Article,
Corporate Communication and Impression Management ? New Perspectives Why Companies Engage in Corporate Social Reporting
Journal of Business Ethics, 27 (1-2): 55-68 (September 2000)
DOI: 10.1023/A:1006400707757
Abstract
(1) Faculty of Business Administration, Financial Management Department,
Erasmus University Rotterdam, Room F4-31, P.O. Box 1738, 3000 DR
ROTTERDAM, The Netherlands
Abstract This paper addresses the theoretical framework on corporate
social reporting. Although that corporate social reporting has been
analysed from different perspectives, legitmacy theory currently
is the dominating perspective. Authors employing this framework suggest
that social and environmental disclosures are responses to both public
pressure and increased media attention resulting from major social
incidents such as the Exxon Valdez oil spill and the chemical leak
in Bhopal (India). More specifically, those authors argue that the
increase in social disclosures represent a strategy to alter the
public''s perception about the legitimacy of the organisation. Therefore,
we suggest using corporate communication as an overarching framework
to study corporate social reporting in which ldquocorporate imagerdquo
and ldquocorporate identityrdquo are central.
Email: R.Hooghiemstra@fbk.eur.nl
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