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Digital Dissemination of Environmental and Social Initiatives. Investigation of Reporting Practices in German Shipping Industry

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Experimental and Computational Investigations in Engineering (CNNTech 2020)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Networks and Systems ((LNNS,volume 153))

Abstract

Both sustainable development and corporate social responsibility (CSR) have received particular attention recently, hence becoming increasingly important in the business world as a model in building equilibrium between economic benefits and growth on the one side, and the society and the environment on the other side. CSR is a strategic business concern that indicates responsiveness towards economic and environmental issues striving for a favorable influence on the development of society, and consequently sustainable development. Along with the trend of incorporation CSR initiatives into every-day business operations, the demand for more transparency on companies’ activities in these areas has been expanding. As companies appear to increasingly engage in disclosure of information related to their environmental and social impacts, this study explores voluntary disclosure of data related to these two groups of concerns, particularly on companies’ websites. The goal of the paper is to contribute to the understanding the reporting and disclosure of sustainability data. The study particular investigates the extent to which German freight shipping companies use websites as channels for presenting their social and environmental information to the public. The research included 82 freight shipping companies, members of the German ship-owners’ association. For each company, the study measured the level of compatibility with the Global Reporting Initiative environmental and social reporting standards. The results indicate that companies seated in Hamburg, companies with group affiliation and companies with large fleets outperform those located in other German provinces, nonaffiliated shipping companies and modest-sized fleets.

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Acknowledgement

This paper has been supported by the University of Rijeka under the project number Uniri-drustv-18-235-1399.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Belgrade, Jove Ilića 154, 11000, Belgrade, Serbia

    Slavica Cicvarić Kostić & Marko Mihić

  2. Monitoring and Evaluation Expert, Zrmanjska 3, 11000, Belgrade, Serbia

    Slavenko Djokić

  3. Volkswagen Group Services GmbH, Niedersachsenstraße 2, 26723, Emden, Germany

    Dana Stojiljković

Authors
  1. Slavica Cicvarić Kostić
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  2. Marko Mihić
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  3. Slavenko Djokić
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  4. Dana Stojiljković
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Slavica Cicvarić Kostić .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, Department for Process Engineering and Environmental Protection, University of Belgrade, Belgrade, Serbia

    Nenad Mitrovic

  2. Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, Department for Production Engineering, University of Belgrade, Belgrade, Serbia

    Goran Mladenovic

  3. Faculty of Information Technology and Engineering, University Union - Nikola Tesla, Belgrade, Serbia

    Aleksandra Mitrovic

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Cicvarić Kostić, S., Mihić, M., Djokić, S., Stojiljković, D. (2021). Digital Dissemination of Environmental and Social Initiatives. Investigation of Reporting Practices in German Shipping Industry. In: Mitrovic, N., Mladenovic, G., Mitrovic, A. (eds) Experimental and Computational Investigations in Engineering. CNNTech 2020. Lecture Notes in Networks and Systems, vol 153. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-58362-0_2

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