Reckless water withdrawal and pollution by economic development and growing population increase causes and effects of global water scarcity. Growing concern about water scarcity has received global attention and attained a global agenda to have more effective and efficient water usage. However, water management and development of adequate water infrastructure to maintain access to freshwater by both individuals and industries still remain as a role of public services. Industries which is substantial water users also try to bear their responsibility for their impact on water resources as a part of corporate social responsibility (CSR). As corporations' role in water stewardship is increasing, the importance of understanding conditions and drivers for corporations to voluntarily and publicly disclose water-related information increases as well. Building on theories of how social activists inspire changes in a corporation's norms and practices and how corporations perform disclosing activities in response to the social movement in order to show their legitimacy, the main objective of this paper is to explore the main drivers to motivate or threaten corporations to actively engage in water management. Aligned with the lessons learned from many cases that corporation's water-related practices profoundly affect the local community and regional access to water, the results of this paper also show that social activism found to be a more effective tool to increase the likelihood of corporate engagement in such disclosure on water-related information as an act of environmentally responsible firms.
급속한 경제발전과 인구증가로 야기된 무분별한 물 사용과 오염은 물의 희소성을 날이 갈수록 증가시키고 있고, 이에 따라 전세계적인 물 공급의 불균형이 야기되고 있다. 이러한 환경의 변화는 물 부족현상에 대한 문제의식에서 그치지 않고 대책마련에 관한 국제적인 관심을 불러 일으켰다. 물 관리에 대한 기업의 역할이 높아짐에 따라 기업 역시 CSR의 일환으로 Water Stewardship에 참여하고 있지만 아직까지 수자원관리는 공공기관의 역할로 남아있다. 이에 따라 기업들로 하여금 자발적이고 공개적인 물 관련정보에 대한 공시를 유도하기 위한 동기 및 동인에 대한 연구의 중요성이 커지고 있다. 본 연구에서는 Social movement theory와 legitimacy theory에 기반하여 물과 관련된 사회운동과 물 관련 행정법의 존재여부를 통해 기업의 참여를 높이기 위한 가장 효과적인 조건을 제시한다.
