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The main objective of this chapter is to evaluate whether social auditing is applicable to Maltese co-operatives and, if so, to lay out the possible characteristics of such an exercise. The chapter adopts a mixed research methodology with semi-structured interviews being conducted with 14 local experts, and a questionnaire being addressed to 11 Maltese co-operative managers. The findings indicate that the Maltese co-operative identity is as yet emergent and that, consequently, if a social audit is introduced now, controversies would easily arise on the audit’s frequency, publication, scope and composition of the audit team. Nonetheless, a social audit may ultimately be modelled on the Beechwood process and on the reporting indicators of the Euro Co-op Social Reporting Working Party. It would involve the examination of both the qualitative and quantitative aspects of a co-operative, concluding with recommendations for improvement. Furthermore, the exercise would need to be monitored by the Maltese regulator, the Co-operatives Board, and best be conducted regularly, say, every 3 years, by an inter-disciplinary audit team. Therefore, the chapter concludes that the introduction of such a regulatory exercise as part of the Maltese co-operative framework would ultimately be beneficial, ameliorating the co-operative movement. Yet, it is strongly recommended that, prior to its introduction, Maltese co-operatives work further on developing their fundamentals.

This chapter investigates the perceptions of social audit within the context of the garment companies of Bangladesh. The chapter highlights two recent incidents that claimed the lives of about 1,300 garment workers in Bangladesh. Based on the fact that Western clothing brands use social audits before sourcing their products from Bangladesh, this chapter investigates if any real change happens as a result of the information provided in the social audit reports.

The insights were gathered through conducting personal interviews with managers of social audit firms, corporate managers and various stakeholders of the textile and garment companies of Bangladesh. This chapter used the accountability theory to understand the perceptions of social audit.

The chapter finds that different stakeholders have different perspectives regarding social audits. The high-profile catastrophes within the supply chain garment factories of Bangladesh provided evidence that social audits did not help prevent such catastrophes in a different socio-economic context. The results have revealed stakeholder dissatisfaction with the procedures and content of social audits. It also finds that there is an expectation gap between the preparers and users of social audit reports.

The insights provided in this chapter would benefit garment manufacturers of developing countries and relevant stakeholders to demonstrate more accountability while conducting a social audit.

This is the first known chapter investigating stakeholders’ perceptions of social audit within the context of a developing country. More importantly, it focuses on responsible corporate behaviour in a socially sensitive industry.

This research aims to explore the perceived usefulness of audited social information in making economic decisions, in the eyes of both Tunisian financial analysts and bankers.

The authors conduct an exploratory qualitative study using twelve semi-structured interviews: seven are carried out with financial analysts, and five are performed among bankers.

This study’s results reveal that financial analysts and bankers paid little attention to the audited social information in making investment/credit granting decisions. The authors also show that the low perceived usefulness of social audit is due to many reasons related to political, economic, regulatory, educational, cultural and cognitive factors.

This study contributes to the current literature in several ways. First, it enriches the knowledge about the perceived usefulness of social audit. To the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study to explore the perception of financial analysts and bankers to audited social information and its usefulness for decision-making. Second, the focus on the Tunisian context is interesting as it was marked, since the outbreak of the Jasmine Revolution, by the uncertainty and the instability of political, economic and social conditions. Third, this research goes further by exploring the most important factors affecting the perceiveness of social auditing.

To identify the applicability of social auditing as an approach of engaging stakeholders in assessing and reporting on corporate sustainability and its performance.

Drawing upon the framework of AA1000 and the social auditing studies, this paper links stakeholder engagement, social auditing and corporate sustainability with a view to applying dialogue‐based social auditing to address corporate sustainability.

This paper identifies a “match” between corporate sustainability and social auditing, as both aim at improving the social, environmental and economic performance of an organisation, considering the well‐being of a wider range of stakeholders and requiring the engagement of stakeholders in the process. This paper suggests that social auditing through engaging stakeholders via dialogue could be applied to build trusts, identify commitment and promote co‐operation amongst stakeholders and corporations.

This research requires further empirical research into the practicality of social auditing in addressing corporate sustainability and the determination of the limitations of dialogue‐based social auditing.

Social auditing has been identified as a useful mechanism of balancing differing interests among stakeholders and corporations in a democratic business society. The application of social auditing in developing and achieving corporate sustainability has apparently practical implications.

This paper examines the applicability of dialogue‐based social auditing in helping business to move towards sustainability. Social auditing as a process of assessing and reporting on corporate social and environmental performance through engaging stakeholders via dialogue could be applied to build trusts, identify commitment and promote cooperation amongst stakeholders and corporations.

Argues that social auditing has a key importance as there is a growing awareness among corporate sector enterprises that every such enterprise should contribute towards social goals. Attempts to assess the social performance of a corporate enterprise (Steel Authority of India Limited) in terms of costs incurred by the enterprise considered against the benefits to the recipients. There is need to have regular audit of the social accounts on the basis of which the comparative social performance of the corporate sector can be studied. The concept of social audit should be extended to the activities relating to the employees, the environment, the society and the products. There is need to develop a useful social reporting framework to ensure the effectiveness of the social audit programme in the corporate sector which in turn can contribute positively to society at large.

This paper aims to examine the role of social auditing in legitimising the relationship between the buyer and supplier firms rather than strengthening corporate accountability in the global supply chain.

Applying case study methodology and drawing on Suchman’s theory on societal legitimacy, it is argued that social audits are artefacts of legitimacy, and global firms dominate the buyer–supplier relationship across the supply chain. The analysis is based on data collected from different secondary sources, including Walmart’s corporate sustainability reports.

Using Walmart’s relationship with Tazreen Fashions Limited around the Tazreen factory fire incident as a case study, it explains that the practices which attempt to symbolically demonstrate accountability from social audits need to shift to a more continuous and sincere demonstration of accountability through the social audit process. For this to occur, the cognitive and pragmatic approaches that international buyers have previously used in auditing their supply firms’ social responsibility are no longer sufficient to achieve societal legitimacy. Instead, a moral turn needs to underpin the intentions and actions of these buyers to maintain legitimacy and demonstrate accountability across the supply industry in developing economies.

The findings of the study answer the questions raised in the extant literature about the expectation from social auditing and whether social auditing serves to ensure corporate accountability. The paper contributes to the policymaking discussion of how social auditing can be configured to include a legal provision to ensure that social auditing is not a parroting tool for corporations.

The main purpose in this article is to highlight civil society activism that resulted in the inception of environmental auditing in the United States in the 1970s. The General Motors (GM) campaign which is discussed in this article led towards major institutional changes for the implementation of corporate social responsibility (environmental) reporting originally referred to as social (environmental) auditing. The Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) role and actions are analysed in detail in order to highlight the direction of this Federal Agency in relation to the implementation of social (environmental) auditing.

A detailed analysis of literature from the early 1970s is undertaken in order to identify the inception of environmental auditing and the types of environmental auditing as social auditing in its early stages. The case of the GM campaign is analysed in order to highlight the forms of historical institutionalism relevant to the critical stage of exogenous influences on companies to undertake social (environmental) auditing.

It is found that in the early 1970s companies resisted the incorporation of corporate social responsibility initiatives and actions as part of their agendas. Environmental Auditing as a type of social auditing at that time referred to corporate social responsibility disclosures that included environmental disclosures. Due to public pressure and civil society activism companies had to adopt and undertake social (environmental) auditing. The initial stages of environmental disclosures included reporting on environmental expenses and liabilities of the companies. The SEC imposed minimal disclosure requirements for environmental auditing, which were nevertheless adequate to undertake action against companies found to be providing misleading environmental information in their publicly available disclosures. The 1970s served as a critical juncture for the inception and development of mandatory and voluntary environmental reporting (auditing) in the United States.

This is an original research article.

This study examines how professional service firms' communication effectiveness (affiliative communications style, social dialogue and information provision), social cognitive capital and rapport established between an auditor and SME client are instrumental in influencing the latter's evaluation of the technical quality of an audit.

The study combines qualitative and quantitative methodologies to create a cross-sectional survey covering four geographic regions in an emerging economy – Thailand. The authors examine the hypotheses by employing social interaction theory.

A study of 744 SME executives plus post-survey interviews with three audit partners revealed that an affiliative communications style and information provision are positively associated with the rapport developed between financial auditor and client, and that rapport, in turn, had a strong association with client perceptions of audit quality. In addition, affiliative communication style, information provision and social cognitive capital had a direct (positive) association with perceptions of audit quality. The effects of communication effectiveness and social cognitive capital varied, depending on whether or not the SME client possessed formal accounting qualifications.

The study contributes to the literature on the business-to-business professional services, and accounting in particular, by explicating the important roles of communication effectiveness, rapport, and social cognitive capital in the relationship between an auditor and a client. Moreover, the paper reveals that the differences in educational background of clients result in differential impacts of communication effectiveness and social cognitive capital on rapport and perceptions of audit quality.

Written in response to many enquiries about how the social audit is linked to quality control issues, reviews the developmental history of the social audit and its links to government regulations. Discusses and analyses ethical dilemmas.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of board and audit committee characteristics on corporate social responsibility (CSR) in Iranian companies listed in stock exchanges.

This is a descriptive-correlational and an applied research. The statistical population of this research is all companies listed in Tehran Stock Exchange and the research period is from 2012 to 2018. Using screening method a sample of 150 companies was selected. Multivariate regression and the software Eviews 10 were used for data analysis and hypothesis testing.

The results indicated that board size had a significant effect on CSR; board independence had a significant effect on CSR; managerial ownership did not have a significant effect on CSR; CEO duality did not have a significant effect on CSR; audit committee size had a significant effect on CSR; audit committee independence had a significant effect on CSR; and financial expertise of audit committee members had a significant effect on CSR.

The present study is the first research performed on the effect of board and audit committee characteristics on CSR in Iran. The results of this study contribute to the literature on the effect of board and audit committee characteristics on CSR and provide suggestions for capital market participants. CSR helps reduce asymmetric distribution of information among the internal and external organizational entities and reduce agency problems and conflicts among different groups. Based on the results, an effective audit committee as an effective mechanism enhances the credibility of financial and non-financial reporting such as social responsibility, which means that an effective audit committee can improve the level of voluntary disclosure of information through effective oversight of the reporting process. It is also suggested that companies focus on audit committee characteristics to increase the level of CSR.