are required to answer it. Different types of CSR reporting were being used which are; 1) an embedded report 2) a separate report and 3) reference report and all of the report have been given to the students one week before the information collecting process. The reason of why different type of reporting were used is to determine whether it could influence the search behaviour of stakeholder and also to determine the type of reporting that International Journal of Academic Research in Business and Social Sciences Vol. 8 , No. 11, Nov, 2018, E-ISSN: 2222-6990 © 2018 HRMARS 1307 help the stakeholder in searching for information the most. Those 12 students were evenly assigned to those three different reporting types (Litfin et al., 2017). DISCUSSION The methodology that is being used in the study Corporate Social Responsibility Reporting – a Stakeholder’s Perspective Approach is very practical. The researchers have used a very modern type approach in getting the information which is the eyetracking approach that used certain equipment and combining with the conventional approach in getting information which is by using opinion survey (face-to face). We all know face-to-face with the subject will get a much more reliable information. Regardless of how practical and reliable the methodology that is being used, there are some flaws in the study. The study neglects another important element that makes this study less convincing regarding of their results. The research paper neglects the important