Comparing Corporate Social Responsibility Disclosure Between China And The UK

Along with the fast development of economy and society, the corporations are competing to constantly improve the economic performance as the main means of survival and development. However, many corporations pursue perfect operating performance at the expense of environment, employees, and customers’ interests. After that, series of social, environmental and ethical issues have been appearing quickly. The negative effects of corporation behaviours have been drawn more attentions. The demands of corporations to take social responsibility and report relevant information are getting full momentum. Since 21 st Century, an increasing number of corporations have been paying more attention to take social responsibility. Taking social responsibility gradually becomes a new idea and a new strategy to run business. That has coordinated well with the goal of corporate value maximization. However, in academia and different governments, there is no unified standard to define and evaluate the corporate social responsibility(CSR). The levels of corporate social responsibility disclosure(CSRD) are showing very differently from one country to another, especially between developed countries and developing countries. Therefore, studying further about CSR situation, comparing different conditions of enterprises to fulfil social responsibility between developed countries and developing countries disclosure, and drawing on each other’s strength can provide advices to improve CSRD situation in our country.Through the literature research, this paper will discuss the theory foundation of CSRD. The article will also compare the degree, content, practicability, credibility and criterion of information disclosure between China and the UK. Furthermore, discussing how macroscopic and microcosmic factors working on the situation of CSRD. At the macro level, the article will base on relevant theories to make conclusions: relevant provisions will influence CSR reports’ quality; attitudes from owners and operators will influence CSR reports’ practicability; cultures will influence CSR reports’ content. At the micro level, the article will apply an empirical analysis to finding that: Firstly, the directors in British companies have higher independence to take responsibility, which shows a positive relation with CSRD level. Instead, incomplete independent director mechanism does not show that relation. Secondly, perfect independent director mechanism would supervise companies to increase CSRD degree, initiatively seek external assurance, and improve CSR reports’ quality. Thirdly, in China, high-risk companies would bring a degeneration of CSRD level. Instead, British companies do not show that relation. Fourthly, when a country does not have enough laws and regulations to force corporate social responsibility disclosure, such as China, high-risk companies tend to reduce their transparency, refuse external assurance, cover the negative information, and reduce the risk of moral hazard. However, in the UK, the contents and scopes of corporate social responsibility disclosure are compulsively required and regulated. Therefore,any risky company should disclose necessary information, including a lot of negative information.In China, corporate social responsibility disclosure still has to further develop, with institution and technology. Some practices of British is worth learning.