Communicating social responsibilities through CSR reports: Comparative study of top European and Asia-Pacific airlines

Recently the outbreak of major social incidents has put the airline industry in the forefront of the debate. However, studies related to the social dimension of the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) Standards in aviation are limited. To fill the gap, this study explored the social themes of corporate social responsibility (CSR) practices between European and Asia-Pacific based airlines. Quantitative content analysis is employed for comparing the social topics in CSR reports of 20 top airlines from Asia-Pacific and European regions over a 3-year period. It concludes that both regions focused more on labor management relations and supplier assessment. The Asia-Pacific airlines have placed special attention to adequacy of social information provided in their CSR reports while the European airlines kept reporting with a comprehensive method. This paper informs both academics and practitioners on the differences of the social dimension of sustainability between the European and Asia-Pacific aviation industry.