The determinants of the extent of diversity reporting in the sustainability reports of multinationals

Details

Supervisors

Jammaers, Eline

Faculty

Louvain School of Management

Degree label

Master [120] en ingénieur de gestion

Abstract

The diversification of the workforce created major challenges for multinationals in terms of diversity management. However, the current understanding of the factors that influence the prominence that MNCs give to diversity is virtually nil. For that reason, we decided to investigate the determinants of the extent of diversity reporting in the sustainability reports of MNCs. On the basis of CSR reporting studies, we made the hypotheses that an MNC’s size, industry, profitability and country of origin are good predictors of the amount of diversity-related information reported. To verify these hypotheses, we conducted a quantitative content analysis on the 2017 sustainability reports of 128 multinationals and performed a descriptive analysis followed by a multiple regression model. We found evidence that diversity is an important topic in the sustainability reports of MNCs, that Gender is the most discussed diversity dimension (33%) while other dimensions like disability or LGBTQ+ are heavily eluded, and that correlations might exist between the determinants tested and the relative importance given by multinationals to each dimension of diversity. The results of our multiple regression model indicated that all the variables tested are significant determinants of the extent of diversity reporting, thus validating our four hypotheses. However, the correlations we observed for three of our independent variables are contrary to what CSR theory predicted. Our findings have implications for future researchers, companies, stakeholders and regulators. Eventually, we contributed to reducing the current academic gap in the field of multinationals’ diversity management practices and highlighted the need for further researches to be conducted.