What do emerging economy firms actually disclose in their CSR reports? A longitudinal analysis

Outward direct investments from emerging country firms are on the rise and, as a consequence, these firms are becoming more aware of the need to align to global Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) policies and initiatives, in order to gain international legitimacy. To communicate with interested stakeholders, they use CSR reports, whose issuance has grown steadily over the past decade. Taking CSR disclosure as the unit of analysis, we seek an answer to the following questions: what CSR themes are at the core of these firms’ CSR reports? Are there differences across emerging countries in the emphasis they place on given CSR themes, vis a vis others? How have things changed over the past decade? What core CSR themes have gained (lost) importance over time? Are there cross-country differences? This paper analyzes a total of 1624 CSR reports issued by a sample of 245 emerging country firms, which represent the largest publicly-listed firms in China, India, Malaysia, Thailand, Brazil, Mexico, Russia and South Africa. Our study suggests that firms in these countries are aligning to certain global trends, especially on environmental and human rights issues, while they seem to put less emphasis on traditional CSR activities and in building a “business case” for CSR. Chinese firms are those that align the least to these patterns of CSR disclosure.