Corporate response to water-related social movement: voluntary water disclosure strategies

Abstract

Reckless water withdrawal and pollution by economic development and growing population increase causes and effects of global water scarcity. Growing concern about water scarcity has received global attention and attained a global agenda to have more effective and efficient water usage. However, water management and development of adequate water infrastructure to maintain access to freshwater by both individuals and industries still remain as a role of public services. Industries which is substantial water users also try to bear their responsibility for their impact on water resources as a part of corporate social responsibility (CSR). As corporations' role in water stewardship is increasing, the importance of understanding conditions and drivers for corporations to voluntarily and publicly disclose water-related information increases as well. Building on theories of how social activists inspire changes in a corporation's norms and practices and how corporations perform disclosing activities in response to the social movement in order to show their legitimacy, the main objective of this paper is to explore the main drivers to motivate or threaten corporations to actively engage in water management. Aligned with the lessons learned from many cases that corporation's water-related practices profoundly affect the local community and regional access to water, the results of this paper also show that social activism found to be a more effective tool to increase the likelihood of corporate engagement in such disclosure on water-related information as an act of environmentally responsible firms.