Purpose

This paper aims to investigate whether Japanese manufacturing multinational enterprises (MNEs) maintain local legitimacy in their host countries through adequate informing of local stakeholders with targeted corporate sustainability (CS) reporting.

Design/methodology/approach

The paper first identified specific CS activities that were considered important in four Association of Southeast Asian Nations host countries, through semi-structured interviews with 58 participants of 16 Japanese manufacturing MNEs. The degree of establishment of local legitimacy was then measured through the number of references made to these CS activities and other activities specific to the respective host countries in the CS reports of the MNEs across a five-year period.

Findings

The majority of MNEs in the sample were under-reporting items of specific interest to localhost country stakeholders potentially undermining the MNEs’ image. There were found to be differences on the topics published in CS reports compared to those mentioned in the interviews indicating potential issues with regard to internal communication between the subsidiary and headquarters offices.

Originality/value

A novel approach is taken to investigate the degree of local legitimacy established by MNEs through comparing the contents of interviews held at subsidiaries with their respective CS reports. This paper highlights the importance of considering MNE subsidiaries when addressing Target 12.6 of the Sustainable Development Goal 12: responsible consumption and production.

中文翻译：

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日本跨国企业的企业可持续发展报告：对当地合法性的威胁还是企业可持续发展实践失去的机会？

目的

本文旨在通过有针对性的企业可持续性 (CS) 报告向当地利益相关者充分告知当地利益相关者，调查日本制造跨国企业 (MNE) 是否在其东道国保持当地合法性。

设计/方法/方法

该论文首先通过对 16 家日本制造业跨国公司的 58 名参与者的半结构化访谈，确定了在四个东南亚国家联盟东道国被认为重要的特定 CS 活动。然后，通过在五年期间跨国公司的 CS 报告中提到这些 CS 活动和其他特定于各自东道国的活动的数量来衡量当地合法性的建立程度。

发现

样本中的大多数跨国公司都少报了当地国家利益相关者特别感兴趣的项目，这可能会损害跨国公司的形象。与采访中提到的主题相比，CS 报告中发表的主题存在差异，表明子公司和总部办公室之间的内部沟通存在潜在问题。

原创性/价值

通过比较在子公司进行的访谈内容与各自的 CS 报告，采用了一种新方法来调查跨国公司建立的当地合法性程度。本文强调了在实现可持续发展目标 12 的具体目标 12.6 时考虑跨国公司子公司的重要性：负责任的消费和生产。