234 Progress in Industrial Ecology – An International Journal, Vol. 9, No. 3, 2015 Copyright © 2015 Inderscience Enterprises Ltd. GRI performance indicators and corporate variables. Evidence from Italian listed companies’ corporate social responsibility reports Lara Tarquinio* and Domenico Raucci Department of Economic Studies, “G. d’Annunzio” University, Viale Pindaro, 42, Pescara 65127, Italy Email: l.tarquinio@unich.it Email: d.raucci@unich.it *Corresponding author Ida Verna Department of Philosophical, Pedagogical and Economic-Quantitative Sciences, “G. d’Annunzio” University, Via dei Vestini – University Campus, Chieti 66100, Italy Email: idaverna@unich.it Roberto Benedetti Department of Economic Studies, “G. d’Annunzio” University, Viale Pindaro, 42, Pescara 65127, Italy Email: benedett@unich.it Abstract: The paper aims to verify how some variables related to profitability, size and industry can classify the disclosure of global reporting initiative (GRI) indicators. The study focuses on the Italian listed companies, which produced corporate social responsibility (CSR) reports in accordance with the GRI guidelines. Content analysis of the GRI-based CSR reports was performed to verify the type and the number of the GRI indicators disclosed. This research comes from the few studies that analyse the adoption of the GRI indicators in companies’ CSR reports. We use regression trees technique to describe the common characteristics of companies in their reporting of indicators. The results highlight the importance of a company’s ROE and the industry in classifying it according to the number and the type of indicators disclosed. The most reported category is that of social indicators related to labour practices, followed by the category of economic and environmental indicators. Keywords: economic indicators; environmental indicators; social indicators; GRI; global reporting initiative; CSR report.