Addressing corporate social responsibility in corporations: a content analysis of Amazon's and Walmart's websites

The purpose of this study is to analyze how Amazon and Walmart, two of the largest global companies, present the balance among their economic, social and environmental activities and construct their identities as good corporate citizens helping to create a sustainable world.

A content analysis methodology was applied to the companies' official websites in order to examine their corporate social responsibility (CSR) efforts. The Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) framework was used to provide coding categories.

The findings indicate that expectations and pressures from the public may help trigger companies to report their CSR efforts. In addition, this study also indicates that the triple bottom line TBL concept does not fully explain each companies' global CSR efforts.

Most CSR studies have analyzed communication in only one country, rather than taking a global view. This study examines how Amazon and Walmart have constructed their identity as global corporate citizens and how they work to communicate their identity globally.