Third-party Assurance Of Corporate Social Responsibility Report

Since the reform and opening up, China’s economy has made remarkable achievements. At the same time the enterprises which play an important role in national economy have also been rapid development. However many domestic enterprises do poorly when undertaking for social responsibility. They are lack of social responsibility in many areas, such as violations of the legitimate rights and interests of employees, illegal labor, product quality problems, irregular operations, the lack of honesty, the extraordinarily serious production safety and environmental pollution accidents, etc.With the public attention on corporate social responsibility increasing, many domestic enterprises disclose the fulfillment of corporate social responsibility by social responsibility reports, in order to meet the information needs of the stakeholders and to increase the competitiveness of enterprises. It has gradually become a trend. But the depth and breadth of a lot of corporate social responsibility reports are limited. The social responsibility reports are mainly using qualitative approach to disclosure of information and lack of quantitative indicators. Although the number of corporate social responsibility reports increases considerably, the quality is worrying. Therefore, we need third-party assurance to enhance the credibility of the corporate social responsibility report.Currently domestic research in this area is still rarely, so my research about the theme of third-party assurance of corporate social responsibility report is meaningful. Firstly, on the basis of a lot of reading and combing literature on corporate social responsibility, the paper defines the corporate social responsibility, corporate social responsibility report, third-party assurance and elaborate the theoretical basis of third-party assurance of corporate social responsibility report from five angles-principal-agent, stakeholder, signal transduction, social responsibility accounting and sustainable development. Then the paper analyzes the current situation of corporate social responsibility report, third-party assurance and reveals the problems of third-party assurance, and analyzes the necessity and feasibility of third-party assurance to carry out in China. Lastly, the exploratory study is carried out in these aspects-assurance purposes, assurance providers, assurance objects and contents, assurance standards, assurance procedures and assurance conclusions, etc. And finally the paper combines with the specific case of Ernst&Young Assurance of Corporate Social Responsibility Report-Ping An China2011to build the framework of our third-party assurance of corporate social responsibility report. I hope it will have certain role in promoting the theoretical research and practical development of third-party assurance of corporate social responsibility report in China.