Priorities for Corporate Social Responsibility Reporting: Evidence from Listed Turkish Companies in Istanbul Stock Exchange

Priorities for Corporate Social Responsibility Reporting: Evidence from Listed Turkish Companies in Istanbul Stock Exchange

Çetinkaya, Melek
Ağca, Veysel
Özutku, Hatice

Abstract: This study is based on "stakeholder theory" in order to explain the concept of corporate social responsibility. To examine the social responsibility areas of business organizations, “The Pyramid of Corporate Social Responsibility” model developed by Carroll (1991) was used in this study. According to this model, entire range of business responsibilities can be considered in four groups: economic, legal, ethical and philanthropic. Within the framework of Carroll’s corporate social responsibility (CSR) Pyramid, the aim of this study is to illustrate priorities in Corporate Social Responsibility Report of the leading companies in Turkey. In this context, 48 companies from Borsa Istanbul (BIST) Corporate Governance Index were selected as the sample of the study. Qualitative research approach was used in the study. The data obtained from the annual reports, sustainability reports and corporate governance compliance reports of these 48 companies were subjected to content analysis. According to the findings, economic and legal responsibilities were found to have priority for shareholders, customers and employees stakeholder groups in terms of corporate social responsibility levels. While philanthropic responsibility was found to have priority for community stakeholder group, economic responsibility is important for suppliers stakeholder group. Legal responsibility, on the other hand, is important for environment stakeholder group. In general, economic and legal responsibilities have priorities in all stakeholder groups other than community stakeholder group.

Article
PeerReviewed

International Burch University

2015

2928