A Comparative Study of CEO Letters in Corporate Social Responsibility Reports of European and Asian Automobile Companies

Abstract: The present study investigates transcontinental differences of CEO communication towards stakeholders in CSR disclosure. It is motivated by the research question: What differences in addressing stakeholders can be observed in the CEO communication within CSR reports of European and Asian companies? Literature on the field of CSR in management has focused almost exclusively on comparative studies that analyze the CSR report as a whole, and do not consider particularly Asia in the sample. Therefore, the study examines how companies from Europe and Asia use CEO letters within CSR reports to serve the information needs of multiple stakeholders. The authors conducted a qualitative content analysis study supplemented by interviews. The findings from the research illustrate less differences between the continents with respect to which stakeholders they address. In contrast, stronger differences in the amount and type of information provided by European and Asian companies could be observed. These findings support existing stakeholder theory in expressing a company’s need for actively addressing and seeking to satisfy the interests of multiple stakeholders. Furthermore, the study contributes with a framework that can be applied as an analytical tool by other researchers to decipher CEO communication regarding CSR. Additionally, this study offers top managers a descriptive analysis about the current stakeholder focus of European and Asian companies which can be a starting point to revise and improve their own CEO communication. The authors suggest for further research to scale up the study by extending the sample to other continents. This would enrich the possibility for comparisons and provide a holistic overview about company’s stakeholder focus in CEO communication.