Disclosure of social responsibility in annual performance reports of universities

The objective of this paper is to investigate how Lithuanian public universities implement the concept of social responsibility and disclose sustainable information in their annual performance reports. The research methodology employed content analysis of annual performance reports and descriptive statistics. Three areas were chosen according to GRI G4 (2013): environmental performance, economic performance and social performance (which is divided into four parts: labor practices and decent work, human rights, society, product responsibility). Additionally it was included educational dimension. Since in Lithuania, social responsibility reporting is not compulsory, in their annual performance reports universities are focusing on the areas which appear essential for them. There is a lack of uniform reporting and so the disclosures of different universities are not comparable. Also, not each and every area is always reflected in the reports. Mostly discussed are Economics and Social areas, while Environmental and Educational are not reflected at all in some universities. The results can be used for comparing reporting practices among different universities and countries, and also for further improving sustainability reporting. (C) 2015 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.