Corporate Social Irresponsibility (CSI): Everything you say, or not say, can be held against you

Sammanfattning: Corporate social irresponsibility (CSI), as an opposite of corporate social responsibility (CSR), refers to corporation’s failure to act responsibly. To address the actions connected to CSR and CSI, corporations need to overcome the challenges of communicating to their stakeholders and to be transparent. Stakeholders have become more skeptical regarding if the corporations are actually living up to the communicated standards. In other words, if corporations are ‘doing as they say’ and if they are ‘walking the talk’.  Purpose: The purpose of this study is to examine how top-listed corporations communicate CSR, as compared with what is communicated in media.  Method: This study used a qualitative content analysis method, by studying sustainability reports from 12 corporations over a five-year period. The study also examined media reports concerning the chosen corporations in order to get another view of the corporation’s CSR activities.  Findings: The findings showed that most of the corporation’s reports regarding CSR were in line with what media reports. There were some corporations, however, which were more aligned with media than others. This differences might be due to the fact that the corporations are acting in different industries which can affect how the corporations are focusing their CSR activities. Practical Implementations: This study can aid the understanding of how well corporations are communicating its CSR activities. It can help the corporations included in the study to understand how well its communication is perceived, as well as, to help stakeholders see if the corporations are ‘doing as they say’.