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Orchestration and consolidation in corporate sustainability reporting. The legacy of the Corporate Reporting Dialogue

N. Rowbottom (Birmingham Business School, University of Birmingham, Birmingham, UK)

Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal

ISSN: 0951-3574

Article publication date: 5 October 2022

Issue publication date: 4 April 2023

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Abstract

Purpose

The paper uses theoretical conceptions of power and orchestration to analyse the role of the Corporate Reporting Dialogue on the global standardisation of sustainability reporting.

Design/methodology/approach

The paper adopts an interpretive approach and draws on a qualitative dataset derived from interviews, documentary analysis and observation.

Findings

The paper traces how the Corporate Reporting Dialogue was orchestrated by the International Integrated Reporting Council, with the objective of aligning sustainability reporting standards, but moved to become a vehicle for orchestrating standards consistent with the recommendations of the Task Force for Climate-Related Financial Disclosure. Collaboration between the Dialogue's five most active bodies forged the blueprint adopted by the International Sustainability Standards Board's vision of sustainability reporting that prioritised reporting only on those socio-ecological issues deemed to materially affect future enterprise value.

Originality/value

The paper explicates the role of collaborative initiatives in the standardisation of sustainability reporting and shows how these initiatives act as vehicles to subtly undermine the GRI position (presented as one standardiser amongst many whose vision appears as an outlier, despite its position as the dominant sustainability reporting standardiser), and establish the prioritisation of a sustainability reporting worldview based on investor-oriented enterprise value creation. The case also draws attention to the specific orchestrators involved in establishing this prioritisation, and reveals the influence of philanthropic foundations. In doing so, it extends our understanding of legitimacy generation in standard-setting by showing how collaborative initiatives offer private standardisers another means to generate input legitimacy for what, in this case, represented a vision of reporting at odds with most sustainability reporting practice. Finally, the paper extends the sites of power to collaborative initiatives and details the mechanisms through which covert power is exercised but also masked where orchestrators use convening power, funding and membership choices to define the boundaries of discussion by influencing who participates, what is on the agenda and what activity is undertaken. Rather than viewing standardisation as a simple pursuit of conquest between individual standardisers, the paper considers how collaboration provides the opportunity for assimilation.

Keywords

Acknowledgements

The author would like to gratefully acknowledge the considerable assistance of a former colleague, Delphine Gibassier, who contributed substantially to the early stages of this project during the time at the University of Birmingham. The author would also like to thank Jan Bebbington and participants at the Lancaster University workshop on sustainability reporting, EAA 2022 participants, Brendan O'Dwyer, Chris Humphrey and the Birmingham Business School Centre for Responsible Business in helping develop the paper. Finally, the author is very grateful to all the interviewees who generously offered the time and candid insights. For Margaret.

Citation

Rowbottom, N. (2023), "Orchestration and consolidation in corporate sustainability reporting. The legacy of the Corporate Reporting Dialogue", Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, Vol. 36 No. 3, pp. 885-912. https://doi.org/10.1108/AAAJ-06-2021-5330

Publisher

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Emerald Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2022, Emerald Publishing Limited

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