YouTube Sustainability ReportingEmpirical Evidence from Eurozone-Listed Companies.

Resumo

CSR reporting is gaining momentum among Eurozone companies. The objective of this paper is to provide evidence regarding companies using YouTube as a communication and engagement channel for sustainability issues. Legitimacy theory and stakeholder theory are applied as a theoretical background for this study. Data on 306 Eurozone companies listed on the STOXX Euro 600 Index were collected to describe these practices and to identify whether sustainability reporting on YouTube follows the same patterns as CSR reporting in general. The main findings indicate that, in spite of its potential, sustainability reporting using YouTube is still in an early stage. The independent measures examined in this study only influence the extent of environmental reporting via YouTube; they do not affect other sustainability disclosures. Specifically, the factors influencing environmental YouTube disclosure are the sector in which the company operates, the proportion of independent directors, and company size.