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The purpose of this paper is to analyse CSR reporting in large Finnish listed companies, focusing on the following questions: what kinds of motives and objectives appear behind CSR reporting, what kinds of documents are used in CSR reporting, and what kind of information related especially to CSR policy, stakeholders, as well as economic, social and environmental responsibilities, is presented? Finally, the idea is to compare large Finnish listed companies' CSR information with corresponding international results.

The study is based on the analysis of qualitative data consisting of formal CSR reports, including annual reports and special CSR reports, of 2006. The empirical analyses are supplemented with interviews with four company representatives and with two auditors. The information of special CSR reports is analysed by using the content method.

Companies understand responsibility as a duty to act responsibly towards their stakeholders and CSR reporting as a response to stakeholders' expectations and demands. The study indicates that especially corporate characteristics such as industry group and internationalization stage as well as general contextual factors such as social and cultural context affect voluntary CSR reporting. It shows that the large Finnish listed companies define corporate social responsibility as being based on Elkington's triple bottom line (TBL) model. In CSR reporting companies follow more or less GRI guidelines. Formal CSR information is presented based on the TBL model but companies emphasize different issues in their reporting.

First, the research is based on interpretative understanding and these kinds of analyses are always more or less subjective. Second, the analysis is based on CSR information produced by large Finnish listed companies. Thus, the study does not give an extensive description of the CSR reporting in all Finnish listed companies or in non‐listed companies. Third, the research is a cross‐sectional study based on CSR information published in one particular year. And fourth, the research data include only certain formal CSR information, not all CSR disclosures. Thereby, the analysis gives a snapshot or a glimpse of Finnish CSR reporting practices. The analysis does not tell anything about history, development or future of CSR reporting practices or anything about other kinds of CSR communication of the large Finnish listed companies. Thus, the reality reconstructed in the study must not be generalized, but used to understand CSR reporting in the context.

The paper analyses CSR reporting in large Finnish listed companies, focusing on motives and objectives, documents used, and information related particularly to CSR policy, stakeholders, and economic, social and environmental responsibilities.

The purpose of this study is to situate information and communications technology (ICT) “transparency reports” within the theoretical framework of corporate social responsibility (CSR) reporting. The self-denominated transparency report serves a dual purpose of highlighting an ICT company’s socially responsible behavior while also holding government agencies accountable for surveillance and requests for user data. Drawing on legitimacy theory, neo-institutional theory and stakeholder theory, this exploratory study examines how ICT companies are implementing industry-specific voluntary disclosures as a form of CSR.

A content analysis of ICT voluntary nonfinancial reporting (N = 88) was used to identify motivating principles, the company positioning to stakeholders, the relevant publics and intended audience of these disclosures and the communication strategy used to engage primary stakeholders.

Key findings suggest that most ICT companies used transparency reporting to engage consumers/users as their primary stakeholders and most used a stakeholder information strategy. A majority of ICT companies signaled value-driven motives in their transparency reports while also positioning the company to stakeholders as a protector of user data and advocate for consumer rights.

This study enriches the literature on CSR communication strategies and reporting practices by extending it to an underdeveloped topic of study: novel voluntary disclosures as CSR activities of prominent ICT companies (i.e. “Big Tech”). These polyphonic reports reflect varied motives, varied positioning and varied stakeholders. For market-leading companies, transparency reporting can serve to legitimize existing market power. And for midsize and emerging companies, transparency reporting can be used to signal adherence to industry norms – set by market-leading companies.

The main purpose of this conceptual paper is drawing up a framework to assess the company responsibility regarding culture and fine arts. Since a rich cultural life requires variety and commitment to innovative and bold forms of cultural activity, the model should measure the corporate commitment to fostering axiological pluralism in the cultural sphere. A subordinate purpose is testing that model using primary data on the biggest Spanish listed companies. First, we define the corporate cultural responsibility (CCR) as a specific field of the corporate social responsibility. Second, we defend that corporate citizenship involves accepting some risks to be in line with the public expectations on arts and culture. Third, it is proposed an assessment model that takes into account the kind of cultural activities promoted by the firms, from conventional and uncommitted to innovative and provoking. The model makes possible to rank the companies according to the quality of their CCR and take into account the influence of size and sector. The model reveals whether firms support conventional versus challenging cultural activities. This should be taken into consideration both by CSR managers and policy makers. In spite of the mounting economic significance of symbols and creativity, there is still little literature that specifically addresses the role of firms regarding arts and culture as another facet of their responsibility as corporate citizens.

This paper aims to explore the determinants of circular economy accounting information disclosure quality, and also to make empirical analysis on the relationship between circular economy accounting information disclosure quality and corporate ownership governance and institutional pressures according to institutional theory and corporate governance theory. Finally, this paper provides some corresponding suggestions for heightening circular economy accounting information disclosure quality.

This paper constructs enterprise circular economy accounting information disclosure model with Chinese characteristics. First, it takes disclosure index method to measure enterprise circular economy accounting information disclosure quality, followed by the hypotheses of this study. Then, this study employs a statistical analysis technique to empirically study the relationship between enterprise circular economy accounting information disclosure quality and ownership governance and institutional pressures, to study the ways to heighten enterprise circular economy accounting information disclosure quality in Chinese background.

Ownership governance and institutional pressures mainly determine quality of circular economy accounting information disclosure. This paper draws the following conclusions: Chinese listed companies have heightened their circular economy accounting information disclosure quality due to ownership concentration, shareholding of institutional investors, mandatory disclosure, capital structure and assets size. However, the circular economy accounting information disclosure quality has low correlation with the profitability and the location of listed companies.

Both in China and the West, few scholars or experts adopt empirical research to study the determinants of circular economy accounting information disclosure quality in an institutional theory and corporate governance theory perspective based on China’s supervisory system background. This paper makes a thorough analysis of the factors that affect listed companies’ circular economy accounting information disclosure quality, and provides some corresponding suggestions relevant for heightening circular economy accounting information disclosure quality.

The purpose of this paper is to provide a picture of the state of the art in social and environmental accounting research applied to the public sector, highlighting different streams and the main gaps in current literature and providing input for future research.

A bibliometric method was used to analyse the characteristics, citation patterns and content of 38 papers published in international academic journals.

The findings show that the research on social and environmental reporting in the public sector is still at an early stage. Current investigations, although slowly on the increase, are still very few and localised. Most papers are about the reasons why public organisations report, what and how they report, but there are so many aspects that need to be investigated more in-depth or require extra validation in order to open new directions for future research, among which the relationship with and the differences between other non-financial type of reporting, namely ICR and IR.

The study shows some limitations, mainly related to the adoption of the bibliometric method. Indeed, it does not take into account books and chapters but only papers published in international and academic journals. This leads to exclude a significant part of the existing literature and other relevant contributions on the field.

Social and environmental reporting practices are quickly spreading in the public sector. The field is particularly interesting, given the specific connotations of this kind of organisations. However, the literature is clearly not exhaustive and there is not a comprehensive and systematic review of the state of the art on the subject.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the status quo of Global Reporting Initiative (GRI)-based sustainable public value (SPV) reporting by electric utilities. Furthermore, the study attempts to find out whether a stock exchange listing and/or a public ownership are positively associated with electric utilities’ reporting regarding their contributions to a sustainable development (SD) or not.

An empirical analysis of sustainability reports published by electric utilities from 28 different countries all over the world is carried out. The investigation is based on a documentary analysis of 83 GRI G4 reports.

The findings show that electric utilities’ coverage of GRI indicators of the electric utilities sector disclosures varies between, as well as within, the different categories of the GRI guidelines and that the coverage of sector-specific indicators is often lacking behind the general coverage rates. Furthermore, the study reveals that a stock exchange listing is positively associated with electric utilities’ GRI-based SPV reporting. In contrast, public ownership does not show a significant association.

Electric utilities have a significant influence on SD. They operate in a regulated environment that is targeted at utilizing electric utilities for economic and environmental public policy objectives. Against that background, the study discusses which issues of SPV creation are reported by electric utilities that use the GRI guidelines and therefore brings together the public value (PV) and the sustainability community.

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) has evolved since the nineteenth century and is becoming mandatory for firms. However, the association between CSR and financial performance remains fluid. The purpose of this paper is to examine the mediating effect of third-party assurance (TPA) and the moderating effect of financial leverage in CSR – financial performance relationship.

Panel and hierarchical regression models are used to analyse data covering 29 companies in the Indian stock market for the period, from 2010 to 2017.

The study shows that CSR has a positive association with financial performance (ROA (return on assets) and ROE (return on equity)) of listed firms in India. The second finding shows that TPA has a negative association with financial performance (ROA and ROE) and negatively mediate the association between CSR and financial performance (ROA and ROE). Further, the findings also show that financial leverage has a negative association with ROA but no association with ROE, and is unable to moderate the association between CSR and financial performance. Lastly, financial leverage has no association with TPA and unable to moderate the association between CSR and TPA.

The scope of the study is limited to large firms submitting sustainability reports based on the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) guidelines, and this criterion is likely to limit the generalisation of the findings.

Capital market investors look for new markets to invest, and CSR results show a positive return for equity investors, which may encourage capital market investments in a mandatory CSR environment. The mediating effect of TPA has the potential to force managers to undertake CSR activities, which leads to a user-friendly environment and improved social sustainability.

Previous studies show a mix association between CSR and financial performance. Nevertheless, some of the possible reasons for the mix association have not received scholarly attention. Hence, the role of the mediating effect of TPA and the moderating effect of financial leverage in CSR-financial performance relationship.

The purpose of this paper is to examine whether the voluntary annual report disclosures, relating to conflict diamonds, for four of the largest diamond mining companies operating in South Africa can be explained through applying legitimacy theory and media agenda‐setting theory.

Applying legitimacy theory under the assumption of media agenda‐setting theory, the study draws a comparison between the volume of disclosure relating to conflict diamonds made in the annual reports of four of the largest diamond mining companies operating in South Africa and the volume of South African media publications addressing conflict diamonds.

The results of the study suggest that changes in the degree of media attention relating to the issue of conflict diamonds are largely mirrored by the annual report disclosure by one firm, but not by the other firms in the sample. Hence, legitimation motives lend support for only one of the four firms.

It should be noted that in relying upon legitimacy theory to examine variations in voluntary annual report disclosures regarding conflict diamonds, the study does not invalidate the likelihood that other theories, such as stakeholder theory or political economy theory, for example, may also hold explanatory power.

No prior research combining legitimacy theory and media agenda theory to explain voluntary disclosure of conflict diamonds by South African diamond mining companies could be found.

Materiality, as a content-selection principle, is an emerging trend in sustainability reporting for making sustainability reports (SRs) more relevant for stakeholders. The purpose of this paper is to investigate whether materiality matters in the reporting practice of universities which have adopted the Global Reporting Initiative G4 Guidelines.

Strategic stakeholder theory and sociological institutionalism serve for deriving conflicting expectations about the compliance of universities with the materiality principle. In the empirical section of this paper, content analyses are conducted on the documented material aspects, followed by a correlation analysis for examining to which extent the identified material aspects are reported in the SRs.

Although universities document G4-19 stakeholder-material aspects according to different relevance levels and for internal and external stakeholder groups, the identified material aspects are not appropriately reported in the SRs. The adoption of the materiality principle is a superficial one and therefore more in line with the expectations of sociological institutionalism.

The main limitation for this study is the small number of university SRs available. The chance to make SRs more relevant by focusing on stakeholder-material aspects is not used.

This paper reports the first study looking at the compliance between the documented material aspects and the content of SRs in a particular challenging organisational field, the university sector. This paper also adds to the emerging theoretical discussion about the extent universities implement materiality in SRs.