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The purpose of this paper is to discuss the drawbacks of current social and environmental accounting methods and to present a classification for developing a new accounting model.

The various social and environmental accounting methods are classified and discussed on the basis of various criteria such as the types of accounting principles and the content and information units utilized.

Current social and environmental accounting methods utilize different criteria, measurement units and principles, a fact that makes the information provided ambiguous and problematic for a reliable business‐society dialogue under a common and understandable context. A new classification is presented based on specific criteria in the prospect of developing a new accounting model.

The proposed new classification aiming to develop a new accounting model is a theoretical proposition which should be validated and tested in practice with a series of case studies before it can be recommended as an alternative to current accounting methods.

The paper attempts to highlight the drawbacks of the current social and environmental accounting methods and proposes a new classification for the development of a new accounting model.

To verify if the intellectual capital (IC) statement has some points of contact with environmental and social reports, or whether it can be considered as a brand‐new reporting model, which is completely detached and independent by the other two.

An empirical analysis of environmental and social reports in Italy, and in particular an analysis whether some elements of IC statement are present in the environmental and social reports.

A high level of dispersion in the information composing the environmental and social reports; a significant overlapping of data between these two sets of documents; and a quite relevant set of information in common between the environmental and social reports and the IC statement.

The environmental and social reports analysed could be not an exhaustive list, because Italian companies produce such reports on a voluntary basis and for internal purposes.

The lack of uniformity in and between environmental and social reports, and the correspondence between many elements of those documents and the IC statement information seem to suggest that the environmental and social reports could probably serve as a support for the development of IC statement in the Italian context in the near future.

Looks at the growing awareness of the multi‐dimensional nature of firm performance and the inadequacy of traditional accounting systems to account for issues posed by economic and technological environments.

This paper aims to examine the reporting on sustainability and the level of compliance with international best practice, the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI), aimed at improving communicative value to users.

Using a qualitative approach, comprising interviews with senior managers and analysis of disclosures in annual reports of Thai-listed companies, this paper contributes to the literature by providing evidence from an emerging market setting.

This study finds that sustainability reporting and integrated reporting perspectives of sampling companies are aiming to satisfy information needs to stakeholders and value creation to external users. Sustainability disclosures are related to some aspect of integrated reporting (IR) principles but not all.

The findings of this study are based on the results from interviews and annual reports of five business sectors, and may therefore, not reflect the sustainability reporting practices and/or annual reports of other Thai-listed companies. Also, there is limited reporting on future outlook.

The findings suggest that while sustainability and IR is being adopted very widely, in many countries, there is much variation in reporting practice especially in our emerging country context adopting a “comply or explain” approach.

For the Thai-listed companies, IR systems could be in their early stages and still have long way to go. The results can greatly encourage Thai-listed firms to incorporate integrated information in annual reports based on international standards thus building trust in capital markets and wider society.

The findings contribute to the literature on sustainability reporting and on the level of compliance with international best practice such as GRI by providing empirical analysis of non-financial disclosures within publicly available reporting in Thailand.

The purpose of this paper is to examine whether managers consider social and environmental information in evaluating projects.

Built on the stakeholder theory, this study hypothesises that managers consider social and environmental information in evaluating their projects. To test the hypotheses, this study employs experimental design.

The authors find evidence that managers consider social and environmental information in evaluating their projects.

This study finds that social and environmental information is relevant for managerial decision making, particularly in project evaluation.

Social and environmental information is considered relevant for project evaluation decision. Hence, managers should be provided those information.

To the best of the knowledge, this is the first accounting study which examines the effect of social and environmental information on managers’ decisions, particularly in the Asian context using experimental approach. Previous studies only examined the effect social and environmental information on external stakeholders, such as investors.

This study analyses the scope of social and environmental reporting from the perspective of integrating it in financial reporting and comments on a new approach regarding the presentation of social and environmental information in the annual reports from Romanian companies’ perspective.

A literature review introduces and justifies the second part of the research. The latter is organised as an exploratory study based on interviews. It presents the current state of Romanian companies’ availability for reconsidering financial reporting from the perspective of corporate social responsibility.

While social and environmental involvement of Romanian companies is at an early stage, there is a basis for future development of corporate reporting by addressing social and environmental aspects. We noticed that companies have the tendency of responding rather to a mandatory framework than a voluntary one.

The limitations of the research are linked to the study population. The small number of Romanian companies that publicly manifest interest for social responsibility determined the choice of a qualitative instead of a quantitative research.

The exploratory study based on the case of Romania accompanies the present state of non-financial versus financial reporting in order to highlight measurable and non-measurable, but relevant, information to be considered in a future reporting framework.

The study advances new lines in accounting research by confronting the national and international perspectives of social and environmental reporting. Debates and arguments on the research results add value and utility to the research.

This paper investigates the impact of sustainability information disclosure on consumers' choice of order-to-delivery lead-time in relation to consumers' sustainability concern.

Based on two choice experiments with participants from the Netherlands (n = 348) and the United Kingdom (n = 1,387), the impact of sustainability information disclosure was examined in connection with consumers' concerns for environmental and social sustainability. Information on environmental impact (carbon emission) and social impact (warehouse workers and drivers' well-being) was considered and compared.

Disclosing sustainability impact information significantly increased consumers' preference and choice for longer delivery times, with equivalent effects for environmental and social impact information. Consumers' relevant (environmental or social) sustainability concern as personality traits enhanced effects on preferences, as did priming of environmental concern.

Future research may consider differences between product categories or e-commerce companies' reputation in sustainability activities.

The findings provide opportunities for online retailers to influence consumer choice of delivery time, especially through disclosing environmental and/or social sustainability information.

This study fills a gap in the literature on sustainability information disclosure to actively steer consumer choice of delivery time, particularly regarding the effect of social sustainability impact information in comparison to its environmental counterpart.

Given the rising global interest in the environmental, social and governance (ESG) index, the purpose of this paper is to investigate the impact of social and ethical practices on the firm’s environmental disclosure level.

To test the study’s hypotheses, the authors applied linear regressions with a data panel using the Thomson Reuters ASSET4 and Bloomberg database from seven countries in analyzing data of 523 listed companies selected from the ESG index between 2005 and 2017. Similarly, as an extension of the research and to address the potential unobserved heterogeneity and the dynamic endogeneity, the authors exploited the dynamic dimension of the data set through the generalized moment method (GMM) and estimated the impact of the one-year lagged value of the environmental disclosure.

The empirical results indicate a growing interest in corporate social responsibility (CSR) and ethical practices over the past decade. Besides, companies with a strong social and ethical commitment obtain significantly higher environmental disclosure scores. The results found with the GMM technique indicate the existence of dependence and continuity in environmental disclosure over time.

The research enables the information user to assess the transparency of the company as well as the quality of the information disclosed on its environment and its future growth opportunities in a context where the approach of business ethics occupies a central position in business valuation. The reached results suggest that the institutional and/or cultural factors affect top management’s environmental reporting behavior regarding the quality of published information.

This paper explores, for the first time, the effect of the social and ethical practices of ESG companies with seven different nationalities as well as its dynamic effect on the adoption of an environmental transparency strategy.

In recent years the concept of corporate social responsibility has gained prominence among academics from a wide range of disciplines. According to the Green Paper issued by the Commission of the European Communities in July 2001, corporate social responsibility is defined as a concept whereby companies integrate social and environmental concerns in their business operations and in their interaction with their stakeholders on a voluntary basis. The problem is how firms have made known the information on corporate social responsibility. With this in mind, in the present work we were prompted to analyse the relevance of corporate social responsibility in Spanish firms. To perform this study we examined some Spanish firms that present information about corporate social responsibility according to the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) framework. Certain relevant conclusions about corporate social responsibility indicate that the disclosure of information about corporate social responsibility and the elaboration of the Sustainability Report in Spanish firms has been increasing and improving in recent years, that some of the most relevant information is economic, social and environmental, the environmental aspect being the most outstanding, and that of the firms analysed, Inditex (manufacturing industries) and Telefonica (communications) are the ones reporting the best information.

The purpose of this research is to investigate the factors determining the social and environmental reporting (SER) of Indian textile and apparel (TA) firms.

The 2010 annual reports of a sample of top 100 Indian TA firms listed on the Bombay Stock Exchange were examined to assess the extent of SER. SER was assessed based on the Global Reporting Initiative index applicable to the TA industry. Multiple regression analysis was conducted to investigate the determinants of SER.

This study reports a low extent of SER in the annual reports of Indian listed TA firms, with a mean disclosure of 14 per cent. On average, firms reported more extensive environmental information, with a mean disclosure of 18.4 per cent, compared to social information, with a mean disclosure of 10.7 per cent. Most firms reported social information relating to “labour practices and decent work”, while the reporting of information relating to “human rights” was sparse. Overall, the SER patterns provide support for legitimacy theory. Consistent with legitimacy theory expectations, corporate size, brand development and audit committee size are significant factors determining the variation in SER. No significant relationship was found between board independence, level of ownership and SER.

There is no existing study specifically on SER by TA firms in India. In fact, there is surprisingly little research on SER in the Indian context in general. Given the dearth in research on corporate social reporting in the Indian context, the study extends prior literature on corporate SER by concentrating on SER of TA firms in an emerging economy. The theoretical contribution of this study is the testing of legitimacy theory in the context of an emerging economy. This study contributes towards practice by delineating the relationship between governance structure and SER, particularly with regard to issues such as child labour. These findings have implications for the future development of reporting standards and regulations in regard to corporate governance in India. The dearth of social reporting by Indian TA firms has implications for foreign purchasers of branded products, as international companies have been implicated in sub-optimal social or environmental practices or incidents.

The paper seeks to adopt an institutional view of legitimacy to examine how a sample of French companies reacted to the introduction of the “New Economic Regulations” in French law in 2001 requiring that publicly listed companies disclose environmental information.

The approach used in the paper is both quantitative and qualitative. A content analysis of environmental disclosure provided in annual reports, environmental reports and web sites by 26 French companies listed in the CAC 40 is performed throughout the period 2001-2011.

The findings of this study show a significant and enduring improvement in the quality and quantity of environmental disclosure from 2001 to 2011. Even in the absence of penalties for non-compliance, the NRE law stimulated a stark and positive lasting change in the way that French companies account for their environmental information. These findings are consistent with the institutional view of legitimacy theory whereby legislation provides corporate managers with a representation of relevant audiences' perceptions about social and environmental reporting, prompting them to comply with the law to ensure organizational legitimacy.

Social and environmental reporting studies generally adopt a strategic view of legitimacy to examine how organizations use social and environmental reporting to respond strategically to legitimacy threats. This study provides early empirical evidence about the relevance of institutional legitimacy theory in explaining environmental reporting.