Phantasmagoria, sustain-a-babbling in social and environmental reporting

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Markus J. Milne
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Reporting ◽  
Social And Environmental Reporting

Empathy, closeness, and distance in non-profit accountability

2018 ◽  
Vol 32 (1) ◽  
pp. 224-254 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ericka Costa ◽  
Caterina Pesci ◽  
Michele Andreaus ◽  
Emanuele Taufer
Keyword(s):  
Multiple Perspectives ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Environmental Reporting ◽  
Multiple Stakeholders ◽  
Edith Stein ◽  
Self Assessment ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Non Profit ◽  
Level 3 ◽  
Social And Environmental Reporting

Purpose Drawing on the phenomenological concepts of “empathy” and “communal emotions” developed by Edith Stein (1917, 1922), the purpose of this paper is to discuss the co-existence both of the legitimacy and accountability perspectives in voluntarily delivered social and environmental reporting (SER), based on different “levels of empathy” towards different stakeholders. Design/methodology/approach The paper adopts an interpretive research design, drawn from Stein’s concept of empathy by using a mixed-method approach. A manual content analysis was performed on 393 cooperative banks’ (CB) social and environmental reports from 2005 to 2013 in Italy, and 14 semi-structured interviews. Findings The results show that CBs voluntarily disclose information in different ways to different stakeholders. According to Stein, the phenomenological concept of empathy, and its understanding within institutions, allows us to interpret these multiple perspectives within a single social and environmental report. Therefore, when the process of acquiring knowledge in the CB–stakeholder relationship is complete and mentalised (level 3, re-enactive empathy), the SER holds high informative power, consistent with the accountability perspective; on the contrary, when this process is peripheral and perceptional (level 1, basic empathy), the SER tends to provide more self-assessment information, attempting to portray the bank in a positive light, which is consistent with the legitimacy perspective. Originality/value The concept of empathy introduced in this paper can assist in interpreting the interactions between an organisation and different stakeholders within the same social and environmental report. Moreover, the approach adopted in this paper considers different stakeholders simultaneously, thus responding to previous concerns regarding the lack of focus on multiple stakeholders.

Changing Social and Environmental Reporting Systems

2014 ◽  
Vol 135 (4) ◽  
pp. 731-749 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mia Kaspersen ◽  
Thomas Riise Johansen
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Reporting ◽  
Reporting Systems ◽  
Social And Environmental Reporting

Social responsibility disclosure in the international gambling industry: a research note

2016 ◽  
Vol 24 (1) ◽  
pp. 73-90 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tiffany Cheng Han Leung ◽  
Rob Gray
Keyword(s):  
Social Responsibility ◽  
A Priori ◽  
Responsible Gambling ◽  
Research Note ◽  
Environmental Reporting ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Gambling Industry ◽  
International Industry ◽  
Controversial Industries ◽  
Social And Environmental Reporting

Purpose This paper aims to explore the extent to which social responsibility and social and environmental reporting and disclosure have any relevance in the (so-called) controversial industries. The literature is ambivalent over the extent to which it is expected to see corporate social responsibility and social disclosure employed as active legitimation strategies. However, the apparent importance of “responsible gambling” in both the literature and in gambling industry initiatives suggests, at least a priori, that the international industry is active in some degree of legitimation. Design/methodology/approach This exploratory study examines the social and environmental disclosures of a sample of large companies in each of five countries over a three-year period using conventional content analysis. Findings The results are unexpected in that, although disclosure is dominated by employee- and director-related, other areas of social and environmental – and indeed economic – activity feature hardly at all. There is remarkably little disclosure around responsible gambling. Research limitations/implications The paper is a research note based on a range of samples across five countries and is, inevitably, tentative. The implications, albeit tentative, include the need to re-theorise corporate disclosure, especially in the controversial sectors. Originality/value The note adds to the accounting literature concerned with the controversial industries and contributes to the scarce social accounting research in the gambling sector. The authors hope that the research will be useful in guiding more focused and in-depth studies into this increasingly important and counter-intuitive area.

What is the stock of the situation? A bibliometric analysis on social and environmental accounting research in public sector

2019 ◽  
Vol 32 (1) ◽  
pp. 21-41 ◽  
Author(s):  
Floriana Fusco ◽  
Paolo Ricci
Keyword(s):  
Public Sector ◽  
State Of The Art ◽  
Environmental Accounting ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Academic Journals ◽  
Environmental Reporting ◽  
Bibliometric Method ◽  
Content Type ◽  
The Public ◽  
Social And Environmental Reporting

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to provide a picture of the state of the art in social and environmental accounting research applied to the public sector, highlighting different streams and the main gaps in current literature and providing input for future research.Design/methodology/approachA bibliometric method was used to analyse the characteristics, citation patterns and content of 38 papers published in international academic journals.FindingsThe findings show that the research on social and environmental reporting in the public sector is still at an early stage. Current investigations, although slowly on the increase, are still very few and localised. Most papers are about the reasons why public organisations report, what and how they report, but there are so many aspects that need to be investigated more in-depth or require extra validation in order to open new directions for future research, among which the relationship with and the differences between other non-financial type of reporting, namely ICR and IR.Research limitations/implicationsThe study shows some limitations, mainly related to the adoption of the bibliometric method. Indeed, it does not take into account books and chapters but only papers published in international and academic journals. This leads to exclude a significant part of the existing literature and other relevant contributions on the field.Originality/valueSocial and environmental reporting practices are quickly spreading in the public sector. The field is particularly interesting, given the specific connotations of this kind of organisations. However, the literature is clearly not exhaustive and there is not a comprehensive and systematic review of the state of the art on the subject.

Institutional shareholding and corporate social responsibility reporting: evidence from Bangladesh

2020 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Afzalur Rashid
Keyword(s):  
Corporate Social Responsibility ◽  
Social Responsibility ◽  
Environmental Reporting ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Csr Reporting ◽  
Societal Issues ◽  
Corporate Social Responsibility Reporting ◽  
Sustainability Issue ◽  
Social And Environmental Reporting ◽  
Corporate Social

Purpose This study aims to examine the influence of institutional shareholding on a firm’s corporate social responsibility (CSR) practices in Bangladesh. Design/methodology/approach This study uses a content analysis to capture a firm’s CSR practices, based on various attributes of social and environmental reporting made by the firm. Based on these attributes, a corporate social responsibility reporting index (CSRI) is constructed. To examine the causal relationship between institutional shareholding and firm CSR practices, this study uses a simultaneous equations approach to control the endogeneity problem. Findings The finding of this study is that both CSR reporting and institutional shareholding negatively influence each other. Research limitations/implications This study is subject to some limitations such as the subjectivity or judgement associated in the coding process. Practical implications If the institutional investors are not concerned with its environmental and societal issues, there will be a sustainability issue for the business because companies will continue ignoring the employee health and hygiene, education, training and welfare. Their ignorance of these societal issues will lead to compromising the quality of living for important stakeholders within the society. Originality/value This study contributes the literature on CSR reporting.

scholarly journals Sustainability, responsibility and ethics: different concepts for a single path

2020 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Riccardo Torelli
Keyword(s):  
Critical Discussion ◽  
Critical Approach ◽  
Environmental Reporting ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Basic Meaning ◽  
Deep Meaning ◽  
The Difference ◽  
Social And Environmental Reporting ◽  
Corporate Social ◽  
Single Path

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to analyse the concepts of sustainability, responsibility and ethics focussing on their links and differences, also to understand how companies move respectively in these field; to understand how companies sometimes move away from the basic and deep meaning of these concepts, landing in a merely utilitarian sphere of personal advantage where ethics, instead of being an irreplaceable and essential stronghold, is found to be a fiction or just an instrument. Design/methodology/approach The methodology used assumes a theoretical critical approach and, based on the vast literature on the items, is based on a conceptual analysis of the themes of sustainability, corporate social responsibility (CSR) and ethics and of the behaviour that companies can adopt in the three contexts. A critical approach to these issues and concepts can effectively help us to understand how companies are responding to external demands and to the challenges of responsibility and sustainability, which are becoming increasingly pressing. Findings Ethics, sustainability, CSR and social and environmental reporting are distinct constructs with different meanings but linked by important conceptual and operational relationships. Research limitations/implications The results of the research are the consequence of the application of a critical approach based on a theoretical analysis of the concepts under study. It would be interesting to support the results achieved with empirical research studies. Practical implications This conceptual path helps scholars and companies themselves to understand the difference between the three key concepts analysed. Only by understanding the basic meaning will it be possible to really make one’s own and pursue it in the correct way. Social implications Nowadays, the authors are overwhelmed by these three concepts which are used as synonyms and incorrectly. This leads to confusion and misunderstandings. Knowledge of the characteristics and differences between these concepts and their concrete applications is of great importance. Originality/value This study tries to provide a critical discussion of how the three concepts intersect and differentiate, leading to concrete results or results that have nothing to do with their meaning. There are no conceptual papers in the literature that deal with the three concepts and also analyse the implications on the real world.

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