Representative account or greenwashing? Voluntary sustainability reports in Australia's mining/metals and financial services industries

Why are more and more companies voluntarily issuing costly, potentially exposing standalone sustainability reports on environmentally and socially problematic issues? Using legitimacy theory, this study analyses ways companies seek to strategically enhance legitimacy by leaning towards either ‘representative’ reporting of both favourable and unfavourable information especially in an industry's highest impact domains, or ‘greenwashing’ (including whitewashing non-environmental issues), which downplays unfavourables and high-impact domains and highlights favourable but less relevant points. Content analysis compared Global Reporting Initiatives (GRI) reports from 2011 to 2019 by Australian financial services companies (107 reports) and mining and metals companies (122). Specifically, to critique reporting quality in fine grain, it disaggregated results into levels (from omission to full quantitative treatment) of disclosure of good/bad/neutral news indicators and violation-related/non-violation-related ones and identified highest impact domains. Neither industry's reporting was very representative. Relatively though, mining and metals leant towards representation: fuller disclosure on environmental aspects (its highest impact domain), including unfavourables: bad and violation-related indicators. Financial services companies only led in disclosing neutral social indicators, not bad or violation-related ones, so leant towards greenwashing. Results also suggest that after the GRI clarifying materiality principle in 2016, financial services disclosure quality dropped further by de-emphasising environmental without lifting social disclosures, while mining and metals' stayed unchanged. The results confirm and better specify widely indicated reporting weaknesses, contributing to content analysis methodology and legitimacy theory. This arms guideline setters, investors and other stakeholders to better evaluate/design reports and might encourage firms to voluntarily improve disclosures.     

Drivers and barriers to environmental supply chain management practices: Lessons from the public and private sectors

This study explores the factors that drive or hinder organisations to implement green supply chain management initiatives. A literature review identifies the main categories of internal and external drivers of green supply chain management practices, including organisational factors, regulation, customers, competitors and society, but there is little indication of suppliers as drivers for green supply chain management. Internal barriers include cost and lack of legitimacy, whereas external barriers include regulation, poor supplier commitment and industry specific barriers. An explorative study is conducted based on interviews from seven different private and public sector organisations. Encouragingly, across the organisations, more drivers than barriers to environmental supply chain management are identified. Organisations seem to be more influenced by external rather than internal drivers. The barriers to environmental supply chain management experienced by organisations tend to be both internal and external.     

Public sector purchasing of health services: A comparison with private sector purchasing

Recent research has highlighted the existence of important differences between public and private sector procurement practices. Drawing on established transactional and relational conceptual frameworks, this paper examines whether the differing environments confronting public and private sector organisations affects procurement practices. By focusing solely on occupational health services as an example of a complex business service, the research allows the influence of environmental factors, notably policy drivers, to be considered across both public and private sector settings while service specific factors remain largely constant. Utilising a combination of questionnaires and in-depth interviews the research suggests that policy drivers had a major bearing on procurement practices adopted in the public sector, resulting in a very different pattern of engagement with service providers from that prevailing in the private sector. Specifically whereas private sector organisations utilised a range of approaches, which can broadly be classified as relational in nature, public sector organisations almost exclusively relied on transactional-based approaches. The nature of these services suggests that relational based procurement constitutes the optimal approach to the acquisition of such services. However, for public sector organisations the perceived restrictions imposed by public policy on procurement practices resulted in the adoption of an approach which can be viewed as resulting in sub-optimal outcomes.     

Reporting public sector financial results

Part of the process of recent public sector reform has involved replacing traditional cashbased accounts with accrual-based financial statements, similar to those found in the private sector. This article examines the use of accrual-based accounting in the public sector and provides examples from the UK National Health Service of situations where the accruals system may be deemed inappropriate. It shows that one possible response is to withdraw from the accruals mode and revert to cash measures, deeming the accruals adjustments to be ‘merely technical’. An alternative response is to change the mode of operating so that the cash impact of a transaction matches its accruals reporting impact. The conclusion is that there are modifications to public sector accounting practices away from those of the private sector that undermine the metaphor of running the public sector ‘like a business’.     

Reporting on sustainability and HRM: a comparative study of sustainability reporting practices by the world's largest companies

As a response to the growing public awareness on the importance of organisational contributions to sustainable development, there is an increased incentive for corporations to report on their sustainability activities. In parallel with this has been the development of ‘Sustainable HRM’ which embraces a growing body of practitioner and academic literature connecting the notions of corporate sustainability to HRM. The aim of this article is to analyse corporate sustainability reporting amongst the world's largest companies and to assess the HRM aspects of sustainability within these reports in comparison to environmental aspects of sustainable management and whether organisational attributes – principally country-of-origin – influences the reporting of such practices. A focus in this article is the extent to which the reporting of various aspects of sustainability may reflect dominant models of corporate governance in the country in which a company is headquartered. The findings suggest, first and against expectations, that the overall disclosure on HRM-related performance is not lower than that on environmental performance. Second, companies report more on their internal workforce compared to their external workforce. Finally, international differences, in particular those between companies headquartered in liberal market economies and coordinated market economies, are not as apparent as expected.     

Corporate environmental non‐reporting – a UK FTSE 350 perspective

Until relatively recently the majority of large publicly listed UK companies have not produced annual environmental reports. Of particular note is the slow take‐up of environmental reporting amongst the UK's top 350 companies, the FTSE 350. Using the results of a postal questionnaire, the reluctance of a majority of the FTSE 350 to voluntarily report is linked to 13 drawbacks. Results from non‐reporting respondents to the questionnaire allowed the relative importance of these drawbacks to be placed in a ranked order. Senior management doubt over the advantages of reporting was shown to be the most important drawback, closely followed by the effort required for data collection. A comparison in the uptake of corporate environmental management practices (other than reporting) was also made amongst reporters and non‐reporters. Reporters were shown to have a generally higher level of uptake, although company sector type and size was influential on environmental engagement overall. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment.     

Employee isolation and support for change in the public sector: a study of the internal audit profession

ABSTRACT

We investigate the preferences of public sector internal auditors for changes in their work practices. Informed by the literature, we posit that feelings of trust in the workplace and/or frustrations arising from perceived organizational ‘isolation’—a dimension of work alienation—motivate support and acceptance of change. We also argue that professional bodies directly and indirectly influence these relationships. These conjectures are tested using structural equation modelling and a survey of Canadian public sector internal auditors. The findings provide valuable insights into the process of adaptation and transformation in public sector settings across countries, jurisdictions, and accountability functions.     

Evaluation of sustainability reporting practices in Poland

This paper examines voluntary sustainability reporting practices in Poland. The number of these types of reports published by companies from year to year increases however the form, content and quality of these reports varies. Disclosure of economic, social and environmental performance demonstrates social responsibility of a company and therefore, the author first has analysed in this paper the level of implementation of the corporate social responsibility (CSR) concept in Polish companies. Then the attention was focused on sustainability reports published in 2011. The questionnaire to evaluate the quality and type of the disclosed information in sustainability reports consisted of twenty three criteria grouped in five categories. The author discusses the overall results as well as results obtained in the particular categories. The analyses indicate that sustainability reporting is not widespread among companies in Poland. On the other hand, increasing demands/expectations from stakeholders in this direction are not observed. In 2011, 32 reports were published, 6 of them have been audited by independent organizations and 19 have been developed in accordance with the GRI guidelines (Global reporting initiative sustainability reporting guidelines). Corporate social responsibility in Poland is a relatively new concept and although all events suggestive of the development of this concept, it is still little known and rarely implemented among entrepreneurs. The results of the study indicate that sustainability reporting practices in Poland, despite a few good examples and valuable disclosures, are at its early stage of development.     

Company Characteristics and Environmental Policy

This paper investigates the relationship between various firm characteristics and environmental disclosures. Our findings evidence that firms with higher environmental ratings present a statistically significant larger size, belong to more environmentally sensitive industries as compared with firms with lower environmental ratings and disclose environmental information according to GRI guidelines. However, neither profitability nor listing status seems to explain differences in environmental disclosure practices between Greek companies. The most influential variable for explaining firms' variation in environmental ratings is size, followed by GRI reporting and industry membership. This study adds to the international research on environmental disclosure by providing empirical data from a country, Greece, where empirical evidence is still relatively unknown, extending the scope of the current understanding of the environmental reporting practices. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment.     

The how and why of integrated reporting in a public health care organization: The stakeholders' perspective

Despite the widespread calls for in‐depth case studies on adoption of the International Integrated Reporting Council Framework, in practice, it appears to be underexplored, above all in the public sector. Our aim is to explore how and why a public health care organization (PHO) has chosen to adopt the practice of integrated reporting, and we then delve into whether the PHO's perception of the document's value coincides with that of the stakeholders, who are its recipients. Often, society's perception of value can differ considerably from an organization's. Thus, for our research purposes, a case study was examined, adopting a qualitative approach and action research methodology. Our findings demonstrate the centrality of the value created for patients and of the “normative” scenario that takes place during the implementation of an integrated report in a PHO. Moreover, the concept of legitimacy was found to be virtually synonymous with institutionalization.     

Does adoption of ISO 56002-2019 and green innovation reporting enhance the firm sustainable development goal performance? An emerging paradigm

Reporting is a means of communication for companies to their respective stakeholders. The literature on non-financial reporting has mostly focused on operational, Carbon Discloser Project (CDP), and environmental disclosure to firm performance. This reporting and disclosure approach adopted by companies in their sustainability practices appears to be a normative approach. However, there has been a growing demand by stakeholders to incorporate proactive approach in business activities. To meet that, green innovation practices (GIPs) has been integrated as a new element in environmental reporting, thereby reflecting the proactiveness of companies in their adoption of green innovation reporting (GIR). The objective of this study is to advocate for greater disclosure on sustainability reporting by incorporating the GIPs of companies and substantial, sustainable development goal contribution, along with the moderation of the newly upgraded ISO 56002-2019 innovation management system. Adoption of green innovation reporting and ISO 56002-2019 will enhance the level of transparency of business activities and create greater stakeholder confidence along with enhancing the firm's sustainable development of goal performance. Furthermore, an extensive literature review was undertaken to create a GIR framework (i.e., product, process, service and technology) for firms to integrate GIPs into sustainability reporting. The conceptual model proposed the adoption of green innovation reporting and ISO 56002-2019 innovation management system to firm sustainable development goal. This needs to be injected into the sustainable reporting of companies to reflect their innovativeness, actual sustainable business practices and sustainable development goal performance for the firm.     

Systemic risk in major public contracts

This paper presents a novel approach to the characterisation of “systemic risk” in the context of public sector procurement and contracting. We argue that contemporary risk management practices in project and programme management exhibit a number of limitations. This is particularly relevant to public sector contracting, which, the authors postulate, would benefit from more sophisticated practices that are capable of dealing with risk ‘systemicity’. Drawing on a sample of public sector procurement exercises commissioned by the UK Ministry of Defence (MoD), the paper presents a multi-method approach that aims to increase our understanding of complex outsourcing contracts. The results suggest a need for more appropriate methods of risk analysis, and discuss the practical implications.     

Social and environmental reporting in local authorities

There has recently been a resurgence of interest in social and environmental reporting (SER) in both the private and the public sector; however, its meaning and application in the public sector are relatively new, and it has been little investigated. Our article is aimed at gaining a better understanding of the reasons underlying the adoption of SER by Italian local authorities by applying the concept of management fashion (Abrahamson ). Empirical analysis shows that both socio-psychological and techno-economic forces combine to shape the SER phenomenon, and a managerial fashion is currently in place among Italian local authorities. Thus, even when SER is adopted in response to ‘technical’ gaps, its label largely depends on its being driven by the need to signal that LAs are adopting a tool which is gaining momentum in academic and professional discourse. However, both forces are influenced not so much by a concern for sustainability as by the context of public-sector reform processes.     

Corporate Environmental Reporting and News Coverage of Environmental Issues: an Agenda‐Setting Perspective

Departing from agenda‐setting theory, this paper explores whether environmental content in newspapers is related to corporate environmental agendas presented in corporate environmental reports and annual reports. Based on a sample of 1668 corporate reports published between 1997 and 2008, this paper compares corporate reporting against environmental news content over the same period with time lags of one and two years as well as without time lags. The results suggest that the media agenda and the corporate environmental agenda mirror each other. The results further suggest that, for some issues, there may be an impact of the news media agenda on corporate environmental agendas, but not vice versa. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment.     

Human resources professionals and the cost/benefit argument: rational persuasion in action in municipal organizations

Abstract

This study examines the use of the cost/benefit argument by human resources professionals in municipal sector organizations. The analysis compares their approach to the social influence exercised by line managers. Drawing from critical incidents generated from in-depth interviews, the results suggest that human resources professionals and line managers use the cost/benefit argument in much the same way with greater use of the weak form. Both groups exert influence through rational persuasion in the form of ‘light’ financial arguments. A second wave of data collection was initiated to add the perspective of city managers relative to the use of this form of rational persuasion by human resources professionals and public works managers. Content analysis of the interviews conducted with city managers was revealing of different views of the public works and human resources departments, suggesting that the use of the stronger form of the cost/benefit argument by human resources professionals may actually be associated with lower influence capability.     

Public Management and Network Specificity: Effects of colleges’ ties with professional organizations on graduates’ labour market success and satisfaction

Abstract

Research on managerial networking in the public sector reports positive effects of network activity on performance. However, little is known about which network relations influence different aspects of performance. We argue that for specific organizational goals, organizations should direct their networking activities towards specific types of organizations. We explore how different types of network relations of Dutch colleges for nursing studies affect the performance of these colleges. We analyse the effect of ties with professional organizations on: (1) graduates’ program satisfaction, (2) graduates’ wages and (3) graduates’ employment (n = 1,484 graduates). Multilevel analyses show that colleges’ ties with professional organizations positively affect graduates’ wages and employment.     

Sustainability reporting in Norway – an assessment of performance in the context of legal demands and socio‐political drivers

This article explores the influence of societal, political and regulatory characteristics and developments on the quality of corporate sustainability disclosures in Norway. The paper presents an assessment both of mandatory reporting under the Norwegian Accounting Act, and of voluntary reporting in annual and separate non‐financial reports, by the 100 largest firms in Norway. Our results reveal that only 10% of the companies comply with the legal requirements on environmental reporting, while only half of the firms comply with the legal reporting provisions on working environment and gender equality. The vast majority of firms also report unsatisfactorily on non‐financial issues in the voluntary disclosures assessed. Analysing the causes of these results, we contend that the situation is characterized by (1) an apparent lack of political and social drivers for sustainability reporting in Norway and (2) an absence of sufficient monitoring and enforcement of the environmental reporting legislation on the part of Norwegian authorities. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment.     

Integrating Environmental,Social and Governance (ESG) Disclosure for a Sustainable Development: An Australian Study

Addressing environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues has become a critical part of business strategy. This article explores the extent of ESG reporting of metal and mining sector companies listed in the Australian Securities Exchange to determine the nature of ESG indicators in use in the sector. The current study argues that stakeholder engagement is the key to enhance company environmental policy and sustainable development. According to the results of this study, ESG reporting motives are highly influenced by reporting regulations. Given the diversity in reporting of ESG, comparability of ESG strategic performance is problematic. This study contributes towards developing an ESG disclosure index, which companies could use as a legitimacy tool that external stakeholders could use to reliably measure and compare the ESG performance of companies. It also reveals there is an increased demand for more empirical research on integration of sustainability into strategic planning process. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment     

Integrated thinking and sustainability reporting assurance: International evidence

Recently, there has been increasing demand by stakeholders for firms to demonstrate how they create value within the context of their operating environment. Consequently, a new reporting approach, integrated reporting (IR), was conceptualised with its development linked to the firm's integrated thinking (IT). Yet very little is known about the effects of IT on firms' reporting decisions. Hence, we investigate whether IT influences firms' decision to publish an assured sustainability report. Using an international dataset, we find that IT is positively associated with sustainability reporting assurance. We also find that this association is moderated by the type of legal system such that for firms in code law countries, the IT effects are reduced. Nevertheless, the effects of IT remain strong, indicating that IT is important for reporting decisions regardless of the firm's contextual setting. These findings have implications for policymakers and organisations interested in promoting high-quality sustainability reporting.