Table 1 Summary and comparison of companies’ website communications related to CSR, 2001-2009

Motivations for CSR

• Financial advantage

• Financial advantage

• Overall values

• Competitive advantage

• Competitive advantage

• Competitive advantage

• Overall values

• Drives innovation

• Company history

• Financial advantage

• Financial advantage

• Financial advantage

• Company history

• Overall values

• Drives innovation

• Drives innovation

• Drives innovation

• Stakeholder influences

• Company history

• Overall values

• Overall values

• Overall values

• Legal/regulatory compliance

• Company history

• Legal/regulatory compliance

• Company history

• Stakeholder influences

• Legal/regulatory compliance

• Stakeholder influences

• Stakeholder influences

• Stakeholder influences

Philanthropy

• Youth, HIV/AIDS

• Youth, women, HIV/AIDS, factory workers, communities

• Youth, HIV/AIDS, underserved populations, anti-racism

• Youth, HIV/AIDS, underserved populations, women, girls, environment, employees, disaster victims, factory workers

• Youth, women, communities, environment, disaster victims

• Youth, women, girls, communities, environment, HIV/AIDS, disaster victims, underserved populations, schools

• Employee contribution matching and volunteer programs

• Employee contribution matching and volunteer programs

• Employee contribution matching and volunteer programs

• Philanthropy case studies

• Employee contribution matching and volunteer programs

• Employee contribution matching and volunteer programs

• Personal stories from employee volunteer efforts

• Philanthropy case studies

• Disclose grants lists

• Third-party stories about philanthropy efforts

• Employee volunteer recognition program

• Disclose grants list

• Employee matching and volunteer program

• Disclose grants list

• Disclose grants lists

Labor Practices

• Vendor code of conduct

• Vendor code of conduct

• Vendor code of conduct

• Vendor code of conduct

• Vendor code of conduct

• Vendor code of conduct

• Monitoring and remediation

• Monitoring and remediation

• Monitoring and remediation

• Monitoring and remediation

• Monitoring and remediation

• Monitoring and remediation

• Environmental standards

• Environmental standards

• Case studies

• Supplier ownership (new approach)

• Reporting on monitoring

• Disclose factory lists

• Profiles of factory assessors

• Collaboration with labor organization and competitors

• Collaboration with labor organizations

• Collaboration with labor organizations

• Case studies

• Profiles of factory assessors

• Disclose factory lists

• Third-party stories about efforts

• Factory rating system

• Disclose training regime for factory assessors

• Stakeholder criticisms and company’s responses

• Case studies

• Influencing public policy

• Student participation in monitoring and reporting results

• Disclose countries where products are made

• Links to case studies

• Disclose factory lists

• External evaluations of practices

• Collaboration with labor organizations

Environmental Practices

• Mention, but devote little content to:

• Environmental policies for factories

• Mentioned but did not elaborate

• Environmental policies for factories

• Environmental policies for factories

• Environmental policies for factories

• Production processes

• Sustainable product design

• Sustainable product design

• Youth education program

• Sustainable building design

• Energy and waste reduction

• Energy and waste reduction

• Third-party assessment of environmental impacts

• Sustainable building design

• Sustainable product lifecycle

• Sustainable building design

• Sustainable building design

• Grants to support sustainability

• Sustainable product lifecycle

• Alternative transportation

• Alternative transportation

• Energy and waste reduction

• Collaboration with environmental organizations

• Packaging

• Alternative transportation

• Influence public policy

• Industry collaboration

Diversity

• Employee diversity

• Employee diversity

• Employee diversity

• Employee diversity

• Employee diversity and internal Networks

• Employee diversity, internal Networks and additional programs

• Consumer diversity

• Consumer diversity

• Consumer diversity

• Supplier diversity

• Supplier diversity

• Supplier diversity

• Grants to underrepresented groups

• Consumer diversity

• Consumer diversity

• Consumer diversity

Account-ability

• None present

• CSR reports

• Case studies

• Case studies

• Case studies

• CSR reports

• Case studies

• Reporting in content

• Reporting in content

• Reporting in content

• Case studies

• Reporting in content

• Disclose grants lists

• Disclose grants lists

• Reporting in content

• External evaluations

• Disclose factory lists

• Disclose factory lists

• Disclose grants lists

• Disclose grants lists

• External evaluations

• External evaluations

• Disclose factory lists

Recognition

• None present

• Recognitions list

• Recognitions list

• Recognitions list

• Recognitions list

• Recognitions list

• Recognitions throughout content

• Recognitions throughout content

• Recognitions throughout content

• Recognitions throughout content

• Stakeholder testimonials

• Third-party news stories