Corporate social responsibility : a content analysis of corporate websites in Hong Kong, Japan, Malaysia, and Taiwan

Abstract

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) reporting in annual reports has been investigated by researchers over the past three decades. Because the Internet has significantly eased dissemination of information to global audiences, companies have begun to report CSR-related materials on their corporate websites.The present study is a content analysis examining what CSR principles, processes, and issues are mentioned on corporate websites of top companies in Hong Kong, Japan, Malaysia, and Taiwan. Two coders analyzed seventy-one websites: Hong Kong (19), Japan (19), Taiwan (19), and Malaysia (14). Content on the websites were coded based on definitions and categorizations which were patterned after Maignan and Ralston's 2002 study on CSR reporting.