Investigation of Corporate Social Responsibility Development Patterns in Russia Based on the Specialized Rating
As part of the research a specialized rating of the corporate social responsibility was compiled based on the author’s methodology. Data was collected for the sample of 106 Russian public companies in the non-financial sector. On average, the disclosure rate of all indicators is as high as 75%. The most responsible companies, disclosing information on 25 to 27 out of 27criteria, were identified to form the list of 29 companies. Most of them appear to belong to oil and gas sector, chemical and energy industries. One of the possible explanations for that trend is that these areas tend to attract negative attention of the society. Accordingly, it can be assumed that the companies from the mentioned sectors act reasonably to compensate for their negative impact on the environment and society. It should also be noted that the companies represented by these sectors are usually large and have sufficient resources. According to the inadequate resources theory, companies participate in socially responsible projects when they have the resources to do so. However, this theory is relevant for the emerging markets, while stakeholder and signaling theories are more equitable for leading economies. The companies included into the sample show the highest level of the environmental impact disclosure, which may be explained by the fact that most of the companies are industrial with significant negative impact on the environment. In general, this study is a subject to a number of disadvantages. Firstly, the sample was quite small. Accordingly, the conclusions presented may be somewhat skewed and limited. Secondly, econometric models should be used. to present more reasonable results. That is planned to be the next stage of the research. Nevertheless, in our opinion, in general, the results obtained reflect the main trends in the development of the corporate social responsibility in Russia.