How The World's Leading Businesses Address Corporate Social Responsibility

Corporate behavior is approaching celebrity status. Executive scandals, product recalls, unethical labor practices, and environmental disasters are more closely scrutinized than ever, and the information age does not permit incidents to be swept easily under the rug. As employees, investors, customers, and partners pay more attention to corporate responsibility, companies are responding by strengthening and reporting their efforts related to environmental, social, and economic issues. Forrester documented the content of corporate social responsibility (CSR) reports of the world's largest companies, creating a benchmark of the most commonly reported practices. In another context, many of these aspects of responsibility would be expected practices of any well-run business. However, among a number of surprises, a comparison of reports according to industry showed wide discrepancies in documenting social and economic efforts.