CSR disclosure: cross-national differences in seven European countries

A key component of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is communicating it with the appropriate degree of social disclosure. To manage effectively a social disclosure requires that companies understand the cultural context in which they communicate. Even though scholars tend to agree on a relationship between culture and social disclosures there are no studies directly comparing CSR communication among companies from different European contexts. The aim of this study is to explore if CSR disclosure has a cross-national or global tendency by means of a double-phase investigation among 251 companies with headquarters in seven European countries: Spain, France, Switzerland, UK, Denmark, Italy and Greece. In a first phase, a content analysis permits to investigate national differences in how companies disclose CSR. In a second phase qualitative interviews with 69 communication directors or CSR directors explore different managers’ perspectives on how they see CSR communication as a problematic task.