Corporate Social Responsibility and the Importance of Esg Reporting From the Young Generation Perspective

Abstract

Since the adoption of the Non-Financial Reporting Directive, companies are required to report information on environmental, social, and employee matters, respect for human rights, anti-corruption, and bribery matters. These aspects represent some of the elements of socially responsible corporate behavior.

Following the adoption of the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive and its gradual transposition into the European Union Member States' national legislation, the ESG reporting requirements are becoming stricter. The aim is to ensure transparency and comparability of reported sustainability information, to prevent greenwashing, and to ensure that companies behave in a socially responsible manner to the environment, society, and governance, and report this information in the Sustainability Report.

The paper aims to analyze how the young generation from four different countries perceives the socially responsible behavior of companies and what importance they give to different aspects of corporate social responsibility.

To meet the purpose of the paper, a standard methodology of legislation and literature review was performed. Afterward, a questionnaire survey was conducted in which we investigated the attitudes of the young generation to the socially responsible behavior of companies.

The results of the research showed that the young generation perceives social responsibility in companies’ behavior and takes it as a competitive advantage in the market. The results, among others, showed which aspects of responsible business are the most important for the young generation, if young people can name some socially responsible companies, and if they prefer to buy products or services from companies that behave responsibly to society and the environment, etc.

The paper analyses the attitudes of the young generation which can be a limited factor in the research. More detailed analysis within all the age groups could bring different results. The number of respondents is another limitation.