The CSR Communications and Reporting Landscape in Developing Countries

Despite the global trends shaping Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Communications and Reporting (CSR C&R), which trends advocate for quality, reliable and accurate CSR messages, developing countries’ CSR C&R is still lagging behind. For example, much as the most common channels of CSR C&R are annual reports, website postings, newsletters, etc., , to a large extent, these CSR C&R fail to differentiate between material and non-material CSR issues that should be communicated. This is evidenced by most of the CSR C&R messages from companies and organizations in these countries, produced and issued to the audiences at below Global Reporting Initiatives (GRI) 4 minimum standards. In a promising development though, traces of the relationship between ‘Speech Act Theory (SAT)’ and ‘Sense-making Theory (SMT)’, have been found to be helpful in understanding how stakeholders targeted by these CSR messages in developing countries endeavor to extract and make meaning and use of this information/message. Hence, as a contribution to knowledge, this chapter provides the ‘Kata-Nkiko Framework.’ This framework explains the state of Integrated CSR Communications and Reporting (CSR C&R) in developing countries. Additionally, it advances critical points, which, if observed, will allow the CSR C&R from these countries to be credible, and sense can be made out of it. Lastly, from this framework, a concept, “Sense-Act” of CSR information is fronted in the debate on CSR C&R for the first time. It is derived from roots of “Sense-making Theory,” and “Speech Act Theory”.