CAN A CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK FOR CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY [CSR] ASSURANCE BE DEVELOPED?

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Abstract

Independent corporate social responsibility [CSR] assurance should provide stakeholders with confidence that company CSR reports are complete, accurate and reliable. However, the voluntary nature of CSR reporting and assurance practices, implies that CSR assurance practices are largely unregulated, producing a variety of assurance providers using different approaches, undermining its effectiveness. The paper proposes that CSR assurance should be regulated to ameliorate these inconsistencies. The study examines the CSR assurance reports of the 200 largest companies listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange, utilising a qualitative content analysis undertaken in two phases. The first phase examines annual/sustainability reports to identify companies that published independent CSR assurance reports during 2011/2. The second phase analysed CSR assurance reports to establish the primary characteristics of CSR assurance.

Keywords: Assurance, Competencies, Corporate Social Responsibility [CSR], Framework, Standards

How to cite this paper: Ackers, B. (2015). Can a conceptual framework for corporate social responsibility [CSR] assurance be developed? Corporate Ownership & Control, 12(4), 8-23. https://doi.org/10.22495/cocv12i4p1