The report hypothesizes that U.S. firms disclose based on legal requirements while European firms go beyond those requirements (Fortune, 2005).Whether this U.S. reluctance towards transparency isdue to a fear of litigation, a concern that government promotion of CSR may represent the first step in a slippery slope toward global regulation of global business, or other factors, is not clear; and it is this lack of understanding that serves as a strong motivation behind for the current research.2