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Don’t Judge a Book by Its Cover! Comparative Study of the Adaptation and Evolution of CSR Reporting by Telecommunication Companies in Brazil and South Korea

Sustainability Accounting

ISBN: 978-1-78754-889-3, eISBN: 978-1-78754-888-6

Publication date: 17 April 2018

Abstract

Purpose

This chapter explores the adaptation and evolution of stand-alone CSR reporting in two different political economies and late-capitalist countries: Brazil and South Korea. Instead of selecting between new institutionalism and the varieties of capitalism (VOC) approach, this study attempts to explore how the interaction between converging and diverging pressures appears in the adaptation and evolution of stand-alone CSR reporting (i.e., cross-fertilization process) in two countries.

Design/methodology/approach

Using qualitative content analysis this study focuses on the frameworks of CSR reports and the way CSR issues are described within the stand-alone CSR reports of four telecommunication companies in Brazil and South Korea.

Findings

Even though CSR reports in both countries have become similar due to the convergence of frameworks of CSR reporting, the key themes and the representation on each theme are still embedded within each form of market economy: a hierarchical market economy (HME) in Brazil and a network market economy (NME) in South Korea. From a cross-fertilization perspective, this chapter shows that the adaptation and evolution of CSR reporting occurs at two different levels of CSR reporting.

Value

This study has three major values. First, it explains the two different levels of the adaptation and evolution process of CSR reporting by bringing a dynamic cross-fertilization view. Second, it provides a qualitative study that focuses on the content of CSR disclosures instead of the quantity of those disclosures. Lastly, it contributes to the academic and practical research on CSR in late-capitalist countries and in two under-researched types of political economies.

Keywords

Acknowledgements

Acknowledgments

The authors wish to thank guest co-editors, Sophie Spring and Jonathan Maurice, Consulting editor, Charles Cho, and two anonymous reviewers who gave constructive comments. The authors want to acknowledge that this research was initiated at ESSEC Business School and developed with valuable comments from numerous members at ESSEC Business School. The early version of this research was also presented at Centre for Social & Environmental Accounting Research (CSEAR) France Conference in 2015. The author received constructive feedback and encouragement from Professor Den Patten and other participants at this conference. The authors would like to thank them all.

Citation

Shin, H. and Zicari, A. (2018), "Don’t Judge a Book by Its Cover! Comparative Study of the Adaptation and Evolution of CSR Reporting by Telecommunication Companies in Brazil and South Korea", Sustainability Accounting (Advances in Environmental Accounting & Management, Vol. 7), Emerald Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 135-171. https://doi.org/10.1108/S1479-359820180000007006

Publisher

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Emerald Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2018 Emerald Publishing Limited