Extended external reporting assurance: Current practices and challenges

This paper summarizes the UNCTAD ISAR WBCSD Webinar—Assurance on Sustainability Reports: Current Practices and Challenges, which explored views and practices on assurance of extended external reporting (EER) and identified challenges and potential ways forward. Stakeholders are demanding more accountability, as reflected in increased publication of EER and regulatory developments. EER can play an important role in rebuilding trust by catalyzing corporate focus and disclosure of business‐centric matters material to stakeholders including strategy, business model, governance, and greater transparency on other material non‐financial matters. Relatedly, EER cannot rebuild trust unless disclosures are credible and viewed as credible. Therefore, it is important that assurance, and other credibility enhancing techniques, is developed alongside EER frameworks and takes account of regulatory initiatives. We expand on lessons outlined during the Webinar by highlighting questions posed by participants, providing a historical overview of European regulatory developments (e.g., Directive 2014/95/EU and a forthcoming revision), providing a historical overview of the IAASB’s development of ISAE 3000 and forthcoming guidance on addressing major challenges aimed at supporting EER assurance, and providing an overview of practice‐focused publications addressing EER assurance. We conclude with an assessment of the way forward in regard to possible changes in the EER institutional setting, potential harmonization of EER standards, and the ability to provide reasonable versus limited assurance. Along with our companion paper (Venter and van Eck, 2021, 32), we contribute to the current discussion on EER assurance by providing a comprehensive assessment of the EER assurance landscape.     

The heterogeneous relationship between board social ties and corporate environmental responsibility in an emerging economy

Firms in emerging economies are faced with multiple, incompatible institutional forces in their environmental activities. Which of these forces will be dominant and instantiated within an organization is partly determined by the social relationships that a firm maintains with external actors. This paper investigates the relationship between board social ties and the level of environmental responsibility undertaken by firms in China, an emerging economy, by categorizing board social ties into three types in terms of the three isomorphic forces in the institutional field (coercive, normative and mimetic). Drawing on institutional and agency theories, using a sample of listed firms in environmentally sensitive industries, and a generalized least squares regression method, the results provide empirical evidence that ties that are linked to coercive and normative forces (i.e., political organizations and universities) are related to a higher level of environmental responsibility; however, those that are linked to mimetic forces (i.e., industrial peers) have a negative association with environmental responsibility, which is mitigated by CEO power. These findings suggest that the heterogeneous effects of board social ties on environmental responsibilities experienced by firms in a context of environmentalism are at an early stage.     

Social and environmental reporting and the corporate ego

This paper reports on the results of a qualitative exploration into the target audiences for social and environmental reporting (SER). In spite of the wealth of literature on SER motivations, relatively few studies have sought to ascertain who the key target or actual audiences are for SER. The results of this study, based on interviews with UK SER managers, suggest that investors and employees are overwhelmingly the most important audiences targeted by SER managers. The paper draws on auto‐communication theory to question the extent to which SER serves as a means of engaging in dialogue with stakeholders. It is argued that, beyond sending risk management signals to the financial markets, SER primarily serves as a vehicle whereby organizations can communicate with themselves. Moreover, broader stakeholders might be targeted with SER only insofar as doing so serves as a perceived endorsement of organizational communications, thereby embellishing the corporate ego's fantasy of how it would like to be perceived. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment.     

Corporate social responsibility and sustainability reporting on the Internet

All material related to environmental and social performance on the corporate internet sites of 454 Fortune Global 500 and Fortune 1000 companies in 25 industrial sectors was analyzed using the Pacific Sustainability Index. Maximum scores for individual sectors were 20–75 percent of the total possible, highest in the largest and most environmentally sensitive sectors and ranging generally linearly, as shown by plotting score versus rank, down to nearly zero in every sector. None of the variation in score is explained by corporate revenue in the Asian and European firms in this sample (revenues greater than about $9 billion), but there is a very weak correlation between score and revenue for American firms of this size, and a stronger one when Fortune 1000 companies (all American) with revenues smaller than this are included, suggesting that, as corporate size reaches a certain threshold, sustainability reporting becomes independent of it. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment.     

社会责任报告中的环境信息披露

本文以中国百强企业社会责任报告为研究对象,采用指数法,通过构建既遵从国际规范又符合中国实际的评价指标体系,对上述企业报告中环境信息披露的完整状况进行详细分析,全方位探寻这些企业报告中环境信息披露的现状和存在的问题.结果表明:①百强企业社会责任报告的发布水平一般,而环境信息披露总体水平较差,且两者与发达国家相比在数量上和质量上都有明显差距,因此从国家层面发布更权威的信息披露指南、加强企业的社会责任意识与环境管理意识已经迫在眉睫;②总体上看,环境相关行业(高耗能和重污染行业)的环境信息披露水平要优于环境非相关行业,民营企业的环境信息披露水平要略优于国有企业;③定量指标披露状况差是研究对象中普遍存在的一个通病,由此反映出,我国企业的环境管理还有很大的提高空间;④在我国体制下,政府对企业管理要求的高低对企业行为具有重要影响.动员社会力量,努力营造一种强大的社会压力机制,将是提高我国环境管理有效性的最重要手段.     

Nonfinancial reporting regulation and challenges in sustainability disclosure and corporate governance practices

This paper aims to investigate how the shift from voluntary to mandatory nonfinancial information started by the European Union (EU) Directive 95/2014 may influence corporate practices. In particular, this research presents a paradigmatic case study to highlight relevant changes in reporting strategy and corporate governance adopted by an Italian listed company that never disclosed sustainability information before the transposition of the EU Directive into the Legislative Decree 254/2016. In this scenario, new obligations on nonfinancial reporting were not perceived as mere additional administrative duties and the nonfinancial statement became an opportunity to communicate company's paths towards sustainability, guaranteeing transparency and greater stakeholders' engagement. Our findings go beyond prior studies pointing out how organisations adopt strategic and tactical responses to the pressure stemming from the external environment. Additionally, it highlights the pivotal function played by the internal audit in setting up the direction of change. This research has theoretical and practical contributions for academic communities, policymakers and practitioners.     

Strategic stakeholder management,environmental corporate social responsibility engagement,and financial performance of stigmatized firms derived from Chinese special environmental policy

We draw upon the stigma literature and strategic stakeholder management model to develop a framework capable of explaining the link between environmental corporate social responsibility (ECSR) engagement and financial performance of stigmatized firms, taking stakeholder‐oriented governance and density of local stigmatized firms into consideration. Using a uniquely compiled dataset of Chinese firms specifically monitored by the Ministry of Environmental Protection of China, we conducted propensity score matching analysis to estimate the impact of stigma on corporate financial performance and corporate environmental responsibility. The result shows that the financial performance of stigmatized firms is negatively affected by the stigma label, spurring them to engage in more ECSR than their peers to improve their legitimacy. Though ECSR engagement of stigmatized firms is found to be negatively associated with their financial performance in current study. Our results also confirm that (a) the financial performance of stigmatized firms is positively affected by two proxies for corporate stakeholder‐oriented governance (i.e., institutional ownership and corporate transparency) and negatively affected by the density of local stigmatized firms; (b) corporate stakeholder‐oriented governance compensates for the negative effect of ECSR engagement; (c) high intensity of local stigmatized firms provides focal firms with an opportunity to improve their financial performance through ECSR engagement; and (d) the positive effects of corporate stakeholder‐oriented governance are diminished by the density of local stigmatized firms.     

国内外社会责任会计信息披露研究

文章主要介绍了国内外社会责任会计信息披露概况、社会责任会计信息披露的主要内容和常见形式,并在此基础上对社会责任会计信息披露的发展作简单评述。     

Interactive effects of various institutional pressures on corporate environmental responsibility: Institutional theory and multilevel analysis

This study investigates the role of institutional pressures in corporate environmental responsibility (CER) by testing the interacting effects among cognitive, regulative, and normative pressures at cross levels. Specifically, this research decomposes the cognitive dimension of CER into perceived environmental benefit and perceived ethical obligation to differentiate their mechanisms. The sample is obtained from 212 firms within 34 industrial clusters. Results of two‐level regression modeling confirm that regulative and normative pressures play different roles in the positive effects of perceived environmental benefit and perceived ethical obligation on CER. Regulative pressure attenuates the effect of perceived environmental benefit and amplifies the effect of perceived ethical obligation. Meanwhile, normative pressure attenuates the effect of perceived ethical obligation. These findings suggest that heterogeneous interaction effects may reduce the efficiency of institutional pressures during the initial stage of CER diffusion. Implications for future research and policies are discussed.     

Study on the environmental information disclosure of Chinese forestry enterprises

Environmental accounting is a kind of accounting which focuses on the compensation for the resources spending. It combines the theories of environmental economics and traditional accounting and uses scientific as well as systematic ways to coordinate the development of economics and the protection of environment. It is just in the primary process for forestry enterprises in China to introduce the research and practice of environmental accounting. Based on discussion about the principle of environmental information disclosure and analysis on the current situation of the environmental information disclosure of the forestry enterprises, this paper attempted to propose that the supplementary report mode of information disclosure should be appropriate for the forestry enterprises, which provide the balance sheet of environment, the income statement of environment besides the original three financial report to reflect the general environmental information of the enterprise.     

Corporate performance patterns of Canadian listed firms: Balancing financial and corporate social responsibility outcomes

Based on stakeholder theory and considering the conflicting performance interests of a wide range of stakeholders, this research investigates corporate performance patterns using a cluster analysis of financial, social, and environmental performance dimensions. An analysis of a Canadian sample of 771 company-year observations for the period 2014–2018 reveals three types of corporate performance: financially focused performance, balanced performance, and corporate social responsibility (CSR)-focused performance. Firms in the largest cluster, financially focused performance, deliver poor sustainable performance and prioritize financial performance over social and environmental performance. The CSR-focused performance cluster scores low for financial performance and high for environmental and social performance. The balanced-performance cluster also has higher levels of sustainable performance but is the smallest cluster, accounting for a quarter of the sample. Overall, this study presents a portrait of corporate performance balancing financial and CSR objectives and the evolution of this activity over the research period.     

Crisis spillover of corporate environmental misconducts: The roles of perceived similarity,familiarity, and corporate environmental responsibility in determining the impact on oppositional behavioral intention

Negative impact of a firm's environmental misconduct can spread to other firms under the same category due to stakeholders' categorization. Such problem implies a sociocognitive process that has yet to be explored. Therefore, this study extends the current literature by exploring how interfirm similarity affects the spillover effects through stakeholders' engagement. We propose that interfirm similarity can be perceived by stakeholders as a categorization standard, which can lead to their opposition to other firms. Spillover of misconduct is caused by the decreasing stakeholders' trust, wherein the negative effect is contingent upon stakeholders' perceptions. A questionnaire study is conducted to investigate how people resist an innocent firm in China when a chemistry firm experienced an explosion accident. Our findings confirm that interfirm similarity increases stakeholders' opposition to the innocent firm by decreasing their trust. However, the negative effect is alleviated when the innocent firm is perceived as highly environmentally responsible. Our work contributes to the crisis spillover literature and carries important implications for the management of innocent firms that may lose from an industry peer's misconduct.     

Toward sustainable corporate behavior: The effect of the critical mass of female directors on environmental,social, and governance disclosure

Boards of directors have recently become more attentive to their stakeholders' concerns, providing more transparent information and adopting more sustainable business strategies. This study investigates the influence of a critical mass of women on boards on the environmental, social, and governance (ESG) disclosure score and its three components separately. Using a sample of the FTSE-MIB listed companies in the 2005–2017 period, we show that reaching a critical mass of female board members—going from one or two women to at least three—enhances the level of ESG disclosure. The results also show that the critical mass of female board members has a positive influence on every component of the ESG score, with the highest contribution of women reaching the governance score. These findings provide insights to shareholders and policymakers and suggest that a critical mass of female board members is particularly effective in improving transparency, and it can be seen as a mechanism to transit to stakeholder governance, fostering more sustainable behavior in firms.     

Approaches and perspectives in social and environmental accounting: an overview of the conceptual landscape

In recent years there has been a marked resurgence of interest in the areas of corporate social responsibility (CSR) and social and environmental accounting (SEA) among business, governments, public policymakers, investors, unions, environmentalists and others. While at one level there appears to be widespread agreement that CSR and SEA are worthy topics of attention, different groups have very different understandings of these fields. This article provides an analysis of these differences by comparing three broad approaches to SEA: the business case, stakeholder‐accountability and critical theory approaches. It also responds to concerns a number of commentators have expressed regarding the current dominance of ‘business case’ perspectives. While not seeking to impose on readers a ‘correct’ way of viewing SEA and CSR, exposure to competing perspectives is viewed as one way of challenging us to think more reflectively about the frames available to us and their implications for the social realities we construct, embed or seek to change. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment.     

The double effects of female executives' participation on corporate sustainable competitive advantage through unethical environmental behavior and proactive environmental strategy

Based on the upper echelons theory, ecofeminist theory, and natural resource‐based theory (NRBV), this study has constructed a relational model between female executives' participation, unethical environmental behavior, proactive environmental strategy, and corporate sustainable competitive advantage. The samples include a total of 496 female executives from listed 524 companies in the manufacturing sector in China, and multiple regression methods are used for the analysis. The study showed that female executives' participation had double positive effects on corporate sustainable competitive advantage, which included both the inhibiting effect on unethical environmental behavior and the stimulating effect on proactive environmental strategies. The study also explored the boundary conditions of “conservative” and “proactive” behaviors from the internal and external perspectives of enterprises. But it was shown that the effect would not be further improved when both moderation effects of environmental stakeholder pressure and environmental leadership were higher at the same time. As enterprises' behaviors should match with their capability range, radical behaviors might run counter to their desires.     

Enhancing corporate sustainable development: Proactive environmental strategy,stakeholder pressure and the moderating effect of firm size

The article evaluates the influence of pressure of 10 distinct types of stakeholders on the adoption of environmental strategies, with the special focus on the proactive environmental strategy (PES). The moderation effect of the company size on this relationship is investigated in depth. The existence of the relationship between stakeholder pressure and environmental strategies has been explored by numerous studies. The study adds significantly to this ongoing discussion as the moderation effect of the company size was explored scarcely so far in the literature. The results from the multinomial logistic regression models confirmed almost unanimously the effect of stakeholder pressure and the presence of the moderation. Positive, but nonlinear, direct and moderated effect of pressures of regulators, competitors, clients, NGOs, media, shareholders and employees on PES was discovered. In case of suppliers, consumers and top management, the pressure–PES relation was more complex. Also, large companies seem to be more resilient to pressures than the smaller ones when adopting PES.     

Disentangling economic crisis effects from environmental regulation effects: Implications for sustainable development

With climate change becoming more severe, policy makers must impose environmental regulations that will lead firms to adopt sustainable corporate models. According to the Porter hypothesis, environmental regulation can favour the implementation of business strategies that improve economic and environmental performances. In this study, we examine how one such form of regulation, the European Union Emission Trading Scheme (EU ETS), impacts firm performance, and we subsequently widen the examination beyond the regulation to evaluate an economic crisis which could potentially confound regulation effects. We estimate a panel model with time- and firm-fixed effects for different subsamples that disentangle the effect of the EU ETS policy from the 2008 economic crisis. The results indicate that the EU ETS policy in its third phase can activate the Porter hypothesis and is effective in fuelling the implementation of sustainable corporate models by firms. However, we also find that the economic crisis neutralises the effects of the regulation on firm performance, precluding the triggering of the Porter hypothesis in severely affected firms.     

Bridging the gap between corporate social responsibility and new green product success: The role of green organizational identity

In this study we explore the relationship between corporate social responsibility and new green product success based on organizational identity theory. The hypotheses are tested on a sample of 150 companies in China. The results indicate that corporate social responsibility positively affects both green organizational identity and green adaptive ability. We also find that green organizational identity and green adaptive ability are positively influences on new green product success. In addition, we find that green organizational identity partially mediates the relationship between corporate social responsibility and green adaptive ability. Moreover, green organizational identity fully mediates the link between corporate social responsibility and new green product success. This means that corporate social responsibility indirectly and positively affects new green product success through green organizational identity. These results suggest that managers should seek to enhance their organizational sense of green identity and improve their organizational green adaptive ability, which will facilitate their firm's sustainable development. The theoretical and practical implications of these findings for environmental policy are also discussed.     

Effects of greenwashing on financial performance: Moderation through local environmental regulation and media coverage

Recent research suggests that the effect of greenwashing and corporate financial performance (CFP) is ambiguous. This call for study the contextual factors that create contingencies in the greenwashing–CFP relationship. Using a sample of 2816 observations covering 735 Chinese-listed firms in 21 different industries from 2013 to 2017, this research examines the effect of greenwashing on CFP and explores the moderating effects of local environmental regulation, media visibility and media favourability. Results show that greenwashing positively affects CFP and effect weakened with stringent environmental regulations and reversed with low media favourability. Our finding implies that stakeholders could hardly identify greenwashing in the context of an emerging economy with high-level information asymmetry. However, local environmental regulation and negative media coverage could reduce this information asymmetry, making greenwashing easier to be identified. It is the first study to investigate greenwashing–CFP relationship from institutional environment perspective.