Corporate Digital Responsibility and Sustainability Disclosures
Summary
Corporate digital responsibility (CDR) has emerged as a critical complement to traditional sustainability disclosures, reflecting an organisation’s duty to manage digital impacts alongside environmental, social and governance (ESG) concerns. CDR encompasses ethical technology design, transparent data governance and mitigation of digital harms, while sustainability disclosures communicate progress on climate action, social equity and governance standards. Together, these streams inform stakeholders of a firm’s holistic stewardship and long-term resilience. Advancements in data analytics and reporting frameworks have driven more rigorous, standardised disclosures, enabling comparisons across industries and geographies. In turn, this transparency fosters accountability, strengthens stakeholder trust and aligns corporate strategy with global agendas such as the UN Sustainable Development Goals.
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Corporate Digital Responsibility and Sustainability Disclosures publication trend
The graph below shows the total number of articles in corporate digital responsibility and sustainability disclosures across all publications each year (not limited to Nature Index journals).
Technical terms
Corporate Digital Responsibility (CDR): The set of ethical principles, norms and practices that guide an organisation’s management of its digital technologies, data and algorithmic impacts.
Sustainability Disclosure: The systematic reporting of an organisation’s performance on environmental, social and governance metrics, often aligned with recognised standards.
ESG Framework: A categorisation of performance factors into environmental, social and governance dimensions to assess corporate sustainability and ethical impact.
Data Governance: The policies and procedures that ensure responsible collection, storage, usage and protection of data within an organisation.
References
- What we already know about corporate digital responsibility in IS research: A review and conceptualization of potential CDR activities. Electronic Markets (2024).
- Corporate digital responsibility. Journal of Business Research (2021).
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