1. ¹Zicklin School of Business, Baruch College, City University of New York, New York, NY, USA
2. ²International Center for Corporate Accountability, New York, NY, USA

Abstract

The last decade has witnessed a rapid growth in the publication of corporate non-financial reports. Variously called the corporate social responsibility, global citizenship or sustainability report, this type of corporate communication provides an uncensored public venue for corporations to demonstrate their commitments toward good corporate citizenship and socially responsible conduct. There is, however, a paucity of research that evaluates the ability of these reports to reach and to positively persuade their intended audiences. This paper examines the notion of corporate reputation in the context of CSR-sustainability reporting, and evaluates the role of senior corporate executive as the spokesperson in engendering public trust and corporate image as a good global citizen.