Social and Environmental Reporting企业的社会与环境报告.ppt

1、Social and Environmental Reporting or Sustainability Reporting or Corporate Social Responsibility Reporting,Week 7,1,Learning Objectives,Understand what is meant by Social and Environmental Reporting (SER) Explain how and why SER has evolved in the UK & US Critically appraise the current SER reporti

2、ng framework,Why study SER?,Over the last 20 years companies are increasingly reporting on aspects of their impact on society and the environment impact Increasingly companies are reporting on their sustainable development accountants are well positioned to do this? Example of un-regulated reporting

3、 Insight into how reporting evolves in an unregulated environment Look at the contribution of accounting theory Critically appraise the reporting framework - accounting research,3,What is SER?,sustainability reporting reporting that provides information about the economic, environmental and social p

4、erformance of an entity departure from sole economic focus tied to the concept and goal of sustainable development new and continually evolving area Commission of European Communities (2001) defines corporate social responsibility as: a concept whereby companies integrate social and environmental co

5、ncerns in their business operations and in their interaction with their stakeholders on a voluntary basis. It means not only fulfilling legal expectations, but also going beyond compliance and investing more into human capital, the environment and the relations with stakeholders.,Brief history of SE

6、R,SER took off in the 1990s Separate social and environmental report Use of the Internet The Brundtland Report 1987 Short-term profit is not the goal (lets hope positive theorists are not correct) Earth Summit (1992), Rio de Janeiro (Agenda 21) Highlighted role of accountants EU (1992) Towards Susta

7、inability report Accounting for environmental costs Earth Summit (2002) Global Reporting Initiative,5,Global Reporting Initiative,Sustainability Reporting Guidelines International best practice Economic performance Environmental performance: e.g. energy, water Social performance: e.g. labour practic

8、es, human rights,6,Market for SER?,Evidence that Stakeholders demand information Employees Shareholders Banks Suppliers Share price implications Global Fortune 500 Research shows there is a demand for SER but what exactly is the demand for ,8,% N250 and N100 Companies Reporting in CSR Activities,9,%

9、 N250 and N100 Companies Reporting in CSR Activities By Country,10,Drivers for CSR Reporting,Market for SER?,Limited studies but. Deegan and Rankin (1997) Various stakeholder groups within society do demand information about social and environmental performance of companies Capital Market Research s

10、hare price reaction to social and environmental reporting Ingram (1978), Anderson and Frankle (1980), share price does react to social disclosures Belkaouis (1976) Freedman (1982), share price reaction to pollution disclosures Lorraine et al (2004), publicity about fines for environmental pollution,

11、Market for SER?,Practical/business implications Some countries banks will not provide funds to organisations unless information about their environmental policies are provided (Bhimani and Soonawalla 2010, Coulson 2007) Growing market for Socially Responsible Investment Market (Brigham 2010),Motivat

12、ion for SER Theoretical Perspectives,positive accounting theory all individual action is economically rational managers will elect to publish SER if it increases the value of the organisation legitimacy theory SER used to legitimise the ongoing existence of the organisation If it is considered that

13、the community does not expect the firm to make social and environmental disclosures then no disclosures will be made stakeholder theory SER used to manage stakeholder expectations, important to define who the organisations mean by stakeholders,Motivation for SER Theoretical Perspectives,accountabili

14、ty (Gray 1996) All organisations have many responsibilities (not just profit maximisation) Organisations are accountable to report against these responsibilities - SER institutional pressures Similar to stakeholder theory. Organisations identify as an institution reporting pressures expected of them

15、 an uses SER to meet some of the expectations reputation risk management Assumes main managerial motivation is maximisation of profits SER used to protect the companys reputation and therefore profits,Problems with SER,No regulation but does one size fit all? Underlying assumption that managers have

16、 broader responsibilities than wealth management No incentive without regulation? Financial reporting still celebrates cost savings Milton Friedman the business of business is business Many stakeholders, can you meet all their needs or do companies focus on the most powerful (Lewis and Unerman (1999

17、) Stakeholder theory Gray et al, the more important that stakeholder the more effort is made in SER,15,Problems with SER,Many different theories of motivation for SER how to ensure consistency, comparable, unbiased information? Many different definitions of sustainability (Gray 2008) Data Integrity

18、Focus on good news (Guthrie and Parker 1990, Deegan et al 1996) Reactionary report on the next big thing Deegan and Unerman,16,Problems SER financialaccounting perspective,No conceptual framework but see GRI (80% of G250 and 69% of N100 adhere to GRI) IASB Framework is for investors, profit objective Data integrity social and environmental costs so that it is fina