CSR and ownership interrelation: evidence from Estonia

Abstract

With time Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) attracts has become a matter of high attention and it is obvious that its influence on companies is increasing.  More and more organizations both in Estonia and worldwide are voluntarily implementing non-financial reporting as a part of their business strategy.  These initiatives seem to have high impact on the reputation and recognition of the company by stakeholders. The aim of the present research is to investigate whether the type of ownerships is related to the way the company presents CSR related information and the focus of these disclosures. Authors studied the available information of top100 Estonian most successful companies to find out the type of ownership and the type of CSR-related disclosures (web-site or non-financial report) as well as the focus of the reporting about the most popular and commonly used certificates related (health, safety, environment and quality). The findings of the present research clearly demonstrate that Estonian companies have implemented CSR reporting practices with website being the main channel of presentation of CSR related information. It is also important, that the leading issue of CSR disclosure for all types of companies are environmental performance as well as environmental and quality management certification. Results indicated that in case of individual ownership CSR disclosures are less frequent and less aspects are reported, while in case of corporate and institutional ownership, CSR reporting is widely adopted and the wide scope of aspects is reported. In general, it may be concluded that the type of ownership has impact of the type and focus of CSR reporting.