Methodology for Assessing the Disclosure Quality of Corporate Social and Environmental Responsibility Information

Abstract

The subject of this study is corporate social and environmental responsibility. The object is the assessment of responsibility information disclosure quality based on the methodology developed by the authors and responsibility model. Analysis of the disclosure quality is based on data from public sources — annual nonfinancial reports of companies. This study shows examples of assessment methodology application for six Russian oil and gas companies — «Gazprom Neft», «Lukoil», «Rosneft», «Zarubezhneft», «Surgutneftegaz» and «Novatek» — based on their 2014 annual reports. The purpose of the research is to present a methodology for assessing the information disclosure quality in companies’ public sources of information about their social and environmental responsibility practices. The main results of the study is to present the methodology with practical examples of its use. The uniqueness of the study lies in the fact that the methodology is based on indicators of the Model of corporate social and environmental responsibility which is developed by the authors’. The practical significance of the study is determined by the possibility to apply the developed methodology for assessing the disclosure quality of social and environmental responsibility for companies from other sectors and based in other countries. Study the disclosure of social and environmental responsibility in the companies’ annual reports is part of a larger study of environmental and social responsibility of Russian oil and gas companies that have their projects in the Arctic region.