Doing Good or Doing Well? : A quantitative study about CSR reporting

The awareness and interest concerning corporate social responsibility has grownamong both firms and their stakeholders, which has resulted in a continuous upwardtrend regarding CSR reporting. This has led to the emergence of reporting frameworklike Global Reporting Initiative. The issues is that there are limited regulationscontrolling what should be reported and how it should be reported, thus most CSRreporting is voluntary. This creates differences among firms and within industries.The differences make it difficult to compare reporting between firms and to assess thebenefits of CSR reporting.The purposes of this study is to explain what variables affects the CSR reportingquality and what the rationale behind CSR reporting is, which includes investigatingthe effect of reporting quality on cost of capital. The evolution of CSR reporting willalso be examined.The nature of the study is quantitative with a deductive approach. Hypotheses will bedeveloped from prior theory and tested statistically using multiple regression analysis.The theoretical foundation of this study is stakeholder theory, legitimacy theory andinformation asymmetry. The chosen variables are argued by prior literature to effectreporting quality. The variables are board diversity, ownership concentration, separatesustainability reports, external assurance, GRI application levels and industry. Ameasure of reporting quality will be developed using content analysis and theestimation for cost of capital will be calculated based on a model for rPEG. Thesample consists of firms listed on Nasdaq OMXS30 index in 2006, 2008 and 2010.Statistical support for positive association between reporting quality and boarddiversity, ownership concentration, external assurance, GRI A and GRI B and theindustries industrials, consumer goods and basic materials were found. An indirectassociation between reporting quality and cost of capital was found. The findings arein agreement with the rationale behind CSR reporting; a firm can do well by doinggood. It was further concluded that the development during this time period hasfollowed the previous trend and continuously increased