Motivations for Issuing Standalone CSR Reports: a Survey of Canadian Firms

There is a debate in the literature regarding the underlying motivations for companies who voluntarily issuing standalone CSR reports (Clarkson et al., 2011). To gain insight into this debate we report the results of a survey which asks 221 Canadian firms their motivations, their costs and whether they follow independent GRI guidelines in choosing to issue (or not issue) their CSR report. Of the 57 companies that responded to our survey, 32 issued standalone reports and 25 choose not to. The most frequently cited reason for issuing standalone CSR reports was to signal their interest in social responsibility to stakeholders followed closely by CEO/Board commitment to CSR. Other frequent responses were that companies wished to communicate to stakeholders a policy of corporate transparency and to put all CSR information in one place. Approximately 71% of companies that issue CSR reports follow GRI reporting guidelines and 25.8% of these CSR Reports are independently verified. Over 50% of companies reported that it costs over $75,000 to produce the standalone CSR report, takes over four months to prepare on average, and requires five or more people to produce it. The primary reason that companies chose not to issue CSR reports was lack of stakeholder pressure and regulatory requirement to do so. Our research provides support for the need for multiple perspectives to provide insight into standalone CSR reporting.