Discussion On The Social Responsibility Information Disclosure Of The Listed State-owned Iron And Steel Enterprises

With the gradual improvement of our modern enterprise system and the deepening of economic system reform, more and more enterprises integrate their social responsibility into the development strategy. Some enterprises even make the social responsibility as their unique competitive advantage. As an important pillar and solid backing of the national economy, state-owned enterprises’ production and business activities related to people’s life and even all aspects of social economic activities. It is an important responsibility of these enterprises to fulfill their social responsibilities. Now more and more state-owned listed companies recognize the social responsibility information disclosure has become an important factor affecting their competitiveness and operational efficiency. In recent years, the performance of the social responsibility of a number of state-owned enterprises such as Baosteel, has been widely acclaimed by all sectors of the society and played a very good role model. Since the reform and opening up, the development of China’s iron and steel industry is very fast. Iron and steel industry not only accounts for a larger proportion in our country’s GDP, but also is our country’s basic industry. Its production operations are closely related to resources, environmental issues, which determines the necessity and urgency for Chinese iron and steel companies to disclose social responsibility.Analysis of the social responsibility information disclosure of the listed state-owned iron and steel enterprises is based on the principal-agent theory, the signal transfer theory, the stakeholder theory and the sustainable development theory. Responsibility information disclosure of the state-owned enterprises is defined as a process during which enterprises reveal the condition of social responsibility undertaken by them, the induced financial position and the influence of the business performance in the current economic and social environment. State-owned enterprises’ social responsibility information disclosure should include the following aspects: the content of the operation and management, employees, shareholders and creditors, consumers and suppliers, government and community, resource and environment. As a special industry, iron and steel enterprises also need to disclose the safety production information, main energy consumption index and pollutants discharge and treatment. Description of these concepts laid the theoretical and practical foundation for later analyzing problems and putting forward countermeasures of the social responsibility information disclosure of listed state-owned iron and steel enterprises.Secondly, there is an increasing number of listed state-owned iron and steel enterprises to disclose social responsibility information in recent years, and the information disclosure level is gradually improving. However, after analyzing the disclosed social responsibility information, we found that some problems still exist. There are many reasons for these problems. For example, the weak awareness of management in social responsibility information disclosure, the low attention of stakeholders, and the high cost of social responsibility information disclosure result in unenthusiastic and less prompt social responsibility information disclosure. Lack of talents and unified evaluation standard generates the situation that corporate social responsibility information disclosure is short of comprehensiveness and comparability with a single form. Absence of effective external supervision is reducing the credibility and the quality of information disclosure.Again, because the social responsibility information of Japan’s iron and steel enterprises has been disclosed earlier, great progress in environmental reports and information disclosure has been made, and a set of strict norms and standard mode has been formed. Therefore, the research on social responsibility information disclosure of Japan’s iron and steel enterprises may have some revelation for China’s iron and steel enterprises. This paper draws on the successful experience of Japan’s iron and steel enterprises’ social responsibility information disclosure and gets the following revelation: setting clear environmental protection concept and key environmental targets, paying attention to the communication and feedback with users, improving the internal social responsibility promotion system; paying attention to the third-party advice and detailed disclosure.Finally, according to the previously mentioned problems and the experience, recommendations on perfecting the social responsibility information disclosure of the listed state-owned iron and steel enterprises are proposed from the following aspects:(1) strengthening the internal construction of listed state-owned iron and steel enterprises, such as strengthening the management of social responsibility information disclosure, professional training for relevant personnel, strengthening the information construction to reduce the cost of information disclosure, enhancing the communication with stakeholders, establishing a perfect internal social responsibility promotion system.(2) strengthening the system construction of the social responsibility information disclosure, such as unifying the standard to regulate the contents and form of social responsibility information disclosure, establishing the third-party evaluation system and the punishment system of illegal behaviors.(3) improving the governmental supervision system. For example, to establish a government-led supervision mode, the SASAC should establish an incentive and restraint mechanism.(4) improving the pushing effect of the trade association and the public. For example, to enhance the awareness of social media and stakeholders, the CISA should promote the social responsibility information disclosure of iron and steel industry.