Communicating stakeholder engagement and its quality: analyzing the CSR reports of the leading Chinese companies

ABSTRACT The purpose of this study is to investigate how the leading Chinese companies communicate their stakeholder engagement (SE) practices in CSR reports and the quality of such practices. A quantitative content analysis was employed to examine SE-related content of 98 CSR annual reports from Fortune 200 Chinese companies. Informed by prior research, a SE disclosure index was created to examine to what extent the leading Chinese companies reported their daily SE practices. Moreover, a SE evaluation framework was introduced and applied to further examine the quality of SE practices applied to consumers, employees, and communities. The study shows that the leading Chinese companies generally incorporated SE-related content as a salient component in their CSR reports, disclosed important items about their SE practices, and adopted varied approaches to engage with the three stakeholders. Moreover, SE disclosure thoroughness and quality were associated with the economic industry a company belongs to, the presence of a corporate foundation, and the existence of a CSR committee within the board of directors.