Do well-reputed companies carry out higher quality social reporting? An empirical approach
Fecha
2020-11
Título de la revista
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Editor
EMERALD PUBLISHING
Resumen
Purpose – The purpose of this research objective was to analyse social reporting within MERCO Business
companies both from the point of view of the quantity of information disclosed and the references about their
quality. This approach constitutes a novelty with respect to previous literature on the subject.
Design/methodology/approach – This paper assesses how social reporting is being carried out by the
companies included in the MERCO Corporate Reputation Business Monitor, MERCO Business, during the
period 2014–2016. The methodological design include the construction of a weighted index based on two
unweighted indexes related to the quantity revealed and the quality detected. In addition, this study integrates
intellectual capital and social responsibility approaches in order to deep into these voluntary disclosures.
Findings – While social reporting is considerable from a quantitative point of view within MERCO Business
companies, they do not reach very high levels of quality, which is good to counteract the final value of the
quantity–quality index that the authors’ propose.
Research limitations/implications – In MERCO Business companies, quantity is not a proxy for quality
within social reporting. In this sense, only considering both dimensions it will be possible to assess these
disclosures in a more complete way.
Practical implications – This study allows a more accurate and comparable view of social reporting than
those studies that only focus on how much information is disclosed. Besides, it involves an important advance
in the identification of the relative quality of social reporting, opening a new line of research that will be key to
comparing this type of disclosures in a more homogeneous way. Likewise, the results can be applied in future
studies in the intellectual capital field given the complementarity between both types of disclosures.
Social implications – Likewise, these results will be of interest for future actions aimed at regulating the
improvement of the quality of social reporting in the hands of managers, investors and regulators.
Originality/value – The authors have tested the value of quality in social reporting using a weighted index
amongst the most reputable companies in the Spanish scenario. These disclosures have been compared with
and without the use of it in order to deduce its value to obtain valid conclusions about social reporting.
Descripción
This is the peer reviewed version of the following article: [Castilla-Polo, F. and Ruiz-Rodríguez, M. C. (2020): “Do well-reputed companies carry out higher quality social reporting? An empirical approach”. Journal of Intellectual Capital, 22(5): 889-917.], which has been published in final form at [https://doi.org/10.1108/JIC-06-2020-0214]. This article may be used for non-commercial purposes in accordance with EMERALD PUBLISHIING terms and conditions for use of self-archived versions. this article may not be enhanced, enriched or otherwise transformed into a derivative work, without express permission from EMERALD PUBLISHIING or by statutory rights under applicable legislation. Copyright notices must not be removed, obscured or modified. the article must be linked to EMERALD PUBLISHIING ´s version of record EMERALD PUBLISHIING online library and any embedding, framing or otherwise making available the article or pages thereof by third parties from platforms, services and websites other than EMERALD PUBLISHIING online library must be prohibited.
Palabras clave
Reputation, Intellectual capital reporting,, Quantity, Quality, Social reporting
Citación
Castilla-Polo, F. and Ruiz-Rodríguez, M. C. (2020): “Do well-reputed companies carry out higher quality social reporting? An empirical approach”. Journal of Intellectual Capital, 22(5): 889-917.