Comparison of corporate social disclosures by French companies on their web sites and in their annual reports

International audienceThis papers deals with coporate social disclosuremade by French companies through their websitesand their annual reports.First, it discusses the suitability of an evaluation ofthe scope of corporate social disclosure based on thesole annual report. Then, it. seeks to extend previousresearch of corporate social disclosures by examiningthe relationship between a number of corporatecharacteristics and social responsibility disclosures.In addition, this study considers the social andenvironmental disclosures made by 49 French firms intheir annual reports and through their web sites. Itcompares and contrasts corporate social disclosuresbetween the two media with respect to the amountand quality of information released, and the themesof disclosure. In testing the relationship betweencorporate profitability, the nature of the industry, thesize and the level of firms' social disclosures, thisstudy underlines the importance of the politicaldimensions in the corporate social disclosure process