Aujourd’hui en raison de l'augmentation rapide de la demande de transparence dans les rapports d'entreprise, les rapports de développement durable (reporting RSE) deviennent de plus en plus fréquents, et constituent un domaine important de la théorie moderne de la recherche sur les entreprises. Par conséquent, la loi française vient obliger les entreprises à inclure dans leur rapport annuel des informations sur les préoccupations environnementales et sociales. L'objectif de cette thèse est d'étudier, l'impact de la divulgation de la RSE des sociétés cotées au CAC 40 à la Bourse de Paris (Euronext), sur la performance financière de ces entreprises. Pour cela, un état de la responsabilité sociale des entreprises et du reporting social est tout d'abord présenté, grâce à la méthode d'analyse de contenu, sur la base des lignes directrices du GRI en matière de rapports de durabilité (GRI-G3.1). Puis, la performance financière est mesurée par des mesures comptables (ROA) et des mesures du marché (TBQ), qui proviennent de la base de données Datastream. Ces données quantitatives sont utilisées dans le modèle de régression des données de panel pour tester l'impact du reporting social sur le rendement des actifs (ROA) et la valeur du marché, comme le Q de Tobin (TBQ), sur une période de 4 ans de 2011 à 2014. Les résultats de l'étude montrent que la tendance en matière de responsabilité sociale des entreprises a augmenté tout au long de la période, notamment dans la divulgation sur les pratiques en matière d'emploi et d'environnement, qui sont les deux éléments les plus largement divulgués. Alors que les résultats de l'analyse empirique indiquent que cette relation entre divulgation RSE et performance financière est mixte pour toutes les entreprises y compris les secteurs industriels et non industriels. La contribution de ce travail à la littérature RSE est l'élucidation de l'impact temporel de la divulgation des informations environnementales et sociales sur la valeur de l'entreprise. / At present, due to the rapid growth in the demand for transparency in corporate reporting, sustainability reporting (CSR reports) is becoming increasingly frequent and an important topic of modern corporate research theory. French law currently obliges companies to include information on environmental and social concerns in their annual activity reports.The objective of this thesis is to study the impact of the disclosure of CSR of CAC 40 listed companies on the Paris Stock Exchange (Euronext), on the corporate financial performance. In order to this, a statement on corporate social responsibility and social reporting is first presented using the content analysis method based on the Sustainability Reporting Guidelines (GRI-G3.1). Then, financial performance is measured by accounting measures (ROA) and market measures (TBQ) obtained from the Datastream database. These quantitative data were used in a panel data regression model to test the impact of social reporting on the return on assets (ROA) and market value such as Tobin's Q (TBQ) over a period of 4 years, from 2011 to 2014.The results of the study show that the trend in corporate social responsibility increased throughout the period, particularly regarding the disclosure of employment practices and the environment, which are the two most widely disclosed elements. The results of the empirical analysis indicate that this mixed relationship between CSR disclosure and financial performance exists for all companies whether industrial or non-industrial. This work contributes to the literature on CSR by elucidating the temporal impact of the disclosure of environmental and social information on corporate value.

This study explores the political perspectives of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) reporting practices in a traditional economy. Previous studies on CSR reporting have identified a number of drivers/motivations of CSR disclosures including market, community and stakeholder influence. It is also argued that CSR may provide a setting for political patronage and interests, which may eventually lead to the absence of accountability. The possibility of exploiting CSR disclosures in developing countries/ traditional setting as characterized by Weber (1978) is even greater due to the prevalence of family controlled firms, political interference and favoritism, absence of rational corporate governance mechanisms and institutional investors, and inefficient and underdeveloped capital market. Yet, the role of political influence in CSR disclosures still needs to be explored and theorized. This study fills in this gap by drawing on the disclosures of corporations. Borrowing Weber's notion of traditionalism and traditional society and using the Weberian framework developed by Colignon and Covaleski (1991), this thesis explores deeply into the underlying nature of CSR practices of public limited companies in Bangladesh. Based on the Weberian framework and using the interacting methodologies of Weber, the study analyzes the structural, historical, economic and political conditions of the research site, Bangladesh, sets the tension between tradition and modernity, and identifies whether elements of traditionalism such as personal loyalty, obedience, family domination and kinship provide richer insights into the political aspects of organizations' CSR practices. The researcher employs mixed methods in this study. The study conducts OLS multiple regression to investigate the influence of political connections on CSR disclosure index. The second part of the research conducts in depth interviews with the current and former Board of Directors, CEOs, current and former policy makers in the government to provide explanatory powers as to why and how the companies use CSR as a political tool to express their allegiance towards the ruling power. The research documents association of political connections with CSRDI and also reports the presence of political motivations behind the CSR practices. The findings show that companies express their loyalty publicly by contributing to the ruling leader's programs and personal projects as CSR. The interview findings also reflect the presence of elements of traditionalism such as obedience, master-servant relationship, and family domination to understand the politically motivated CSR disclosures. As expected in a traditional setting, accountability and transparency would not transpire from imposed regulations and institutions, rather from the familial political power. This research contributes to the CSR literature by using a novel and alternative theoretical lens to understand the motivations of CSR in traditional societies. In addition, it provides a diverse methodological perspective by introducing mixed methods to critical accounting research. It also provides empirical evidence to a critique of CSR as an accountability mechanism in an arena where business depends fundamentally on political connections and familial power. Thus, the power of accounting as an articulation of accountability relationships is muted, if not ignored, in traditional societies (Dyball, Chua and Poullaos, 2006). This research opens up the scope to use the wealth of the Weberian framework to understand the accounting practices in both traditional as well as modern rational society.

The topic of this diploma thesis is a Corporate Social Responsibility concept. The thesis is primarily focused on Corporate social responsibility reporting of companies located in the Czech Republic which is nowadays based on voluntary approach. The author compares CSR reports with GRI standards that currently represent respected framework for responsible reporting. The primary aim of GRI with assistance of G3 guidelines is to create unified, compact and transparent directions for GRI reporting. Given to individual reports, an overall assessment is created. Based on such assessment, author's own recommendation for transparent reporting of Corporate Social Responsibility follows.

The concept of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is not new; however, it hasstarted to gain more attention during the last fifteen years. During this period, logistics activities were structured to maximize profitability of all firms in the supply chain by including only economic costs while disregarding social and environmental costs. Since logistics firms play a vital role in international trade, and since they are one of the main types of firms that are facing pressure from various shareholders to deal with social and environmental issues, it can be concluded that the performance of logistics enterprises under CSR pressure is worth investigating. Literature review has been performed by the authors to discuss previous research on the environmental and social sustainability development, the concept of corporate social responsibility, CSR reporting and different ways of reporting, the geographical differences in Reporting CSR (Asia, Europe, and North America), CSR guidelines, and finally the term of logistics social responsibility. A sample of 50 logistics companies is selected from three regions: Asia, Europe, andNorth America, which is presenting seven different logistics categories. We access toseparate CSR reports ranging from 2009 to 2011 and other disclosures on the firms’websites in order to analyze their CSR reporting status and practices under CSRpressures. Different reporting guidelines (e.g. GRI, GC, ISO 14001) and report types (e.g. Corporate Social Responsibility Report; Sustainability Report) were investigated from the sample according to logistics categories and geography differences. Moreover, the contents included in the separate CSR reports are analyzed from five factors: i)Environment; ii) Society; iii) Shareholders; iv) Employees; v) Suppliers. Furthermore, for CSR practices implemented by other logistics firms which do not prepare CSR reports, four common dimensions are studied in the thesis: Environment, Employees, Consumers and Communities. In the end, suggestions about the way to improve the current practices of corporate social responsibility reporting are provided. The paper also discusses the value of the results both for the business field and the academic field.

This diploma thesis describes the situation of CSR in the Czech Republic, by investigating CSR statements addressed to the stakeholders of the Czech firms on their websites, and comparing them to the results of a world investigation. The theoretical part involves a definition of CSR, its history and wider context of sustainable development. It also describes the grounds of stakeholder theory and stakeholder relationship management. The practical part begins with a description of the world investigation of CSR statements, and continues with other investigations about the importance of stakeholders for the firms which were conducted in the West, and in the Middle and Eastern Europe. Researches in the Czech Republic follow. Finally, the results of this diploma thesis are introduced -- the groups of stakeholders to which Czech firms address their statements and categories of these statements. As a conclusion, recommendations for the Czech firms are formulated

The concept of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is the main theme of this diploma thesis. In the theoretical part of the diploma thesis the concept of CSR is presented together with its role in the corporate governance and the need for cooperation between different firm units to meet the pre-defined business goals. The practical part is dedicated to the analysis of the current state of fulfillment of the requirements of CSR in the social, environmental and economic field in the company Robert Bosch GmbH.

The topic of transparency in CSR reporting provides several opportunities for research. This dissertation contributes to three of them, over the course of three research manuscripts. Research on CSR reporting has produced an extensive literature. Scholars have reviewed this literature with varying extensiveness and points of view. However, the question whether CSR reports overall provide decision-useful information to capital markets has received little attention. Thus, the first manuscript provides such a review of the empirical literature and its major findings. One potential influence on the quality of CSR reports may be the fact whether a report is externally assured by an independent party. The second manuscript thus investigates how external assurance is associated with principles of CSR reporting quality at the firm level. The third manuscript is concerned with the practical implementation of transparency in CSR.

Sustainability including the reporting requirements is one of the most relevant topics for companies. In recent years, many software providers have launched new software tools targeting companies committed to implementing sustainability reporting. But it’s not only companies willing to use their Business Intelligence (BI) solution, there are also basic principles such as the single source of truth and tendencies to combine sustainability reporting with the financial reporting (Integrated Reporting) The IT integration of sustainability reporting has received limited attention by scientific research and can be facilitated using BI systems. This has to be done both to anticipate the economic demand for integrated reporting from an IT perspective as well as for ensuring the reporting of revisable data. Through the adaption of BI systems, necessary environmental and social changes can be addressed rather than merely displaying sustainability data from additional, detached systems or generic spreadsheet applications. This thesis presents research in the two domains sustainability reporting and Business Intelligence and provides a method to support companies willing to implement sustainability reporting with BI. SureBI presented within this thesis is developed to address experts from both sustainability and BI. At first BI is researched from a IT and project perspective and a novel BI reporting process is developed. Then, sustainability reporting is researched focusing on the reporting content and a sustainability reporting process is derived. Based on these two reporting processes SureBI is developed, a step-by-step process method, aiming to guide companies through the process of implementing sustainability reporting using their BI environment. Concluding, an evaluation and implementation assesses the suitability and correctness of the process model and exemplarily implements crucial IT tasks of the process. The novel combination of these two topics indicates challenges from both fields. In case of BI, users face problems regarding historically grown systems and lacking implementation strategies. In case of sustainability, the mostly voluntary manner of this reporting leads to an uncertainty as to which indicators have to be reported. The resulting SureBI addresses and highlights these challenges and provides methods for the addressing and prioritization of new stakeholders, the prioritization of the reporting content and describes possibilities to integrate the high amount of estimation figures using BI. Results prove that sustainability reporting could and should be implemented using existing BI solutions.

Inledning: I tidigare forskning har det framgått att styrelsen har en inverkan på bolags CSR- rapportering, eftersom styrelsen är med och utformar bolags CSR-strategier. Denna forskning har dock visat sig vara begränsad till att endast undersöka ett fåtal karaktärsdrag hos styrelsen, vilket motiverar en kartläggande studie av styrelsens karaktärsdrag och dess inverkan på bolags CSR-rapportering. Problemformulering: Vilka karaktärsdrag hos styrelsen samt styrelseledamöter påverkar bolagets CSR-rapportering? Syftet: Syftet med studien är att identifiera vilka karaktärsdrag hos styrelsen samt styrelseledamöter som påverkar bolagets CSR-rapportering. Metod: Studien har en deduktiv ansats och har utifrån befintliga studier och teorier skapat hypoteser. Hypoteserna har sedan testats med kvantitativ tvärsnittsdata. Det urval som studien grundar sig på är 109 bolag listade på Nasdaq OMX Stockholm (large och mid cap) år 2013. Studiens data har främst samlats in från bolags årsredovisningar och hemsidor. Resultat: Studiens resultat antyder att styrelseledamöter: med juridisk utbildning, som är oberoende ledamöter, arbetstagarrepresentanter har en positiv påverkan på bolags CSR- rapportering. Detsamma gäller för styrelsens storlek och styrelseordförandens ålder. Det till skillnad från när familjeägare sitter i styrelsen, vilket enligt resultaten hade en negativ inverkan på bolags CSR-rapportering. Studien visar att de strukturella karaktärsdragen hos styrelsen har störst inverkan på bolags CSR-rapportering, vilket bland annat indikerar att de intressen som ledamöter företräder inverkar på dess styrelsearbete. Vi jämförde även bolag som var listade på large och mid cap-listan för att se om det fanns några skillnader dem emellan. Testerna visade att flera demografiska karaktärsdrag var signifikanta i de mindre bolagen men inte i de större. Detta indikerar att CSR-rapporteringsmentaliteten som dessa karaktärsdrag tidigare bidragit med, till viss del blivit institutionaliserat i de större bolagen. Ytterligare ett resultat som studien visat är att denna typ av forskning i framtiden inte endast kan begränsa sig till en teori. / Introduction: Previous research has shown that the board of directors has an impact on the companies CSR-reporting, since the directors are a part of developing the company's CSR- strategies. This research, however, has proven to be limited to investigate only a few character traits of the board of directors, which justifies a survey of the board's characteristics and its impact on companies' CSR-reporting. Problem: Which character traits of the board and board members affect the company's CSR- reporting? Purpose: The purpose of the study is to identify the characteristics of the board and board members that affect the company's CSR-reporting. Method: The study adopts a deductive approach and the hypotheses are therefore based on existing studies and theories. The hypotheses that have been tested in this study are based on quantitative cross sectional data. The sample for this study is based on 109 companies listed on the Nasdaq OMX Stockholm (large and mid cap) in 2013. The data collected originates primarily from companies' annual reports and websites. Results: The results of this study show that those directors: with legal educations, that are independent, employee representatives have positive effects on companies’ CSR-reporting. The same applies to the size of the board and the age of the Chairman. These results are different from when family owners are members of the board, which has a negative impact on companies' CSR-reporting. The study also shows that the structural characteristics of the board have the greatest impact on companies' CSR-reporting, which, for example, indicates that the interests that the members represent have an impact on the board’s activities. We also compared companies listed on large and mid cap to see if there was any difference between the two. The test’s showed that several demographic characteristics had a significant impact in the smaller companies, but not in the larger companies. This indicates that the mentality of CSR-reporting that these traits previously assumed to contribute with, to some extent has become institutionalized in larger companies. Another result this study demonstrated was that future research regarding this relationship should not only limit itself to one theory.

The work is divided into two parts. The first part describes corporate social responsibility from a theoretical point of view. It includes different views on CSR, stakeholders, and deals with the impact of financial crisis on a number of CSR projects. The case study deals with social responsibility at Nike.It describes the different areas where Nike socially responsible business is conducted. Here I also describe the impact of the global financial crisis on the number of implemented CSR projects. Both theoretical and practical part of the work describe CSR reporting in detail.