**6. Discussions and conclusions**

Blockchain technology is a public ledger that stores data in a chain of blocks which can radically improve the quality of our records from "records that might

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

be trustworthy" to "records that trust is absolute". The most important advantage of blockchain technology over traditional ways of recoding is its immutability property. Data recorded in the blockchain network (with a large number of people participating) is almost impossible to be tampered. Furthermore, blockchain technology can be structured to provide other benefits. First, blockchain technology can be structured such that the identify of people who participate in the blockchain network (senders, receivers, and validators) are concealed. Second, blockchain technology can be structured to allow smart contracts. Third, blockchain technology can be structured as a public blockchain in which anyone can participate. Public blockchain can leverage the power of the "crowd" effectively, either for strengthening the immutability property of the blockchain network or for gathering a large number of people to perform some common tasks, as in "crowdsourcing".

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 CSR reporting. Our objective is to determine whether blockchain technology is suitable for CSR reporting or not which is still an open question as blockchain technology will be suitable only when there are clear and impactful benefits when blockchain technology is being used over existing methods. To accomplish this, we use 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.

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.

We acknowledge that there are several limitations to our study. First, we focus on a single framework from [8] to determine the suitability of blockchain technology in CSR reporting. Almeshal and Alhogail [61] provided a review of several suitability evaluation frameworks for blockchain technology. It would be interesting for future studies to examine the suitability of blockchain technology in CSR reporting using multiple frameworks. Second, we provide rationales for determining the suitability of blockchain technology in CSR reporting at each step of the decision path based on evidence and arguments from existing literature. It would be interesting for future studies to reexamine the suitability of blockchain technology in CSR reporting by using the ten-step decision path as an instrument in a focused group of practitioners or CSR experts.
