Assignment: 'Given the stakeholder requirement for balanced corporate reporting and the need to ensure the completeness and integrity of social and environmental disclosures, it is suggested that corporate social responsibility (hereafter CSR) disclosures be verified. It is argued that CSR assurance may improve report credibility and raise stakeholder confidence in the information provided' (Extracted from Corporate social responsibility assurance: how do South African publicly listed companies compare Meditari Accountancy Research Vol. 17 No. 2 2009). Task 1 (GLO 1, GLO 2 and GLO8) • Analyze and discuss why some firms voluntarily have their CSR reports assured in the context of stakeholder theory, positive accounting theory, legitimize theory, and institutional theory and/or other relevant theories (whichever theory/theories you consider relevant for the analysis, but at least two theories should be discussed and analyzed). • Further discuss how the country-level institutional factors influence the voluntary assurance of CSR reports Your arguments for tasks 1 have to be supported by relevant academic refereed articles (at least 6). You should provide evidence that you have carefully examined the literature, understand it, and have been able to summarise its essential content by integrating these articles into your own arguments and perspective. The task 1 is to be completed as a Group assignment (maximum 3 people per group).The number of words is 2,500 excluding the reference list, appendices and the cover page. The actual word count must be stated on the cover page of the assignment. A deduction of 2 marks from marks allocated to this assignment will apply if the number of words is under by more than 10% of 2,500 words or over by more than 20% of 2,500 words. Word limits allow the student to structure the assignment to allow for the preparation of an informative yet succinct report.