Digital Commons Network^™

Corporate Social Disclosure By Westpac Banking Corporation: A Study Of Social Impact Reports (2002 – 2004), Hung Do, Carol A. Tilt, Matthew V. Tilling

Business Conference Papers

While a number of studies of Corporate Social Disclosure (CSD) focus on the annual report as the principal means of communication, this paper presents an exploratory examination of the Social Impact Reports of a large, Australian company – Westpac Banking Corporation Ltd – for the period 2002-2004. It considers whether there is a relationship between media attention and disclosures made in Westpac’s reports, in light of Legitimacy Theory. Westpac’s reports were prepared in a formulaic manner, the disclosures were generally positive with little quantitative data, and covered the areas of environment, customer, employees and community. Westpac’s disclosures appeared to be …