Value of Social Reporting

The Boston College Center for Corporate Citizenship’s Institute for Responsible Investment examined the experiences and practices of seven companies in preparing social reports. That examination forms the basis of this overview report and seven separate case studies. This overview research focuses not on the social reports themselves, but rather on the process and outcomes of reporting: how companies prepare the reports, the effects of reporting on management practices, the changes companies expect to make in the future, and the lessons they have learned along the way. The researchers’ goal was to find whether and how companies found value in the reporting process, and whether and how their reports create value for internal and external readers.