Content analysis in social and environmental reporting research: trends and challenges

Abstract

Content analysis in social and environmental reporting research: trends and challenges P. Vourvachis and T. WoodwardAbstract Purpose -The present study comprehensively reviews the use of content analysis in social and environmental reporting research. It explores how the relevant literature has evolved over time and particularly how recent developments have affected the validity and reliability challenges that researchers face when executing the method. Design/methodology/approach -The paper combines a quasi-systematic review of the literature employing content analysis (examining a sample of 251 studies published over the last 40 years in a wide array of journals with interest in the field), with a largely interpretive meta-analysis, using an index, considering the research questions asked and frameworks used as well as the specific content analysis decisions. Findings -A number of issues of concern in the use of the method are identified, mainly over comparability and reliability of coding schemes. Potential explanations are developed and methodological refinements that could enhance the usefulness of content analysis methods in social and environmental reporting research are subsequently proposed. Originality/value -The paper contributes to the literature by offering a critical and comprehensive review of the method's theoretical underpinnings and application in social and environmental reporting research, and by describing changing patterns in content analysis, in order to help build a more secure foundation for future work.

Factors Influencing Levels of CSR Disclosure by Forestry Companies in China

“…In other words, the texts of the CSR reports were analyzed with NVivo 11.0 software, and when the category system was created, a process of manually going back and forth between the text and the framework was implemented. As a measure of reliability of content analyses, previous studies [61,63] generally refer to three characteristics: stability, reproducibility, and accuracy. To ensure reliability, we based our content analysis on two CSR disclosure guidelines released by Chinese Academy of Social Sciences and Chinese National Forestry Products Industry Association (CASS 3.0 and CNFPIA 2.0); these can be considered stable and currently valid frameworks, and the codes for this study are reproducible.…”

“…Content analysis is performed by thoroughly reading through texts and developing suitable codes that are consolidated into categories describing the text. During this process, relevant literature is used to support the interpretation of the data and the development of the codes [61][62][63][64]. Consequently, the data was coded first based on the framework (Table 1), and then with a refined category system formed by using a data-driven (abductive) approach [65].…”

Cross-sector humanitarian–business partnerships in managing humanitarian logistics: an empirical verification

“…The second was to operationalise the humanitarian-business partnerships based on our framework. We developed a coding scheme with consideration to the established theories (Krippendorff 2013;Vourvachis and Woodward 2015) in order to ensure validity. Next, we applied the coding scheme to our sampling units.…”

Issues in Sustainability Accounting Reporting

“…An enormous diversity is evident with regards to categories, decision rules, definitions and even measurement approaches, undermining the comparability of findings and the accumulation of knowledge (Vourvachis and Woodward, 2015). Table 2 shows that there are 22 companies that incorporate the GRI standards in their sustainability accounting reports.…”