The use of economic indicators from the Global Reporting Initiative by Spanish listed companies
Fecha
2014
Título de la revista
ISSN de la revista
Título del volumen
Editor
Enlace externo
Resumen
Purpose: Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) in companies is widely accepted within
today’s business community. However, the intangibility of this concept and the
dispersion of related standards and regulations has created a context characterized by
lack of homogeneity in the publishing of CSR results. The present study aims to
determine the extent to which Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) indicators are used by
Spanish listed companies.
Design/methodology/approach: An empirical analysis has been performed to asses
and evaluate the 2011 CSR reports published by the companies listed on the IBEX-35,
the Spanish stock exchange index which includes the most important listed companies.
The analysis is centered exclusively on the economic indicators established by the GRI.
The methodology used to interpret the results is based on the procedures of
multivariate analysis, namely principal components analysis, correlation matrix, and
hierarchical clustering.
Findings: The results of the study show that although the GRI tool is used extensively
within the IBEX-35, the level of performance regarding the parameters established by
the GRI varies depending on the studied company and indicator.
Research limitations/implications: This study focuses on the biggest Spanish listed
companies; thus, the conclusions may differ in other geographic locations, as well as for
smaller businesses.
Practical implications: This line of research helps to know more about the social
reporting policies of big Spanish listed companies.
Social implications: The evidence provided by this study helps to know more about
the Corporate Social Responsibility policies and sustainability reports and declarations of
social and environmental values governing their organizations.
Originality/value: This study is the first using principal component analysis in Spanish
listed companies focusing in the economic indicators of the GRI.
Descripción
Palabras clave
Citación
Intangible Capital IC, 2014 – 10(4): 699-716 – Online ISSN: 1697-9818 – Print ISSN: 2014-3214 http://dx.doi.org/10.3926/ic.550
Colecciones

Excepto si se señala otra cosa, la licencia del ítem se describe como Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International