This papers deals with coporate social disclosure
made by French companies through their websites
and their annual reports.
First, it discusses the suitability of an evaluation of
the scope of corporate social disclosure based on the
sole annual report. Then, it. seeks to extend previous
research of corporate social disclosures by examining
the relationship between a number of corporate
characteristics and social responsibility disclosures.
In addition, this study considers the social and
environmental disclosures made by 49 French firms in
their annual reports and through their web sites. It
compares and contrasts corporate social disclosures
between the two media with respect to the amount
and quality of information released, and the themes
of disclosure. In testing the relationship between
corporate profitability, the nature of the industry, the
size and the level of firms' social disclosures, this
study underlines the importance of the political
dimensions in the corporate social disclosure process.