The disclosure in social reporting of energy sector: experiences from Italy, the USA and China

Attention towards CSR issues is very high in Europe and America, but also in countries like China, which have little cultural tradition of it. The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the quality and the trend of social reporting in Italy compared with in the USA and China by exploring the indicators disclosed within social reports. The study considered the energy and utilities sector by analysing the quality of social reporting through the indicators disclosed in 2009, 2010 and 2011 reports according to GRI guidelines. The research results show the quality level of social reporting in Italy is higher than that of the USA and China. However the research hypothesis was not confirmed as the quality does not show an increased trend. Chinese companies show opposite results as the quality levels dropping notably between 2009 and 2011.