We studied the public corporate social responsibility (CSR) reports of 100 top Iranian
companies to determine their degree of compliance with what is internationally promoted
as CSR. Specifically, we studied the extent of CSR reporting, the language of CSR reporting,
the adoption of standard reporting, and the coverage of subjects introduced by ISO 26000.
We also checked for the effect of company-level characteristics (i.e., age, size, ownership,
and industrial sector) on the extent of CSR reporting. We conducted a content analysis on
the public CSR publication of sample companies in which a binary checklist was used to
measure the CSR disclosures. Subsequently, the data were processed using linear regression.
Then, nine managers were interviewed to glean information not explicitly found in the
reports. This includes the perception of CSR as well as the motivations for and barriers
against practicing CSR. Finally, the interviews were also served to bring some explanations
on the quantitative results. Our findings show that, despite a sufficient knowledge of CSR
among Iranian managers, the actual practice of CSR is significantly below the international
expectations. In this regard, the role of institutional environments in CSR practice is
observed while international expectations are highly neglected. Our results also reveal the
existence of CSR strategies among Iranian companies since different ownership groups and industrial sectors have focussed on targets that are directly related to them. Also, larger and/or older companies are more prone to practice CSR. The results of this study extend the knowledge of the theory by highlighting the role of institutions in the CSR practice of companies. It also suggests that despite the strong cultural significance of CSR, Iranian companies should adapt their CSR strategies with universal standards if they aim to advance in the competitive international markets.