Examining GRI Sustainability Reports through the Lens of the Stakeholder Theory

Publishing a successful sustainability report is a rising concern among organizations seeking to meet the expectations of their stakeholders. The purpose of this research is to examine how stakeholder engagement influences Global Reporting Initiative's (GRI) reporting processes. We use stakeholder theory to assert that an organization's sustainability practices are prompted by the demands of a variety of stakeholders. Cisco GRI reports were chosen for analysis because in 2020 Cisco was ranked 4th amongst the global 100 most sustainable corporations in the world. We conducted a longitudinal analysis of Cisco's corporate social responsibility reports from 2005 to 2020. Using text mining techniques and text statistical analysis we identified the primary stakeholders in each year's sustainability report and document stakeholder-related sustainability practices. Our results demonstrate that organizational sustainability practices are a function of the extent of engagement with core stakeholders. This study contributes to understanding how stakeholders' engagement relates to organizational sustainability reporting processes.