Evidence for Novel Structures Relating CSR Reporting and Economic Welfare: Environmental Sustainability—A Continent-Level Analysis

Abstract

This paper aims to work towards a factual framework to substantiate the linkage between corporate social responsibility (CSR) reporting and economic activity and between CSR reporting and CO2 pollution, continent-wide. The document summarizes the conclusions of the dynamic analysis of CSR reports and the correlation analysis between CSR reports and economic—environmental variables, always using evidence from continent-level data. We draw on growth—environmental data and CSR reports from 1999 to 2017 to perform an analysis that quantifies the direction, the strength and the nature of the dependence structure between the two variables. Continents’ position according to their CSR reporting performance, CSR report trends over time, comparative schemes among continents, compose a global view on continents’ differentiation on CSR practices and strategies. Overall, the paper contributes to the understanding of how the CSR policies have been integrated and evolved worldwide. © 2021, The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC part of Springer Nature.