Salient stakeholders in corporate social responsibility reporting by Chinese mining and minerals companies

This paper investigates the influence of key stakeholder groups on Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) disclosures by Chinese mining and mineral companies. Salience of stakeholder groups founded in stakeholder theory forms the basis for this investigation because of the rising influence of a range of different stakeholders on corporate disclosures in the mining and mineral industry in Western countries. The aim is to examine whether such stakeholders appear to be salient in the emerging Chinese context. The contents of 176 corporate annual and CSR reports produced by all mining and minerals companies listed on the Shanghai and Shenzhen Stock Exchanges in the four year period 2007 to 2010 were analyzed. Results indicate that in addition to the central government, salient stakeholders with a significant impact now include international consumers, while unexpectedly mining industry associations, local communities and employees are not considered as salient as they do not have a significant impact on CSR reporting practice. The main policy implication is that considerable scope remains for improving accountability through CSR reporting to be encouraged by incorporating the views of the current stakeholder groups exhibiting low salience in the mining and minerals industry in China.