A number of conclusions may be made from the research. The incidence of CSR
appears to be increasing. There are clearly issues with sampling as most studies use
selection based on “top 20” companies or similar rather than random selections. The
literature shows a reasonably consistent use of ranking of by theme, the normal
being human resources, environment, community, energy and product. The level of
CSR does not vary greatly between companies whether they be in the USA, UK, or
Australia. Disclosures are typically of a positive nature with very little bad news
being reported. To this end Australian findings indicate that CSR is often a
response to an event or incident rather than a reflection of the company’s
underlying responsibility to stakeholders (Deegan et al., 2000). The literature
evidences a variety of methods of content analysis such that comparability is
compromised. To reduce this problem and to provide internal comparability, this
study uses a longitudinal approach.