Acta Univ. Agric. Silvic. Mendelianae Brun. 2017, 65(1), 283-292 | DOI: 10.11118/actaun201765010283

Relation between Sustainability-Related Communication and Competitiveness in the Chemical Industry

Jaroslava Hyršlová1, Pavel Tomšík2, Lucie Vnoučková3
1 University of Pardubice, Faculty of Transport Engineering, Studentská 95, 532 10, Pardubice, Czech Republic
2 Mendel University in Brno, Faculty of Business and Economics, Zemědělská 1, 613 00, Brno, Czech Republic
3 University of Economics and Management, Department of Management, Nárožní 2600/9a, 158 00 Prague 5, Czech Republic

Interests of companies in the sustainability-related communication have risen considerably in recent years. This paper focuses on the current state of sustainability-related reporting in chemical industry companies registered in the Association of Chemical Industry in the Czech Republic. It deals with the form and the content of reporting, the importance of different stakeholders in this process as well as benefits of the sustainability-related communication and its impacts on competitiveness of the company. This paper summarizes the results of a research executed in the year 2014. The results of the research showed that chemical industry companies were aware of the significance of sustainability-related communication and they utilized various types of sustainability-related reports for this communication. Companies prefer to report on the environmental and social aspects of their activities primarily in their annual reports, or they issue separate environmental reports. The research verified the relationship between the sustainability-related communication and competitiveness. A suitable established high quality system of communication that provides sufficient information and meets the information requirements of the key stakeholders may significantly contribute to reputation improvement, to increased attractiveness of the company as an employer and thereby to maintain, to improve respectively, the level of a company's competitiveness.

Keywords: chemical industry, communication, competitiveness, corporate sustainability, social responsibility, sustainability-related reporting, environmental and social aspects

Prepublished online: February 28, 2017; Published: March 1, 2017  Show citation

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Hyršlová, J., Tomšík, P., & Vnoučková, L. (2017). Relation between Sustainability-Related Communication and Competitiveness in the Chemical Industry. Acta Universitatis Agriculturae et Silviculturae Mendelianae Brunensis, 65(1), 283-292. doi: 10.11118/actaun201765010283
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