Addressing Concerns about Legitimacy: A Case Study of Social Responsibility Reporting in the Australian Banking Industry

This paper investigates the relationship between social responsibility reporting and reputation at an industry rather than organisational level through a case study of the Australian banking industry. Since deregulation, the legitimacy of the social impact of the Australian banking industry has been questioned particularly through extensive media coverage. This case study investigates how the four major banks have responded to industry level legitimacy concerns through social responsibility reporting. Despite theoretical claims that organisations within an industry will respond to legitimacy concerns in a similar way, this paper shows that the banks in the study have responded in differing ways resulting in a disparity of approval rankings between organisations. Reputation rankings of the banks examined in this paper show varying levels of acceptance of individual organisations, despite ongoing media questioning about the legitimacy of the industry as a whole.