Legitimizing Potential “Bad News”: How Companies Disclose on Their Tension Experiences in Their Sustainability Reports

The practice of corporate sustainability is beset with compromise; it involves inevitable trade-offs across competing objectives and across a range of stakeholders and time horizons. These trade-offs create tension points that present the company with strategic choices that ultimately shape its overall approach to sustainability. Accordingly, trade-offs constitute a material aspect of a company’s sustainability practice, and ought to be disclosed in sustainability reports. The purpose of this research is therefore to understand how companies perceive, manage, and report on these critical trade-off decisions in the practice of sustainability. To achieve this objective, this dissertation conducted a study in three phases. In Phase I, this study conducted a review and content analysis of the trade-off literature through the lens of the natural resource-based view of the firm. Through this process, this study proposed a hierarchical framework for the analysis of trade-offs based on their root tensions, their interconnections, and their connection to sustainability synergies. In Phase II, this study used an organizational cognition perspective to posit that companies perceive and respond to these trade-off decisions in ways that reflect the company’s underlying sustainability logic. To explore this link, this study performed a content analysis of interviews with sustainability managers, as well as archival documents. This study found that companies with an instrumental logic saw trade-offs as binary and resolved them by counterbalancing the ‘lose’ dimension with ‘wins’ elsewhere. In contrast, companies with an integrative logic saw trade-offs as non-binary, and resolved them through an iterative, risk-based approach. Finally, in Phase III, this study used a legitimacy perspective to determine whether companies are disclosing these trade-offs in their sustainability reports. To do so, this study analyzed sustainability reports and interviews with sustainability managers using content analysis. This study found that 92% of all reporting companies had encountered sustainability trade-offs but had not disclosed them in their reports. Evidence of these accounts were nevertheless present in the implicit (or latent) content of the reports. These findings highlight the negative light in which many companies perceive trade-offs, and the legitimacy threat that their disclosure poses.

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The two market leaders in ocean cruising and corporate sustainability

International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management ◽

10.1108/ijchm-04-2016-0191 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 29 (1) ◽

pp. 288-306 ◽

Cited By ~ 8

Author(s):

Peter Jones ◽

David Hillier ◽

Daphne Comfort

Keyword(s):

Hospitality Industry ◽

Service Sector ◽

Corporate Sustainability ◽

Sustainability Reporting ◽

Hospitality Management ◽

Limited Information ◽

Content Type ◽

Corporate Websites ◽

Wide Range ◽

Sustainability Reports

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to provide a commentary on the sustainability reports published by the two market leaders in ocean cruising industry. Design/methodology/approach The paper begins with short reviews of the growing interest in the commitment to corporate sustainability and of the growth and market structure of the ocean cruising industry by way of setting the context for the commentary. This commentary is based on a review of the most recent sustainability reports published by the two leading ocean cruising companies which account for almost 75 per cent of total industry revenues. Findings The findings of the paper reveal that the two major ocean cruising companies, namely, Carnival Corporation and Royal Caribbean Cruises, published extensive sustainability reports covering a wide range of environmental, social, economic and governance issues. The other leading ocean cruising companies posted limited information on their approach to sustainability on their corporate websites and some posted no information on sustainability. However, the authors suggest that given that the two major cruising companies account for 70 per cent of ocean cruising passengers, the industry compares favourably in its sustainability reporting with other players in the hospitality industry and the service sector. That said, the authors also suggest that approaches to sustainability within the cruising industry, which are based on continuing growth, present testing management challenges for the leading cruising companies. Originality/value The paper provides an accessible commentary on current approaches to sustainability in the ocean cruising industry, and as such, it will interest professionals working in the cruise industry and more generally in the hospitality industry as well as academics and students interested in hospitality management and sustainability.

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Sustainability with (out) compromise: how companies perceive, manage, and communicate trade-off decisions in the practice of corporate sustainability

10.32920/ryerson.14665392 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Merriam Haffar

Keyword(s):

Content Analysis ◽

Corporate Sustainability ◽

Phase Iii ◽

Strategic Choices ◽

Trade Off ◽

Organizational Cognition ◽

Trade Offs ◽

Archival Documents ◽

Sustainability Reports ◽

Latent Content

The practice of corporate sustainability is beset with compromise; it involves inevitable trade-offs across competing objectives and across a range of stakeholders and time horizons. These trade-offs create tension points that present the company with strategic choices that ultimately shape its overall approach to sustainability. Accordingly, trade-offs constitute a material aspect of a company’s sustainability practice, and ought to be disclosed in sustainability reports. The purpose of this research is therefore to understand how companies perceive, manage, and report on these critical trade-off decisions in the practice of sustainability. To achieve this objective, this dissertation conducted a study in three phases. In Phase I, this study conducted a review and content analysis of the trade-off literature through the lens of the natural resource-based view of the firm. Through this process, this study proposed a hierarchical framework for the analysis of trade-offs based on their root tensions, their interconnections, and their connection to sustainability synergies. In Phase II, this study used an organizational cognition perspective to posit that companies perceive and respond to these trade-off decisions in ways that reflect the company’s underlying sustainability logic. To explore this link, this study performed a content analysis of interviews with sustainability managers, as well as archival documents. This study found that companies with an instrumental logic saw trade-offs as binary and resolved them by counterbalancing the ‘lose’ dimension with ‘wins’ elsewhere. In contrast, companies with an integrative logic saw trade-offs as non-binary, and resolved them through an iterative, risk-based approach. Finally, in Phase III, this study used a legitimacy perspective to determine whether companies are disclosing these trade-offs in their sustainability reports. To do so, this study analyzed sustainability reports and interviews with sustainability managers using content analysis. This study found that 92% of all reporting companies had encountered sustainability trade-offs but had not disclosed them in their reports. Evidence of these accounts were nevertheless present in the implicit (or latent) content of the reports. These findings highlight the negative light in which many companies perceive trade-offs, and the legitimacy threat that their disclosure poses.

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The Association between Sustainability Governance Characteristics and the Assurance of Corporate Sustainability Reports

Auditing A Journal of Practice & Theory ◽

10.2308/ajpt-50849 ◽

2014 ◽

Vol 34 (1) ◽

pp. 163-198 ◽

Cited By ~ 117

Author(s):

Gary F. Peters ◽

Andrea M. Romi

Keyword(s):

Value Relevance ◽

Corporate Sustainability ◽

Accounting Firms ◽

Internal Auditors ◽

Corporate Governance Mechanisms ◽

Assurance Services ◽

The Board Of Directors ◽

Contextual Characteristics ◽

Sustainability Reports ◽

Sustainability Report

SUMMARY This study provides evidence on whether sustainability-oriented corporate governance mechanisms impact the voluntary assurance of corporate sustainability reports. Specifically, we consider the presence and characteristics of environmental committees on the Board of Directors and a Chief Sustainability Officer (CSO) among the management team. When examining assurance services, we make a distinction between those services performed by professional accountants, consultants, and internal auditors. We find that the presence of a CSO is positively associated with corporate sustainability report assurance services, and this association increases when the CSO has sustainability expertise. Supporting the position that some firms establish sustainability-related governance merely to conform to socially desired behavior, we find that only those environmental committees containing directors with related expertise influence the likelihood of adopting sustainability assurance. Presently, environmental committees with greater expertise appear to prefer the higher-quality assurance services of professional accounting firms. Expert CSOs, on the other hand, prefer assurance services from their peers with sustainability expertise, as evidenced by their choice to employ consultants. When analyzing firms' environmental contextual characteristics, we find that firms employing a CSO and exhibiting poor environmental performance, relative to other firms in their industry, prefer to report sustainability results without assurance. While we do find that larger firms in the U.S. are significantly less likely to employ assurance, this result decreases over time. Further, we provide initial evidence that the value-relevance of sustainability assurance is increasing with time.

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Corporate Sustainability Indicators In Banking Sector

Balkan Region Conference on Engineering and Business Education ◽

10.2478/cplbu-2014-0103 ◽

2014 ◽

Vol 1 (1) ◽

pp. 581-584

Author(s):

Dumitrascu Mihaela ◽

Ileana Ciutacu ◽

Iulian Vasile Săvulescu

Keyword(s):

Qualitative Research ◽

Content Analysis ◽

Banking Sector ◽

Corporate Sustainability ◽

Sustainability Indicators ◽

Global Reporting Initiative ◽

Future Research ◽

Group Level ◽

Industry Sector ◽

Sustainability Reports

AbstractThe purpose of this paper is to see the situation regarding the indicators from the Sustainability Reports. For this we use a qualitative research, a content analysis of these reports. Our sample is composed by the banks that develop their activity in our country for which we analysed the last year reports at group level. We choose only an industry sector to obtain the homogeneity of the sample. The findings reveal a number of 86 indicators, which were used in these reports. We analyzed the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) indicators used by 12 companies. The most reported indicators are EN4, EN8, LA1, LA10, while the last reported indicators are E5, E10 E13 E15, EN20, EN21, EN23, EN27, HR9, HR10 The results obtained are important for future research in this area, for both managers and researchers.

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Characteristics of UK higher education institutions that disclose sustainability reports

International Journal of Sustainability in Higher Education ◽

10.1108/ijshe-03-2018-0042 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 19 (7) ◽

pp. 1279-1298 ◽

Cited By ~ 5

Author(s):

Remmer Sassen ◽

Dominik Dienes ◽

Johanna Wedemeier

Keyword(s):

Higher Education ◽

Higher Education Institutions ◽

Research Question ◽

Corporate Sustainability ◽

Public Funding ◽

Sustainability Reporting ◽

Content Type ◽

Sustainability Reports ◽

The Uk ◽

Uk Higher Education

Purpose This study aims to focus on the following research question: Which institutional characteristics are associated with sustainability reporting by UK higher education institutions? Design/methodology/approach To answer the aforementioned research question, this study uses logistic regression. Findings The results show that 17 per cent of the UK higher education institutions report on their sustainability (July 2014). In line with legitimacy and stakeholder theory, logistic regressions provide evidence that the larger the size of the institution, the higher the probability of reporting. By contrast, high public funding decreases this probability. Research limitations/implications The findings show characteristics of higher education institutions that support or hamper sustainability reporting. Overall, the findings imply a lack of institutionalisation of sustainability reporting among higher education institutions. Originality/value Although a lot of research has been done on corporate sustainability reporting, only a small number of studies have addressed the issues of sustainability reporting of higher education institutions. This study covers all sustainability reports disclosed among the 160 UK higher education institutions. It is the first study that investigates characteristics of higher education institutions that disclose a sustainability report.

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Development of Integrated Reporting in Poland

Inżynieria Mineralna ◽

10.29227/im-2021-02-10 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 1 (2) ◽

Author(s):

Bartosz Rymkiewicz

Keyword(s):

Negative Impact ◽

Rapid Development ◽

Point Of View ◽

Financial Information ◽

Integrated Reporting ◽

Public Companies ◽

Wide Range ◽

Quality Of Reports ◽

Financial Disclosures ◽

Social Environmental

Organizational reporting is the most important tool of communication between an enterpriseand its stakeholders. However, it is not a static tool but continues to develop and adapt to ongoingeconomic and social changes. Formerly covering only financial information; currently, it is supplementedby a wide range of non-financial information relating to all aspects of the business. The evolution ofreporting is particularly fostered by the rapid development of the concepts of corporate socialresponsibility and sustainable development, as well as the progressing changes in the information needsof stakeholders. Enterprises are increasingly publishing voluntary reports concerning the social,environmental, and employment aspects of their business in addition to reports required by law. Thisresults in the multiplication of reports and duplication of content, which has a negative impact on thereports' usefulness. The solution to this problem may be integrated reporting, which integrates andinterconnects financial and non-financial disclosures. A milestone for the development of integratedreporting was the elaboration of integrated reporting guidelines by the International Integrated ReportingCouncil (IIRC) in December 2013. The aim of the paper is to present the development of integratedreporting in Poland in 2014-2020 on the example of public companies listed on the Warsaw StockExchange. The quality of reports was assessed from the point of view of compliance with IIRC guidelines,as well as their usefulness for stakeholders. Content analysis of corporate publications and comparativeanalysis was used for this purpose.

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The Use of Corporate Sustainability Indices : A Case Study on the Dow Jones Sustainability Index

10.32920/ryerson.14656116.v1 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Doaa Mohammed Elkhawas

Keyword(s):

North America ◽

Corporate Sustainability ◽

Socially Responsible ◽

Responsible Investment ◽

Sustainability Index ◽

Dow Jones Sustainability Index ◽

Sustainability Reports ◽

Similarities And Differences ◽

Sustainability Indices

Corporations are under growing pressure from socially responsible investors to consider the environmental and social impacts of their operations. To help highlight corporations that have taken steps to address these issues, a number of sustainability indices have been developed. While there is a growing body of literature that focuses on sustainability indices, little is known on how they are used in practice. The purpose of this project was to explore the use of sustainability indices in corporations. In this project, the Dow Jones Sustainability Index North America (DJSINA) was used in a case study. The project consisted of three key phases: a content analysis of corporate sustainability reports in North America, a survey with Canadian experts on the DJSINA, and a review of the DJSI website. The project highlights the similarities and differences in the use of the DJSI by Canadian and American corporations. As the first study focusing on the use of the DJSINA, the results will be of interest to practitioners and academics in socially responsible investment and corporate sustainability.

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A Guideline and Cautionary Note: How to Use the Belief Update Task Correctly

10.31234/osf.io/st4vu ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Tali Sharot ◽

Neil Garrett

Keyword(s):

Climate Change ◽

Bad News ◽

Good News ◽

Belief Formation ◽

Cautionary Note ◽

Helpful Tool ◽

Wide Range

In 2011 we published a paper showing that people update their beliefs to a greater extent in response to good news (e.g., learning that the likelihood of robbery is lower than expected) than bad news (e.g., learning it is lower than expected) (Sharot et al., 2011). This phenomenon, which can lead to increased optimistic beliefs, is absent in depression. Since then, our belief update task has been used by many others to test a wide range of questions related to belief formation and optimism. Most of these studies are rigorous and well conducted. However, a small number of researchers have used the task inappropriately, inserting new confounds and failing to control for other potential ones. This has resulted in the report of false findings which have muddied the literature and caused confusion. Given these incidents and the enthusiasm for using the task across different disciplines, the need for guidelines on how to use the belief update task correctly has become apparent. The belief update task can be a helpful tool in studying beliefs in domains ranging from climate change to health, but like any other task it must be used properly if valid conclusions are to be reached. We hope this guide will be helpful for scientists who would like to use the belief update task, as well as readers, reviewers and editors who are required to evaluate studies using this task.

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Addressing sustainable food management in hotels: proposing a framework and examining hotel groups

British Food Journal ◽

10.1108/bfj-12-2020-1171 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽

Author(s):

María Eugenia Ruiz Molina ◽

Sergio Belda-Miquel ◽

Anni Hytti ◽

Irene Gil-Saura

Keyword(s):

Food Supply ◽

Sustainability Assessment ◽

Corporate Sustainability ◽

Sustainable Food ◽

Content Type ◽

Food Supply Chains ◽

Food Management ◽

The Social ◽

Social Environmental ◽

Comprehensive Framework

Purpose Sustainable food practices have been recognised as a key issue in efforts to improve and report sustainable tourism practices, given the importance of the social, environmental and economic impacts of the food industry throughout its entire chain of production – from farm to fork. From this standpoint, the aim of the present paper is to propose a comprehensive framework for reporting or making decisions concerning sustainable food management in hotels, taking into account the various facets of the food supply chain.Design/methodology/approach Several dimensions are proposed for dealing with sustainable food management, involving all aspects of food supply chains that may be relevant for hotel decision-making. Furthermore, some key criteria for creating and using indicators of different types (qualitative and quantitative) to address these various dimensions of sustainable food management are suggested. Subsequently, the proposed framework is validated with the sustainability criteria and indicators provided by the top eight hotel groups, according to the 2019 SAM Annual Corporate Sustainability Assessment.Findings Hotels neglect a number of aspects of sustainable food management identified in the framework. The quality and the quantity of the information provided by hotels are limited.Practical implications There is a need to improve sustainability in food management in the hotels under analysis in several areas. A comprehensive framework such as that proposed in this paper may be of great value in seeking to remedy this situation. It may also assist users of hotel services and communities in making more informed decisions.Originality/value The proposed framework may be beneficial in advancing academic debate towards a more embracing and relevant understanding of sustainable food management in hotels and on the indicators required in this regard.

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