ISO 26000 in the assessment of CSR communication quality: CEO letters and social media in the global pulp and paper industry

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the content and determinants of voluntary corporate social responsibility (CSR) disclosures within chief executive officer (CEO) letters and social media tools. Design/methodology/approach – Published CEO letters and the presence of global pulp and paper manufacturing companies in the social media in 2012 are analysed in this study using content analysis. Furthermore, multiple regression analysis is used to investigate the impact played by headquarter location, firm size and lagged profitability as a measure of slack resources on the quality of CSR disclosure. Findings – Company size and slack resources were found to increase the quality of traditional sustainability communication, whereas company size was the only significant factor explaining communication quality in social media usage. Environmental issues were the most common disclosure topic, accompanied by community issues. A curvilinear association was interestingly found between slack resources and communication quality. Research limitations/implications – The sample frame was selected from the 100 largest pulp and paper companies globally, and for better generalization, future research should aim at also analyzing data from small and medium enterprises and from other industries. Practical implications – Findings of the paper are useful for firm self-evaluation and benchmarking of disclosure activities by other businesses across the pulp and paper industry. Social implications – Slack company resources improve communication quality and the effective utilization of multiple channels. Originality/value – This paper incorporates the framework of the new ISO 26000 standard in CSR implementation and illustrates the growing importance of social media in communicating CSR.