Third International Conference on Communication & Media Studies

Abstract

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) has become a way for corporations to meet the expectations of different stakeholders in terms of economic, social, and environmental issues. It has become indispensable for an organization’s success and positive image and reputation. Employing the stakeholder theory, the purpose of this research is to analyse CSR content of leading Kuwaiti corporations. It identifies the issues and stakeholders of CSR and if corporations are following reporting standards. By analysing websites, annual and CSR reports of the top 100 Kuwaiti corporations, this study found low mentions of the CSR issues and even lower mentions of stakeholders. Environmental issues were among the least mentioned. “Society” was mentioned the most as the stakeholder and “The Environment” was among the least mentioned. Independent sample t-tests found no significant difference between the issues and stakeholders that are mentioned in the websites and the reports. Only two companies from the sample followed reporting standards. Kuwaiti corporations need to pay more attention to CSR and particularly to the environment. They should adopt a strategic approaches toward it where higher management needs to understand its significance and allocate specialized personnel such as marketers and public relations practitioners to manage it. The government and non-profit organizations should encourage the private sector in Kuwait to do more CSR and meet the needs and expectations of different stakeholders and not only shareholders. This is in addition to reporting the CSR information strategically and professionally because of its benefits to corporate image, reputation, and transparency.