**1. Introduction**

Blockchain technology has the potential to radically transform most, if not all, sectors. Blockchain technology has been considered one of the pillars of the Fourth Industrial Revolution by the World Bank [1]. At its core, blockchain technology revolutionizes the way we record data. Since the dawn of human civilization, our ability to "record" something from drawing in caves to important writings has been considered one of the most important inventions in human history. The ability to record something allows us to store and pass on knowledge and information from generation to generation. Blockchain technology will be considered another major milestone in human civilization since it will allow us to radically improve the quality of our records from "records that might be trustworthy" to "records that trust is absolute".

In this chapter, we will explore one area that blockchain technology can radically transform but has not yet received significant attention which is the application of

blockchain technology for corporate social responsibility (CSR) reporting. The main objective of this chapter is to answer the following research question: Is blockchain technology suitable for CSR reporting? With the growing interest in blockchain technology, people are interested in applying blockchain technology for CSR reporting. A growing number of articles produced by top international accounting firms such as EY (Ernst & Young Global Limited) and PwC (PricewaterhouseCoopers) as well as international organizations such as the World Economic Forum (WEF) and the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) advocate the use of blockchain technology for CSR reporting [2–5]. Examples of benefits discussed in these reports include enhancing trust and auditability, standardizing CSR reporting, reducing cost, improving speed and efficiency as well as real-time monitoring of CSR performance. For scholarly research, there are only a few studies that examine the role of blockchain technology in CSR reporting. Nikolakis et al. [6] developed the Evidence, Verifiability, and Enforceability (EVE) framework to demonstrate how blockchain technology can enhance sustainability in global value chains by algorithmically enforcing hard law and soft law. Bakarich et al. [7] used exploratory content analysis to examine the role of blockchain technology in enhancing CSR reporting and CSR assurance. They argue that blockchain technology improves sustainability by incorporating traceability ("tracking") and immutability (reliable "custodial support") into existing CSR reporting, which is largely done in a voluntary manner.

However, it is still an open question regarding the suitability of applying blockchain technology for CSR reporting. The reason is that even if it is possible to apply blockchain technology for CSR reporting (anything that is associated "recoding" can be done via blockchain technology), it might not be "suitable" as existing CSR reporting methods might be more suitable (or only slightly less suitable) to perform this activity. The application of blockchain technology for CSR reporting will likely to happen when there are clear and impactful benefits when blockchain technology is being used over existing methods. This issue has not been examined in the existing literature. To fill this literature gap, this chapter will answer the above research question by using the ten-step decision path of [8]. Pedersen et al. [8] proposed a decision path which can be used to investigate whether blockchain technology is suitable for a certain application as well as providing a concreate rational on the suitability or unsuitability of a blockchain application. A previous study that is close to own work is [9]. Pizzi et al. [9] used the idea journey framework of [10] which can be used to trace and evaluate a journey of an idea from inception to adoption. It can also be used to examine "how and when" an idea might get stuck at a certain phase or "looping" between phases and never reach the idea implementation phase. They used this framework to trace and evaluate the journey of using blockchain technology in sustainability reporting based on a case study of a major Italian bank. Thus, this work complements our work in filling the above literature gap from a different perspective.

We found that blockchain technology is suitable in the context of CSR reporting as there is a strong need for an immutable common database shared among various stakeholders with potential trust issues. We also argue that blockchain technology does not completely eliminate existing trusted third parties such as governments, international organizations that provide CSR reporting standards, major CSR reporting assurance companies and major CSR infomediaries. We argue that blockchain technology can be used as a platform that integrates all traditional trusted third parties, transforms their functions, and reduces their drawbacks for advancing CSR reporting. We also demonstrate that a permissionless public blockchain would be the most suitable structure.

*CSR Reporting and Blockchain Technology DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.105512*

This chapter proceeds as follows. First, we provide a brief review of CSR and CSR reporting. The purpose of the review is to highlight the limitations of current CSR reporting. Next, we will discuss the basic concepts of blockchain technology as well as its benefits. Next, we discuss our research methodology to determine the suitability of blockchain technology in CSR reporting in which we use the ten-step decision path of [8]. Then, we present our findings. Finally, we present our discussions, limitations, and conclusions.
