Abstract This study uses survey data from 200 frontline managers working in Australia to examine the role of corporate social responsibility (CSR)-related management controls in enhancing CSR disclosure quality and the mediating role of CSR activity in this association. The study develops new measures of CSR-related management controls, adapting Simons’ (1995) levers of control (belief, boundary, interactive use and diagnostic use) to reflect the integration between management control practices and CSR. A new measure of CSR disclosure quality is also developed using the six reporting quality characteristics (i.e., accuracy, balance, clarity, comparability across time and with other similar organisations, reliability, and timeliness) identified in GRI 101: Foundation (GSSB, 2016). While a positive association was found between the interactive and diagnostic use of CSR-related management controls and CSR activity - environmental, no association was found between CSR activity - environmental and CSR disclosure quality and hence, CSR activity - environmental does not mediate the association between CSR-related management controls and CSR disclosure quality. However, the findings support the mediating role of CSR activity - social, as we find that CSR-related belief and boundary controls and the diagnostic use of CSR-related controls are positively associated with CSR activity - social, which in turn is positively associated with CSR disclosure quality. In addition, the diagnostic use of CSR-related management controls exhibits a direct positive association with CSR disclosure quality. The findings contribute to the literature by highlighting the role of CSR-related management controls in enhancing CSR disclosure quality both directly and indirectly through CSR activity - social.
Moses et al. (Tue,) studied this question.