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Practices of Social Reporting in Public Sector and Non-profit Organizations
Abstract
Social accounting and reporting practices are widely adopted all over the world by various kinds of organizations. While most of the literature focuses on private corporations, in recent years several scholars have called for more attention to be directed towards public and non-profit sectors' reporting practices. This article offers an overview of the main peculiarities of social reporting with reference to the Italian not-for-profit and public sectors. In particular, adopting an Institutional Theory approach, the article discusses reasons that social reporting practices demonstrate a process of convergence towards a partially regulated framework.
... This is quite surprising. Since the 1990s, new public management (NPM) reforms were paired with reporting practices to communicate to stakeholders/citizens about the value of public administration for society, as well as to develop stakeholder engagement [31][32][33][34] as a founding element of democratic governance [35,36]. In particular, in recent years, concerning the accountability of local governments (LGOs), the rise of a holistic form of disclosure (able to incorporate both financial and non-financial information) that is also concise and easy to understand, has fueled the academic and practitioner debates, generating a large number of different reports under different labels [34]. ...
... However, their adoption is not free from criticisms. Some authors have highlighted that the experimentation of new forms of accountability in the public sector may hide the purpose to achieve legitimacy through window-dressing strategies [36] or may be a mere managerial fashion [34]; which does not fulfils, de facto, the information need of constituents [37]. Concerning the issues that accounting scholars should address (to "provide food for thought" to professionals and researchers), the following two factors seem relevant to our study: a deeper understanding on how to govern the public value creation process [38,39]; and to address the interrelations among urban resilience and sustainable city accounting [40]. ...
... However, their adoption is not free from criticism. Some authors have highlighted that the experimentation of new forms of accountability in the public sector may hide the purpose of achieving legitimacy through window-dressing strategies [36] or may be a managerial fashion [34], which does not fulfil, de facto, the information needs of constituents [37]. Thus, their implementation does not guarantee their effectiveness regarding the communication of the (expected and realized) LGO goals, actions, and performances. ...
Recently, a new paradigm has emerged—the resilient city. It is an evolutionary concept rooted in recent—but more consolidated—city visions, such as a smart city or a sustainable city, from which it inherits the interweaving of different dimensions. This paper investigates the factors behind effective resilience reporting, as well as how a city should draw up an urban resilience strategy report to be accountable to its citizens. We first highlighted the main factors to design and implement reporting for the achievement of strategic resilience goals, by combining research on a resilient city and accountability practices. These factors could be organized following two different perspectives: political and sociotechnical. Then, we applied our framework to four pioneering municipalities selected as paradigmatic case studies. A qualitative content analysis applied to the city resilience reports has provided depth to our framework. We found that the “weak factor” is the ability to embed the resilience strategy in rooted connections and transform itself into an ecosystem that crosscuts different sectoral urban processes. Our exploratory research claims could be used for future research in this field, as cities are becoming increasingly complex systems, where the quality of life and well-being of a larger population depends.
... The articles coded as "general" (10%) generically address nonfinancial reporting formats. Apart from one SLR article on social and environmental accounting research in the public sector (Fusco and Ricci, 2019), most of these articles discuss the motivations that lead PSOs to adopt SRs and the usefulness of such reports (Frost and Seamer, 2002;Larrinaga et al., 2018;Mussari and Monfardini, 2010;Uyar et al., 2019), or consider the frameworks to be adopted (Dumay et al., 2010). Few articles discuss the pros and cons of the different non-financial reporting formats (Biondi and Bracci, 2018;Manes-Rossi, 2019) or introduce new formats (Cohen and Karatzimas, 2015). ...
... Organizational outcomes emerging from SR adoption, such as increased staff motivation and data management capacities (Niemann and Hoppe, 2018), seem to be strongest in the initial period of SR adoption, while effectiveness is lost once the practice becomes institutionalized (Mussari and Monfardini, 2010). Furthermore, a stand-alone report can often include incomplete or inconsistent information (Farneti et al., 2019b). ...
... A managerialist approach seems to prevail (Dumay et al., 2010), in addition to a cherry-picking attitude, in the selection of indicators to be disclosed (Guthrie and Farneti, 2008;Fonseca et al., 2011). Furthermore, strict regulation may lead to a "ritualistic use" of SRs (Mussari and Monfardini, 2010). Scholars agree that in the absence of mandatory requirements, self-serving legitimation, community engagement and accountability pressures are the main reasons for SR adoption in PSOs (Bellringer et al., 2011;Sciulli, 2011;Greco et al., 2015;Che Ku Kassim et al., 2019). ...
Purpose
Research dealing with non-financial reporting formats in public sector organizations is progressively expanding. This paper systematizes the existing literature with the aim of understanding how research is developing and identifying the gaps in need of further investigation.
Design/methodology/approach
A structured literature review was conducted by rigorously following the steps defined in previous studies. The structured nature of the literature review paves the way for a solid understanding and critical analysis of the state of the art of research on non-financial reporting formats in public sector organizations.
Findings
The critical analysis of the literature shows that most existing studies have focused on sustainability reporting in higher education institutions, local governments and state-owned enterprises, while remaining silent on the healthcare sector. Additional theoretical and empirical approaches should feed future research. Several areas deserve further investigations that might impactfully affect public sector organizations, standard setters, practitioners and scholars.
Originality/value
This paper offers a comprehensive review of the literature on different reporting formats that public sector organizations adopt to report various dimensions of their performance to both internal and external stakeholders. The structured literature review enables the identification of future directions for the literature in this field.
... In the last 20 years, SR among NPOs has steadily increased in many countries and in different legal, economic, and social contexts (Arvidson & Lyon, 2014;Costa, Parker, & Andreaus, 2014;Mussari & Monfardini, 2010;Owen, 2008;Raynard, 1998). This is because SR can improve accountability among NPOs (Gray et al., 1996). ...
... In this context, Italian VOs may adopt SR on a voluntary basis, using guidelines published for third sector and other national or local bodies, such as the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI; 2013). SR is not uncommon in Italian third sector organizations (Mussari & Monfardini, 2010). ...
... Existing databases, moreover, are based on voluntary participation among third sector organizations and are, therefore, often incomplete. Nevertheless, recent quantitative research demonstrates that SR practices among VOs have commanded growing attention in recent years (Mussari & Monfardini, 2010;Owen, 2008;Parker, 2011). ...
The present study offers an empirical analysis of motivations for social reporting in voluntary organizations (VOs). Our concurrent mixed methods research design is supported by a questionnaire administered to all of the organizations listed in the regional registry of VOs in Tuscany. Analysis of the scores associated with each set of motivations suggests that VOs issue social reports to offer a truthful representation of the organization’s activities, provide relevant information to stakeholders, and conduct an effective form of internal control. Our findings suggest that many of these motivations connect with each other and produce less conflict among VOs than they do among for-profit organizations, thereby highlighting some peculiar characteristics of these types of organizations. By studying the theoretical perspectives that better correspond to the motivations of Italian VOs, our study contributes to the literature by providing a more complete understanding of why these organizations decide to issue a social report.
... The global reporting initiative (GRI) is known for identifying, developing, and disseminating globally applicable guidelines for sustainability reporting. However, the concept of SPR remains a contemporary global concern, resulting in different ways in which reporting is performed by various organisations [17]. Stakeholders are becoming more outspoken on how organisations align their activities and operations with sustainable development principles [5,6], reinforcing Kolk's [18] assertion that different stakeholders are now much more interested in SPR. ...
... Although sustainability as a concept came into the limelight in the 1980s [57], SPR only received attention about a decade ago. Figure 2 revealed that SPR gained the attention of scholars from 2009, with the concept gaining more popularity from 2013 onwards, during which an average of four peer-reviewed articles were published. This finding could be explained by Mussari and Monfardini's [17] assertion that SPR remains a contemporary global concern as business stakeholders become more interested and outspoken on how organisations align their activities and operations with sustainable development principles. According to Ardiana [105], stakeholders are increasing pressure on organisations to disclose their sustainability performance. ...
The concept of sustainability reporting is now an essential tool through which organisations demonstrate accountability to their stakeholders. The increasing market pressure coupled with the awareness of the consequences of organisations' activities suggests the need for organisations to report their sustainability credentials. Sustainability performance reports should provide adequate information on organisations' social, economic, and environmental performance. However, the current process through which organisations communicate their sustainability performance to stakeholders is questionable and remains a significant concern. This study assessed the current state and direction of research on sustainability performance reporting by conducting a bibliometric literature review of peer-reviewed studies on sustainability performance reporting published between 1987 and 2022. The findings highlight the misconceptions between sustainability and CSR when reporting organisations' sustainability performance. Furthermore, businesses and scholars prioritise reporting instead of communication with stakeholders. The observed lack of engagement with stakeholders indicates that the reported performance may not reflect the impact of business activities on the three dimensions of sustainability. Rather than adopting a one-way information dissemination approach, this study concludes that the desired performance can only be achieved through two-way communication with stakeholders.
... Accounting has a vital role both in organizations/states and in social relationships, with accounting knowledge affecting perceptions, changing languages, and offering new possibilities for new actions (Hopwood, 1988). IT is often used to help explain the application and development of accounting, including within the public sector (Frumkin and Galaskiewicz, 2004;Ezzamel et al., 2007;Hopper and Major, 2007;Mussari and Monfardini, 2010;Jacobs, 2012;Yang and Modell, 2012;Anessi-Pessina et al., 2016;Goddard et al., 2016;Piña and Avellanda, 2018). As the common threads running through these studies include the recognition that legitimacy lies at the heart of IT, the application of isomorphism to explain why governments adopt similar reforms and the occurrence of loose coupling, we now discuss each further in turn. ...
... The influence of the accounting profession illustrates the normative forces behind the decision to adopt RAB. Indeed, its implementation was facilitated by the recruitment of private sector accountants to the public sector (Mussari and Monfardini, 2010), increased use of private sector consultants (Connolly and Hyndman, 2006), and the establishment of the Financial Reporting Advisory Board (FRAB). Moreover, despite evidence suggesting that RAB had not achieved the benefits originally purported, WGA, IFRS, and CLOS were subsequently introduced, thus suggesting that RAB contributed to the UK becoming susceptible to ideas that are the taken-for-granted best way of doing things. ...
Focusing on the four most recent and highly publicized accounting reforms in UK central government, and utilizing discourse analysis of official publications, together with semi‐structured interviews, this paper examines the basis on which these four reforms were introduced, the extent to which they are considered appropriate, and the reasons for the persistence of new public management (NPM)‐inspired accounting reforms in UK central government. The findings indicate that each was promoted in a similar manner despite limited post‐implementation evidence that the supposed benefits of preceding reforms had not been realized to the extent originally suggested. Given NPM's continued acceptance, these findings have international significance.
... L'applicazione di tali concetti ha portato in particolare ad enfatizzare in misura rilevante il ruolo dell'accountability, come elemento cardine dell'azione pubblica (Steccolini, 2004), volta ad un dialogo fra pubblica amministrazione e cittadinanza, aperto ai principi della trasparenza, della responsabilità e della fiducia (Bracci, 2017). Uno degli strumenti tipici di applicazione di questa logica di accountability è stato il bilancio sociale (Mussari & Monfardini, 2010), che ha visto l'emergere di numerose pratiche, soprattutto fra gli enti locali, nel primo decennio di questo secolo. ...
... In questo senso, la dimensione di rendicontazione correlata ad un approccio proprio dell'accountability non può che trovarsi a sfociare nella pratica del bilancio sociale (Steccolini, 2004). Il bilancio sociale ha avuto una certa diffusione nella pubblica amministrazione italiana, soprattutto nel primo decennio di questo secolo (Marcuccio & Steccolini, 2005;Mussari & Monfardini, 2010). L'inclusione della variabile di responsabilità sociale nell'ambito di questo documento comporta l'adozione di una prospettiva di rendicontazione attenta alle ricadute sociali dell'operato della pubblica amministrazione, uno sforzo verso l'attendibilità e la trasparenza dei dati, così come un focus sui processi decisionali adottati (Romolini, 2007;Tagesson et al., 2013). ...
Questo lavoro affronta i concetti dell'accountability e della governance partecipata nella pubblica amministrazione. In particolare, viene mostrato come negli ultimi anni il secondo concetto si sia andato ad affiancare al primo. Inoltre, dalla ricerca emerge come lo strumento simbolo della volontà di applicare la prospettiva dell'accountability sia andato progressivamente ad essere sostituito da quello conforme all'applicazione dei principi della governance partecipata, cioè il bilancio partecipativo. La ricerca empirica svolta in questo articolo esamina la presenza delle pratiche di bilancio sociale e bilancio partecipativo nei comuni italiani capoluogo di provincia con riferimento agli ultimi anni. In particolare, evidenzia come l'evoluzione verso gli strumenti di bilancio partecipativo sia stata conseguenza, almeno in parte, della crisi finanziaria, i cui effetti più acuti sono stati avvertiti negli anni 2009-2011 e come dunque la lettura di tale fenomeno possa essere di aiuto anche ad analizzare i potenziali effetti sulle scelte di accountability e di governo partecipato da parte dei Comuni italiani nei prossimi anni, anche come conseguenza della crisi provocata dalla pandemia in corso nel 2020.
... The differences between the private and public sectors justify, for the latter, a peculiar accounting agenda, based on both formal and informal reporting (Larrinaga-Gonzélez and Chamorro, 2008), which suggests specific standards and guidelines (Mussari and Monfardini, 2010): the implementation of environmental accounting tools limits unsustainable behaviours, playing a regulatory role -for the public sector -similar to that played by markets for the private one (Frost and Seamer, 2002). The degree of transparency in environmental reporting in the public sector is affected by several variables, such as the economic status of the administered population (Piotrowski and van Ryzin, 2007) and the level of sustainable practices implemented in administrations (Clarkson et al., 2008). ...
Purpose – The study analyses the state of the art on environmental accounting in the public sector, highlighting the evolution of literature and providing ideas for future research advances on the topic. Methodology – The article is based on a systematic literature review, developed according to the PRISMA protocol to ensure scientific rigour within the data search, selection, analysis, and interpretation process. Results – The findings highlight that the research on environmental accounting in the public sector is still limited, albeit showing an increasing trend. Future research might deepen the link between the implementation of environmental accounting practices and the economic-financial performance of public companies. Limitations – The limits of the study have a methodological nature, being linked to the adoption of the systematic literature review: brief time span, restrained number of evidence, inclusions of only journal articles, and absence of the risk of bias assessment. Originality – The article contributes to the enrichment and updating of the state of the art given that to date there are no studies that carry out a systematic literature review on the topic of environmental accounting in the public sector.
... Institutional theory could be used to a greater degree to examine my puzzle. Existing research has fruitfully used institutional theory to examine NGOs with respect to themes such as state-NGO relations (Hasmath & Hsu, 2015;Hsu, 2010); market-NGO relations with respect to entrepreneurialism and corporate social responsibility (Rahman et al., 2019;Doh & Guay, 2006); community/society-NGO relations (Maclure, 2003;Paarlberg & Meinhold, 2011;Mussari & Monfardini, 2010); NGO behaviour and practices (Paarlberg & Meinhold, 2011;Wellens & Jegers, 2011;Maclure, 2003;Abzug & Galaskiewicz, 2001;Miller-Millesen, 2003); and NGO emergence and survival (Zhang & Fulton, 2019;Tam & Hasmath, 2015;Hager et al., 2004). ...
What happens when organisations get what they want? How do external shifts which advance organisational goals affect survival? Existing literature on goal advancement tends to conceptualise it as a normatively ‘good’ thing and focuses on how to attain it. What remains undertheorised is how organisations can paradoxically create problems for themselves when they get what they want. This puzzle is particularly important to understand vis-à-vis the third sector and policy change, as states increasingly rely on nongovernmental organisations (NGOs) for social policy provision. Insofar as ‘getting what you want’ via policy change can have unintended consequences for organisational sustainability, it has direct implications for social policy, governance, and the communities these NGOs serve. Despite its growing policy relevance, however, this puzzle remains understudied. This doctoral thesis fills this gap by examining the case of LGBT NGOs in Calgary, Montreal, and Toronto in the context of long-term same-sex marriage legalisation, a policy change widely seen as socially and politically progressive for LGBT equality and one advancing LGBT NGO goals. Drawing upon organisational management, development management, resource dependence, and organisational ecology literatures, this policy-relevant thesis advances scholarly understandings of organisational continuity. Across city cases, I find that structural forces, organisational factors, and policy shift shape resource availability, resource mobilisation, and resource dependencies. But LGBT NGOs are not simply acted upon, instead exercising agency through adaptive behaviour—illustrating this, I introduce a new concept of organisational hibernation, an adaptation to resource scarcity or an evolving policy domain to maintain continuity. But not all adaptations are beneficial: in the post-marriage political economic context, adaptations made for immediate persistence may negatively impact the sustainability of the LGBT NGO sector. Goal advancement via policy change can be costly with broader impacts for continuity of policy provision and LGBT interest representation in policy processes. This thesis contributes to debates in social policy, NGO studies, LGBT politics, and Canadian politics.
... Les associations ont donc tout intérêt à travailler la forme des rapports, tout en s'assurant que la perception du message transmis est la bonne. Ainsi, dans les cas de scandales ou de difficultés, un accroissement perçu de la reddition des comptes joue un rôle de réparateur de la confiance (Mussari & Monfardini, 2010;Schnackenberg & Tomlinson, 2016). ...
Objectif : La présente recherche explore la relation entretenue entre la gouvernance des organisations à but non lucratif et leur performance globale, qui inclut également leur impact sur leurs parties prenantes. Elle affiche donc des objectifs analytiques autour des liens avec les parties prenantes : avec qui œuvrer et à qui rendre des comptes ? comment rendre des comptes et raffermir les liens avec elles ? quels comptes rendre et quels sont les critères d’évaluation ? Les effets de la gouvernance, les formes prises par la reddition des comptes et la construction sociale de la performance et de l’impact organisationnels sont donc particulièrement étudiés.Approche et méthode : L’ancrage principal est la vision contingente des organisations, à laquelle appartiennent les théories des parties prenantes et de la dépendance aux ressources. A partir d’une démarche hypothético-déductive insérée dans le paradigme épistémique réaliste critique (PERC), les hypothèses issues de la littérature sont testées à partir de méthodes d’analyses de données textuelles, de régressions multiples logistiques et linéaires ainsi que de modèles d’équations structurelles. Les analyses ont porté sur les données des plus grandes associations françaises, sur un questionnaire auprès des dirigeants associatifs pendant la crise de la Covid-19, sur une enquête auprès de parties prenantes individuelles ainsi que sur le cas des Jeunes Agriculteurs.Résultats : Les études menées ont permis de montrer que les mécanismes de gouvernance s’expliquent notamment grâce au secteur et aux actions de l’association. En revanche, les liens entre gouvernance et performance globale sont à étudier au cas par cas. Il en va de même pour les effets de la reddition des comptes sur la performance. La performance à court-terme des associations, à savoir leur viabilité, est renforcée par le maintien des dispositifs de gouvernance tandis que l’adoption d’une orientation sociétale a des effets contrastés sur la viabilité. Enfin, globalement, la gouvernance améliore l’impact et la qualité de relation avec les parties prenantes qui elle-même a un effet positif sur l’impact organisationnel. Cependant, ces résultats doivent être étudiés dans le détail des mécanismes de gouvernance, des parties prenantes et des dimensions de la performance.Implications théoriques : Les résultats obtenus permettent de répondre aux objectifs fixés. Ainsi, la vision contingente de la gouvernance des organisations à but non lucratif conduit à une forte adaptabilité (dans chaque organisation et à ses parties prenantes). Le reporting est un mécanisme crucial de reddition des comptes mais la relation avec les parties prenantes est aussi particulièrement pertinente. Enfin, l'ensemble des concepts abordés sont contingents, permettant d'expliquer une vision émotionnelle et subjective de l’impact ainsi que la multidimensionnalité de la performance. Les théories mobilisées sont donc particulièrement adaptées pour les associations et leur opérationnalisation a été revisitée.Implications praticiennes et sociétales : Les résultats invitent à une mesure raisonnable et flexible de l’impact des organisations à but non lucratif et soulignent le caractère crucial de la gouvernance pour améliorer la performance et l’impact, en dépit des méfiances. La priorisation des parties prenantes est en outre cruciale, pour éviter les problèmes associés à la reddition des comptes holistique. Les composantes de la qualité de relation peuvent alors devenir des critères de hiérarchisation et de priorisation des parties prenantes, car elles varient selon les parties prenantes et ont un effet sur la performance et l’impact.
... For public sector organizations, this change could have been generated by a mimetic process derived from observing what is happening in their environment ). However, some authors consider that coercive isomorphism, i.e., the imposition of regulatory requirements, appears to be the most effective mechanism to encourage these practices in nonprofit and public sector entities (Mussari and Monfardini 2010). Institutional theory also considers a third type of isomorphism: normative isomorphism. ...
This paper aims to analyze the impact of standardized sectoral guidelines on the quality of port authorities’ (PAs) sustainability reporting. Sustainability reporting is a way of meeting stakeholder information demands about the economic, social, and environmental impact of port cluster activities. We claim that such guidelines do not always guarantee the quality of reporting, whenever organizations merely comply with their contents. Our study uses content analysis of the sustainability reports of 25 PAs in Spain, and it constructs two indices to measure the quality of the information disclosed: a quantitative index (the adherence index) and a qualitative index (the quality index). The existence of national port sector guidelines, coupled with regulations requiring sustainability reporting, places the Spanish case in a unique setting to study the implementation of port-specific guidelines for sustainability reporting. Our findings suggest that the provision of social and environmental information should be strengthened, especially considering the environmental impacts of port activities. Cluster analysis is also used to classify the sampled PAs based on our quality index and its influencing factors. Our results highlight the need to incorporate stakeholder engagement and dialogue in sustainability reporting processes, as this results in improved reporting quality. It is hoped that our findings help policymakers, legislators, and standardization bodies in developing their proposals on the content of reports, as well as improving the quality of PA reporting.
... Third, this study complements the literature on the search for social legitimacy by integrating sustainability in PA, as thus far the vast majority of articles have analysed the voluntary commitments of public organizations (e.g. Mussari and Monfardini 2010;Roman 2017). Conversely, this research was conducted in the context of Quebec's mandatory environmental policy. ...
Employee-driven pro-environmental innovations improve the performance of public organizations and contribute to social well-being. Nevertheless, the factors that impede the emergence of such innovations remain unclear. To shed light on why some employee-driven innovations succeed while others fail, 33 semi-structured interviews with public sector managers and sustainability advisors were conducted. The analysis of individual, organizational, and public sector-specific factors indicated that pro-environmental innovations encounter fewer obstacles in organizations where environmental concerns are substantially integrated into internal practices. Surprisingly, however, employees with sustainability-related duties are facing more obstacles when attempting to launch pro-environmental innovations than their colleagues from other departments.
... They found that after the stock exchange listing, companies were obliged to modify their MAS to focus on new performance indicators and to produce more timely and accurate reports. While in the private sector coercive isomorphism is only one among the several reasons that lead companies to underpin processes of changes, in the public sector this isomorphism shares the scene with the normative type, becoming the most critical factors in driving MAC processes (Lippi, 2000;Mussari and Monfardini, 2010;Nisio et al. 2012;Pavan and D'Onza, 2013;Tieghi et al, 2018). ...
The interest of researchers on the issue of changes in management accounting practices has increased over the years. Many works have been published that widely vary according to the nature of the business context in which change is implemented, the theoretical approach used, research focus and research methods adopted. The general picture which emerges from these contributions is that Management Accounting Change (MAC) is a complex topic. This is why it still lacks a clear and agreed definition and there’s no consensus on which is the most appropriate paradigm to study it. Based on this evidence, the aim of this study is to provide a deep understanding of MAC phenomenon, conducting a scoping study based on papers published in both Italian and International Accounting Journals. Typologies, causes, as well as the organizational and managerial implication of change are analyzed. Finally, some suggestions for further studies are presented.
... In the survey conducted by the Boston College Center for Corporate Citizenship and EY in 2013, it is found that transparency, risk management and stakeholder pressure are the top three reasons. Apart from these, there are different reasons for reporting: reputation (Farneti and Guthrie, 2009); gaining legitimacy and informing stakeholders (Mussari and Monfardini, 2010); transparency and accountability (Greco et al., 2015;Rixon, 2010); monitoring progress according to specific objectives; furthering awareness, transparency and increased reliability for broad environmental issues (Kolk, 2010). ...
... Sustainability in public firms however is especially relevant, because their actions are traditionally targeted towards social and environmental goals, sometimes neglecting the economic dimension and often failing to reach the triple equilibrium identified by the TBL approach. In the public sector, the social dimension has often been hindered by rent-seeking activities, aimed at the creation of subsidies, privileges and patronage for some social groups (Mussari & Monfardini, 2010). Elkington (1997) tried to overcome this negative description, introducing a more modern perspective of the social dimension in public firms, that is, equity (Enyedi, 2002). ...
The recent economic literature has largely investigated sustainability in the provision of public utilities, highlighting the role of governance models in the determination of economic results. Little attention however has been devoted to the social and environmental dimensions of sustainability. In Italy, a long‐lasting debate on governance structures in the water sector has been fuelled by scholars and policymakers for more than 30 years, whereas the first (and unique) experiment involving the return of full public management in water provision is taking place in the city of Naples. The present work analyses this peculiar case study, aiming to assess the effects of a major governance shift that occurred in the early 2010s—that is, decorporatisation—in terms of economic, social and environmental sustainability. We resort to a bundle of qualitative and quantitative techniques to address the research question and our exploratory results suggest that decorporatisation was overall beneficial: Although little changed in terms of economic sustainability, the social and environmental dimensions benefitted from the shift in governance.
... Yet, the study suggests that the effectiveness of regulation is still a significant issue in assuring compliance. This view is consistent with a study in Italy which was conducted by Masruki et al. (2018), Zainon Hashim, Yahaya, andAtan (2013), and Mussari and Monfardini (2010), who revealed that regulation is essential as a mechanism to regulate social disclosure practice, respectively in Malaysia and Italy. The disclosure practice demonstrates a process of convergence towards a partially regulated framework, which requires standards and guidelines. ...
This paper aims to identify factors that influence the expectations of a wide range of stakeholders on the information disclosure in the Malaysian State Islamic Religious Councils (SIRC) annual reports, employing semi-structured interviews. The majority of interviewees perceived accounting standards as the main factor contributing to their expectations and further influenced the reporting practices among accountants in SIRC. Others are state fatwa (Islamic rulings), audit expectations, and individual perceptions.The result of the interviews revealed that on the top of accounting standards and government guidelines on the reporting for all government agencies, SIRC should take into account their greater accountability, which should be reflected in their reporting practices. Therefore, Islamic accountability through fatwa, audit expectations, and public demands could be considered. Such awareness is important in SIRC, to differentiate them from other government agencies. The existence of governance is similar to the board of members in a company, in SIRC through the fatwa committee. Therefore, this study suggests that the extent and quality of disclosure depends on the demand from the regulators, auditors, and funders. The findings suggest that SIRC should have an incentive to provide more information to satisfy various stakeholders’ needs. Future studies can be carried out to suggest a set of disclosure items that should be disclosed in the SIRC annual reports in order to increase the level of disclosure, discharging their accountability.
... Mimicry means a public organization is imitating a behavior that has been adopted by another institution successfully (Larran, Andrades, & Herrera, 2019). Coercive forces are associated with the way in which the impact of regulations can affect the adoption of a behavior by any organization (Mussari & Monfardini, 2010;Piña & Avellaneda, 2019). Meanwhile, normative pressures stem from the effect of standardization and professionalization (Chatelain-Ponroy & Morin-Delerm, 2016). ...
This paper explores whether the extent of sustainability information disclosed by Spanish public hospitals is affected by internal characteristics of such organizations as well as by political ideology and socioeconomic variables. We used the institutional, stakeholder, and legitimacy theories to explain different levels of sustainability disclosures. To accomplish our goal, we collected data through content analysis of the institutional websites of all Spanish public hospitals registered in the 2016 National Database of Hospitals, corporate annual reports, and sustainability reports published by Spanish hospitals. The results show that the most influential variables associated with the extent of sustainability information disclosed by Spanish public hospitals are the hospitals’ size, political ideology, and reputation as well as the access they have to the Internet. According to the legitimacy theory, the Spanish public universities that have revealed more sustainability information are more visible and may be perceived to have greater legitimacy in society. However, the extent of sustainability information disclosed by Spanish public hospitals is far from being adequate. According to the institutional theory, this is explained by the lack of coercive and normative forces.
... Nevertheless, only a few studies have specifically addressed the issue of SR by public entities (Dumay et al., 2010;Lodhia et al., 2012), chief among which are those by Herbohn (2005), Guthrie and Farneti (2008), Guthrie (2009), Mussari andMonfardini (2010) and Navarro et al. (2010). Furthermore, as noted by Guthrie and Farneti (2008), it is surprising that more public entities do not publish sustainability reports, since, on the one hand, the public sector accounts for 40% of all economic activity (Ball and Grubnic, 2007) and, on the other, such reports highlight the development and application of public policies, and thus play a central role in the progress of society toward a more sustainable position (Ball et al., 2006). ...
Although the importance of sustainability reporting in the public sector is widely recognized, there are few studies about this issue. This paper analyzed the practices of diffusion of information on sustainability in local governments. So, we observed the Websites of the largest local governments in Spain using a list of items from the guidelines of GRI and comparing the results with the results of the Spanish regional governments. Furthermore, by means of Spearman rank correlation analysis, we compare the levels of disclosure revealed by our analysis, with debt and deficit levels per capita, and with the results published by Transparency International Spain. Our findings show that local governments reported some information (50% of the items), but less than regional governments (60%). Social information is the most widespread and environmental information is the least reported. Additionally, for the local governments, there is a moderate positive relation between the ITE transparency index and the results presented in this study. Neither is there any relation between debt or deficit per capita and the disclosure of sustainability information. On the other hand, the information disclosed by regional governments presents a moderate-strong negative relation between the percentage of information disclosed and the ITE index, and a low-moderate negative relation with the deficit per capita. As in the case of local governments, debt per capita does not seem to influence the sustainability information disclosed by regional governments.
... In the public sector, diverse stakeholders are calling for the actions of public bodies to be more socially responsible and sustainable (Crane et al. 2008). However, while many public bodies publish information on social responsibility issues (Frost 2007, Guthrie and Farneti 2008, Mussari and Monfardini 2010, few studies have been made of the approach taken by these organisations toward to social responsibility (Ball andGrubnic 2007, Ball and. ...
... Some scholars have focused on the overall performance, or inputs, outputs, efficiency, and outcomes of the organisation (Brusca & Montesinos, 2016;Grossi & Mussari, 2008;Julnes & Holzer, 2001;Marcuccio & Steccolini, 2009;Smith, 2004). Other scholars have examined social, environmental, and sustainability information (Alcaraz-Quiles, Navarro-Galera, & Ortiz- Rodríguez, 2014;García-Sánchez, Frías-Aceituno, & Rodríguez-Domínguez, 2013;Mussari & Monfardini, 2010;Tagesson, Klugman, & Ekström, 2013). Some studies have stressed the voluntariness of the disclosure. ...
Performance information disclosure, especially e-disclosure practices, is widely considered to increase public sector accountability. This paper aims to examine the impact that public service delivery through outsourcing has on voluntary performance information disclosure with respect to direct delivery. The study draws on agency theory and organisational information processing theory to suggest that a greater degree of outsourcing in public service delivery might increase the likelihood that public administrations would disclose performance information through their websites. An empirical analysis conducted on a sample of 262 Italian municipalities supported this hypothesis. The study also showed that no unique set of factors could explain the differences in the electronic disclosure of performance information by Italian municipalities, but disclosure was observed to depend—at least in part—on how municipalities deliver public services.
... Literature has widely debated the role of SR in addressing the need for organisations' public accountability (Gibson & Guthrie, 1995;Gray, Owen, & Adams, 1996;Michelon, Pilonato, & Ricceri, 2015;Mussari & Monfardini, 2010;Pollifroni, 2007). However, SR has scarcely been investigated in the public school sector, which is more interested in test-based accountability developments (Hamilton, Schwartz, Stecher, & Steele, 2013;William, 2010). ...
Reforms in the Italian educational sector have led schools to become more accountable. Social Reporting (SR) is an effective response to stakeholders’ increasing demand for information and an innovative public accountability tool for Italian Public Schools (IPSs). Using a survey and cluster analysis, our study investigates current awareness and adoption of SR practices to improve the accountability of IPSs. The results show that SR practices are still underused and that IPSs fall into two main groups: “early movers”, which are highly sensitive to this tool and will employ it earlier, and “latecomers”, which show less awareness.
... SR, PFR and <IR> have been subject to inconsistent diffusions and applications, raising some critics of this so-called accountability "industry" [26]. Many of the mechanisms to bring about the accountable government are seen either as a way for public sector organizations to achieve legitimacy through window-dressing strategies [27], or to conform to institutional pressures [28]. Yusuf et al. [29] observe a decoupling between the formal production of one or more citizen-oriented report, and effective communication with constituencies. ...
This paper provides a comparative analysis of different public accountability means used in the public sector - namely sustainability reporting, popular financial reporting and integrated reporting - in order to highlight their similarities and differences, and reflect on their development, with specific reference to the Italian context. In particular, we speculate about the practical and research implications of their emergence, through the lenses of accountability and managerial fad and fashion literature. The main novelty of the paper is that it is one of the first studies providing a comparative analysis of the three reporting tools debated both in practice and in research. We argue about their diffusion patterns, the commonalities and differences, which suggests different stages of evolution, different actors and forces at play. We provide some preliminary evidence on the risk that accountability innovations may end up just in a fad and fashion uptake, creating inefficiencies and not achieving the aims they are intended for. We also show how the available frameworks and standards have more in common than not, and that there is a risk of creating only new labels, without real innovation or improvement of public accountability.
... Public authorities must not only ensure proper management and use of resources, but also do it with transparency (GRI, 2005;Midin et al., 2016), so reports are a way for information disclosure. For accountability purposes, information is reported to stakeholders through activity (Araújo and Branco, 2009), budgetary and financial (Carvalho et al., 2007;Mack and Ryan, 2006;Nogueira and Jorge, 2012), social (García-S anchez et al., 2013;Mussari and Monfardini, 2010), environmental (Frost and Seamer, 2002;Lodhia et al., 2012;Lynch, 2010) and sustainability reports (Dumay et al., 2010 andLamprinidi andKubo, 2008 analysed the application of the GRI guidelines and the production of sustainability reports by public entities; Farneti and Guthrie (2009) (2012), also the countries worldwide have been implementing good practice awards to the public sector level (see Borins, 2000;Hartley and Downe, 2007;L€ offler, 2001;Radnor, 2009). In Portugal, some of the good practices awards for PSOs are the "Environmental-Defence Award", a national award attributed to the environmental good practices of the military units and bodies belonging to the Portuguese Armed Forces (Ramos and Melo, 2005); "ECO XXI Award", which aims to distinguish the local government sustainability practices (Nogueiro and Ramos, 2014); "Water and Waste Service Quality Awards", assigned by the sector regulator (ERSAR -Entidade Reguladora dos Serviços de Aguas e Resíduos) and the newspaper Agua&Ambiente, which purpose is to prize the management entities of the sector of Water and Environment that outstanding in the services provided (ERSAR, 2014). ...
The adoption of sustainability policies and practices in organisations is a rising trend, in particular in companies. Public sector organisations are also following this occurrence but with slower signs. Despite a relevant amount of research work on sustainability practices implemented by private organisations and by some public agencies, central public sectors have been left out of the scope of these studies. The main goal of this research is to identify the sustainability profile (including adopted policies and practices) of the public organisations, using the Portuguese Central Public Administration as a case study. A questionnaire survey was developed and submitted to Portuguese public sector organisations that fulfilled the following criteria: (i) to belong to the Portuguese Central Public Administration and (ii) to have the major area of activity at the national level. The statistical population was also defined on the basis of these criteria. Descriptive statistics and frequency analysis were used to explore the results in the organisations surveyed. The overall results demonstrate a low adoption level of integrated sustainability policies and practices, despite the expected positive trends related with the mandatory social and economic practices. This research contributes to new knowledge by characterising the sustainability profile of the Portuguese central public sector and where actions are needed, leading to a better transition to sustainable societies. The developed questionnaire can be used in other geographical, institutional and cultural contexts to define sustainability profile of worldwide public organisations, working also as a benchmarking tool.
... Several studies examining adopt the Institutional Theory alone or in combination with other approaches, such as the Legitimacy Theory, to explain the implementation of sustainability and reporting practices (Ribeiro, 2007;Joseph et al., 2014;Ribeiro, 2016c;Marcuccio and Steccolini, 2005;Pilcher et al., 2008;Joseph, 2010;Mussari and Monfardini, 2010;Lodhia, 2010;Mucciaroni (2012). ...
Buycotting is one of the most common expression of political consumption, a kind of non-conventional political participation that is increasingly replacing more traditional forms of political activism. However, despite the growing importance and interest in buycotting, mainly in Europe, little is still known about the European buycotter profile. Most studies on the European buycotter show inconclusive results. Buycotters are consumers that, over the past year, have considered rewarding a socially responsible company by either buying their products or speaking positively about the company to others. GlobeScan allowed us to use data from representative samples of France (n = 502), Germany (n = 500), Spain (n = 400) and United Kingdom (n = 501). With these secondary data, an ordered logistic regression was performed to determine which variables were significant to explain buycotting behavior. Regarding socio demographic variables, no significant differences were found in gender. Age reveals a significant inverse relation to buycotting in the United Kingdom. In Spain and the UK significant differences are also found in education: the higher the education, the higher the probability of being a buycotter. Environmental concern is the variable that most contribute to explain the European buycotter profile in all countries studied but Spain. This research is important for the new studies that are carried out in other countries, mainly in Latin America. It is also relevant for companies, because having a clear image of those who buycott their products, marketers can develop different strategies to address them.
... Findingsconsistent with the institutional theory are also present inMussari and Monfardini (2010),Lodhia et al. (2012) andZhao et al. (2016). try to read the increased adoption of SER among Italian Local Authorities (LAs) in the light of the Abrahamson approach. ...
Purpose
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.
Design/methodology/approach
A bibliometric method was used to analyse the characteristics, citation patterns and content of 38 papers published in international academic journals.
Findings
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.
Research limitations/implications
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.
Originality/value
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.
... Studies on the dissemination of sustainability information in public entities, as pointed out by Lodhia et al. (2012), are still scarce. Among the ones published we can mention those by Herbohn (2005), Farneti and Guthrie (2009), Mussari and Monfardini (2010), Navarro-Galera et al. (2010) or Lodhia et al. (2012). Hence, as stated by Guthrie et al. (2010), more studies on sustainability and accountability in public entities are needed. ...
En el actual contexto de crisis, los ciudadanos demandan al sector público mayor transparencia y rendición de cuentas. Este trabajo pretende avanzar en el conocimiento de las prácticas de sostenibilidad en la administración pública. Para ello proponemos comparar la divulgación de información sobre sostenibilidad realizada por distintos gobiernos regionales, analizando las webs de los mismos mediante un análisis de contenido, usando para ello un listado de ítems basado en las guías del Global Reporting Initiative (GRI). Nuestros resultados muestran que los gobiernos regionales españoles difunden dos tercios de la información requerida por el GRI, presentando la información social un nivel de respuesta mayor y la información general un menor nivel de difusión. Además, aquellos gobiernos regionales con mayor compromiso ambiental publican más información sobre sostenibilidad. De nuestras conclusiones podemos destacar que la mala situación financiera que atraviesan no parece impulsar a los gobiernos regionales españoles a divulgar información sobre sostenibilidad.
... SR, PFR and <IR> have been subject to inconsistent diffusions and applications, raising some critics of this so-called accountability "industry" [26]. Many of the mechanisms to bring about the accountable government are seen either as a way for public sector organizations to achieve legitimacy through window-dressing strategies [27], or to conform to institutional pressures [28]. Yusuf et al. [29] observe a decoupling between the formal production of one or more citizen-oriented report, and effective communication with constituencies. ...
Purpose
This paper aims to systematically review the field of non-financial reporting (NFR) in hybrid organizations, focusing on state-owned enterprises, third-sector organizations and public–private partnerships. This is a timely attempt to identify the state of the art in the literature and outline the future research agenda. The paper answers two research questions: RQ1 . What can be learned about NFR in hybrid organizations from the existing literature? RQ2 . What are the future avenues for research on the topic?
Design/methodology/approach
A systematic literature review method was applied in this paper to summarize evidence from extant literature on NFR in hybrid organizations. The Scopus and Web of Science Core Collection databases were used to locate 92 articles for the review.
Findings
Recent years have witnessed a sharp increase in the number of articles on the topic. Regarding the implications of NFR for hybrid characteristics, NFR has some potential to strengthen the influence of non-market (i.e. state, community and social) logics in hybrid organizations. However, this potential may be limited due to the effect of market logics and the tensions that arise between the multiple logics in hybrid organizations. Regarding the implications of hybrid characteristics for NFR, these characteristics can not only affect the extent, the quality, the likelihood and the institutionalization of NFR but also result in the development of new NFR frameworks. The review calls for more research on the implications of NFR for multiple institutional logics and the implications of these logics for NFR in hybrid organizations.
Originality/value
To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first literature review that mobilizes insights from hybridity research to analyze NFR literature on diverse hybrid organizations.
Aid on health, education and economy provided by Small Non-Profit Organizations (NPOs) in Africa should focus on transmitting transparency, responsibility and efficacy in their work concerning NPOs’ downward accountability for beneficiaries, as beneficiaries are one of the most important NPO stakeholders. This research focuses on NPOs’ downward accountability for beneficiaries, as beneficiaries are one of the most important NPO stakeholders where researchers have not focused thoroughly. A survey was designed and divided into various issues of accountability and their impact on the beneficiaries’ perception of economic improvement. The multivariate analysis obtained interesting results, showing that beneficiaries have a positive perception of NPOs’ aid to their families and village and find that the NPO discloses its objectives clearly and has high networking activity. However, they believe that the NPO should be more flexible and align its work more closely with local and public policy in the area. They also believe that the NPO should improve publication and dissemination of information on its objectives, activities and results. Based on these findings, small NPOs should receive more training in protocols about accountability issues to improve performance, as the majority of NPOs fail to use accountability outcomes to improve performance.
In the first chapter, we introduce the general topics related to sustainability concepts. In doing so, we review the main studies on Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and Corporate Sustainability (CS) subjects. The section provides a detailed explanation of the several arguments related to the corporate sustainability, describing the relationships between business ethics, corporate social responsibility, and sustainable development.Based on the idea that corporate social responsibility is interconnected with sustainable development and general well-being, this chapter clarifies the concept of circular economy as a critical element in the transition towards a more sustainable future. The work identifies the central role of the circular economy in the debate on sustainability policy since it helps attain the three dimensions (economic, social, and environmental) of sustainable development. We review the sustainability principles and classify the management methods necessary to operate following a triple bottom approach according to what the companies should adopt for jointly maximizing the three contextual dimensions (economic, social, and environmental). In this way, the work presents the circular economy innovations as an essential tool for helping companies move toward CSR and sustainability.
This work is part of the academic debate focused on the information inadequacy of public administrations and the consequent need to imagine an overall reporting system for a fruitful dialogue with the reference community. Financial sustainability requires the implementation of policies that ensure the feasible provision of public services to the present generation, while protecting the needs of future ones, thus ensuring intergenerational equity. Such information does not normally fall in the domain of traditional financial reports; therefore, one naturally questions how information about financial sustainability can be disseminated to the users of local governments. For these reasons, governments should be interested in developing an integrated popular report (IPR). The present research, using a theoretical-deductive methodology, proposes some characteristics and content that an effective integrated popular report should contain in order to respond to the information needs of public sector user groups — citizens, in particular. The research objective can be summarized in the proposition of IPR as a new transparency and communication tool for citizens, which simplifies the existing voluntary reporting in order to jointly acquire the unique benefits of integrated reporting (IR) and popular reporting (PR).
Subject. This article considers the conceptual basis of environmental capital accounting as one of the elements of assessing the value of business in conjunction with the concept of sustainable development of the organization. Objectives. The article aims to argue for a need for methodological and methodical information support in the system of business accounting for environmental safety of domestic business and identify the objects of the green economy and monetarization in the business accounting of the benefits and costs of creating and maintaining the organization’s ecosystem. Results. The article explains the need for the formation of various business accounting models in the system of the organization’s business model. Conclusions. Based on the study, the article concludes that it is necessary to reform the current system of accounting for environmental safety costs transforming it into business accounting of environmental capital.
La Responsabilidad Social se ha convertido en una pieza clave para las organizaciones. Al mismo tiempo que la sociedad exige cada vez más el acceso a la información, esto se vuelve particularmente importante en el caso de las organizaciones públicas. El uso de las tecnologías de la información y las comunicaciones (TIC) es una forma fácil y eficaz de acceder a la información para una gran parte de la población. Por lo tanto, las organizaciones deben utilizar este canal de comunicación para informar y comunicarse con su público. Este trabajo tiene por objeto establecer una comparación entre las áreas metropolitanas de Lisboa y Oporto del grado de divulgación de la información sobre Responsabilidad Social que realizan las administraciones públicas locales a través de sus portales web. Con ese fin, se realizó un análisis de contenido aplicando indicadores previamente probados en otros territorios. Los resultados sugieren que, en general, las administraciones públicas locales de las dos áreas metropolitanas están elaborando políticas específicas de Responsabilidad Social que muestran el mismo compromiso con la sostenibilidad, aunque el área metropolitana de Lisboa parece estar más comprometida con la información ambiental.
This chapter aims to draft the corporate sustainability reporting and disclosure in the international scenario. Using qualitative analysis, this chapter introduces the main jurisdictions, guidelines, frameworks and standards (e.g. Global Reporting Initiative, Sustainability Accounting Standards Board, Sustainable Development Goals and UN Global Compact, International Integrated Reporting Council, Climate Disclosure Standards Board, Carbon Disclosure Project, AccountAbility 1000 Assurance Standard v3, Corporate Water Disclosure, International Organization for Standardization 26000, Gruppo di Studio per il bilancio sociale) adopted by companies to disclose sustainable and non-financial information to all stakeholders (e.g. investors, lenders, governments; all stakeholders). Thus, the sustainability accounting scenario is investigated from the perspective of corporate reporting and disclosure.
Purpose
This paper aims to assess the disclosure of the materiality process in the preparation of sustainability reports of state-owned enterprises (SOEs). This paper also explores the effects of regulation mandating that SOEs prepare sustainability reports. In the specific case of port authorities, the study analyses the influence of a sector guideline that determines what should be included and the structure of the report. Another aim of this paper is to delve into SOE's motivations for disclosing information on materiality assessments, using the assumptions of the different theories to explain their reporting practices.
Design/methodology/approach
Using a sample of SOEs sustainability reports, a content analysis is undertaken. The methodology involves the analysis of the information disclosed by SOEs in Spain and the development of a materiality disclosure index. This index enables sampled entities to be classified on a scale of 0–5, based on the extent of their disclosures of the materiality determination process. This study also identifies several variables that explain differences in these disclosures.
Findings
A low rate of information disclosed about the materiality process can be attributed to the desire of SOEs to create symbolic legitimacy. In a context where the disclosure of sustainability information is mandatory, only few organisations apply the principle of materiality to define the content of their sustainability reports. These results highlight that institutional isomorphism has only had a limited effect on the materiality process.
Research limitations/implications
Limitations associated with the sample size and composition of the sample by sector apply.
Practical implications
This research shows that generally accepted reporting guidelines constitute a reference framework for sustainability reporting but that the principles underpinning these frameworks are not always implemented.
Originality/value
This study extends the literature on the implementation of the principle of materiality and uses disclosure theories to explain the actual reporting by SOEs of their materiality process.
Il tema della partecipazione democratica ha assunto una rilevanza crescente nello scenario internazionale e la letteratura evidenzia che la trasparenza amministrativa ne rappresenta una condizione propedeutica. Partendo da tali considerazioni, l'articolo presenta un'analisi sullo stato dell'arte dei processi di trasparenza attuati dagli enti locali italiani di medie-grandi dimensioni sui propri siti web, per favorire la partecipazione democratica. I risultati evidenziano come, nonostante la generalizzata attivazione della sezione "Amministrazione Trasparente", l'accesso ai dati sia spesso limitato ai documenti obbligatori, mentre le iniziative di "apertura" sono ancora in-centrate a consentire il dialogo, più che a coinvolgere attivamente i cittadini nei processi decisionali.
Il volume nasce nell’ambito del progetto “La misurazione degli impatti nel Terzo settore”, avviata nel 2017, tra CSV di Cosenza e Dipartimento di Scienze Politiche e Sociali dell’Università della Calabria.
Il presente volume prende origine dagli interventi e dalle considerazioni emerse nel corso del convegno dal titolo Misurare il valore creato dalle organizzazioni non profit, organizzato il 15 giugno 2018 presso l’Università della Calabria dal Dipartimento di Scienze Politiche e Sociali e dal Centro Servizi per il Volontariato della provincia di Cosenza. In esso sono raccolti diversi saggi e contributi sulle organizzazioni non profit, con particolare riferimento alla misurazione degli impatti e del valore sociale. L’approccio, sia teorico sia empirico, accompagnato da un’attenta analisi istituzionale, sviluppa la tematica nel più ampio dibattito dell’accountability e della trasparenza. Nelle organizzazioni non profit la misurazione degli impatti è un fenomeno che negli ultimi anni ha assunto una notevole rilevanza sino a divenire con la recente riforma del terzo settore di profonda attualità. Senza trascurare la prospettiva internazionale, il volume si propone di analizzare i metodi, le linee guida e gli standard utilizzati per la misurazione del valore sociale negli enti non profit, e di riflettere su alcune significative esperienze territoriali. Costituito da due parti, ciascuna preceduta da una specifica introduzione sulle due prospettive trattate, il volume si apre con una ricca presentazione delle questioni maggiormente presenti nel dibattito scientifico e non solo degli ultimi anni, con riguardo alle istituzioni, alle trasformazioni in atto, al valore generato. Nella prima parte, concentrata sugli aspetti più teorici, si sviluppano temi definitori, sia focalizzando l’attenzione sul terzo settore nel suo complesso, sia sui caratteri delle aziendalità delle singole organizzazioni non profit. Formano oggetto di puntuale riflessione l’accountability e i collegati impatti sociali, in una dimensione nazionale e interazionale. La seconda parte, fondata sugli aspetti più di prassi, presenta alcune esperienze registratesi sui territori nel significativo tentativo di approfondirle per cogliere e valorizzare modelli e ricadute.
Capitale intellettuale nelle organizzazioni non profit (intellectual capital NPO)
In the past two decades, the developments of the international issues have increased the need for means of progressing the sustainable development agenda, through which emerged the contribution of accounting through sustainability reporting (SR) techniques. Despite its vital relevance for the public sector, sustainability accounting and accountability do not count to extend research and it is still considered as an emerging field. This paper analyses, using the content analysis technique, the voluntary SR reports in a group of Italian municipalities, by comparing them with the latest Global Reporting Initiative (GRI-G4 2013) guidelines. The analysis found low compliance with the GRI-G4, with only 27.82% of the items disclosed.
Purpose
This paper examines the level of mandatory information disclosed by Spanish university foundations on their websites.
Design/methodology/approach
A content analysis on the Spanish university foundations' websites is performed based on the mandatory reporting requirements indicated in the Spanish Law 19/2013 on Transparency and Good Governance.
Findings
The results of this paper reveal that the amount of mandatory information disclosed by Spanish university foundations remains low. When compared to the prior empirical research, the authors find remarkable differences in the levels of information disclosure. The level of mandatory disclosures by Spanish university foundations is rather low compared to the voluntary disclosure of information by other NPOs. Meanwhile, such differences are smaller when compared to previous studies focused on mandatory disclosures.
Originality/value
This study contributes to the very limited literature focused on the level of transparency of mandatory information of public foundations. Most of prior empirical research examined the level of voluntary disclosures of corporate or fundraising foundations.
This paper aims at contributing to the debate regarding the implementation of SDGs’ reporting systems by public entities. For this purpose, we analysed the Italian National Healthcare Systems (INHS) to highlight how, even if in presence of best practices, Public Managers are not oriented to adopt these tools to engage with stakeholders.
The present study evaluates the degree of contribution to SDG3 by INHS through the adoption of the theoretical framework proposed by Beck et al. (2010). Specifically, we assess the degree of contribution to this goal using an interpretive content analysis that combines the theoretical framework, as shown above, with the 13 targets that composed the SDG3. For our purposes, we analyse all INHS’s website to evaluate the presence/absence of social reports produced in the periods between 2015-2018.
The study finds that the INHS even if in the presence of a great contribution to the achievement of SDG3 is characterized by a low degree of attention paid by public managers to social reporting. In fact, only 12,21% of INHS’s entities disclosed at least one or more social reports during the analysed period. Moreover, our results denote how the approach of INHS’s entities to social reporting is different in term of information’s quality and quantity.
The absence of a common reporting standard imposed to adopt an interpretative content analysis. In this sense, we adopted a theoretical framework to evaluate the real contribution paid by entities to topics related to SDG3.
The paper is of use to public managers operating in countries characterized by a high level of contribution to SDGs. Specifically, our results suggest how the adoption of reporting tools could impact positively in term of stakeholder’s awareness to SDG themes.
This paper contributes to the understanding of the central role covered by academics, practitioners and public sectors to SDGs through the adoption of social reporting tools.
Nowadays we are facing a new phase of capitalism. Information that is beyond financial capital and able to provide a more comprehensive picture of the path towards better transparency and accountability is increasingly needed and requested. A remarkable body of evidence already exists on how large, listed companies are facing this change, but very little is known about the not-for-profit sector. This work aims to analyse if and how new forms of reporting, such as integrat-ed reporting, can be adopted by not-for-profit organisations to illustrate their ef-forts towards an improvement in their accountability processes. To this end, through an interventionist approach, the case of an Italian not-for-profit organisa-tion operating in the collection and redistribution of food is examined. It emerges that, integrated reporting can represent a valuable device that can be adopted also by the not-for-profit sector to improve its accountability. However, in order to be successfully implemented, some modifications have to be made in order to better encounter the specificities of these organisational settings.
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine the amount of online information reported by Spanish municipal-owned enterprises (MOEs) according to the legal requirements indicated in the Spanish Law 19/2013 on Transparency and Good Governance. In addition, the authors analyze how different variables can affect the extent of online information reported by such enterprises.
Design/methodology/approach
To do this, we conducted a content analysis of the web pages of Spanish MOEs located in cities with more than 100.000 habitants, as well as those cities that are provincial capitals. To find information about these enterprises, the authors accessed the General Intervention Board of the State Administration (IGAE) webpage ( www.igae.pap.minhafp.gob.es/sitios/igae/es-ES/Paginas/inicio.aspx ). This sample was composed of 273 enterprises majority owned and controlled by local governments.
Findings
The findings reveal that the amount of information reported by Spanish MOEs, in accordance with the legal requirements, is quite reduced. The most influential variables for explaining Spanish MOEs’ commitment to information disclosure are population size, political positioning of the local government and reputation.
Originality/value
This study seeks to contribute to the scarce literature on mandatory transparency in the public sector as well as to reinforce the degree of compliance with requirements of information disclosure.
Purpose
This paper aims to examine the non-financial information disclosed in social reports by an Italian provincial government over time to determine its relevance, contribution and evolution.
Design/methodology/approach
Through a case study analysis, the authors examine 10 years of social reports by one “best practice” Italian provincial government. The authors use content analysis to quantify the level of social and environmental disclosures and use a coding instrument based on the GRI guidelines. The authors use legitimacy theory as a framework.
Findings
The level of disclosure increased over the 10-year period, and the type of disclosures became more detailed. However, many of the economic, social and environmental elements set out in the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) guidelines were not disclosed. Moreover, the social report was contingent on a few key factors. The authors find that there has been a decline in interest in social reports by local governments in Italy, suggesting that voluntary disclosure was perhaps a fad that no longer is of interest in Italian local government.
Research limitations/implications
This research is one case study so the findings are not generalisable. The findings suggest that there is a need for regulation in non-financial information disclosures, as the disclosures in the case study organisation were very much at the discretion of the organisation. This has implications for policymakers.
Originality/value
Unlike prior studies, this study takes a longitudinal approach to voluntary disclosure of non-financial information and focusses on the under-explored context of public sector organisations.
Research on environmental accounting and reporting practices has been centred on private corporations (Mathews 2004; Parker 2005; Milne and Gray 2007). In public sector organisations only little research has been carried out (Ball and Grubnic 2007; Ball and Bebbignton 2008; Farneti and Guthrie 2009; Gray et al. 2009; Guthrie et al. 2010). Literature shows there is a lack of empirical research on public social and environmental accounting (SEA) and most studies are largely focused on an Anglo-Saxon context and more specifically on countries such as Australia, New Zealand and the United Kingdom (Gibson and Guthrie 1995; Burritt and Welch 1997; Frost and Toh 1998; Frost and Seamer 2002; McElroy et al. 2005; Qian et al. 2011). Within the Portuguese context, little evidence is available related to public SEA (Verónica 2007; Ribeiro and Guzman 2010. Ribeiro et al. 2016a). In fact, there is no tradition of such empirical research in Portugal, particularly in the public sector. Thus, our study aims to enrich the international literature on SEA in public entities by providing a snapshot of Portugal’s situation, where empirical evidence is still relatively unknown. Some studies suggest that accountants are involved in the SEA process in public entities, but there is still some room for improvement (Williams et al. 2010; Williams 2015). This paper also examines the ways in which professional accountants can encourage and support public entities to increase the low-level of sustainability accounting and reporting practices.
Purpose - Recently Italy has engaged in an extensive promotion of corporate social responsibility (CSR) for not-for-profit organisations (NPOs). A major reform of the sector was approved in 2016, with the aim of combating corruption. Accordingly, NPOs will be eligible to receive public funds and tax benefits only when they demonstrate that they produce social impacts through their activities. To give an account of the social impacts produced, the reform introduced mandatory reporting requirements: the formulation of a social report (SR) that has to be published on the NPO’s website along with its financial statement. Design/methodology/approach - The chapter first reviews the Italian ongoing path of reform for NPOs, focusing on the mandatory reporting requirements. Second, it reviews the previous empirical research on SRs in Italian NPOs to provide a picture of the voluntarily reporting practices before the recent reform entered into force. Findings - The chapter finds that SRs in Italian NPOs are in their infancy. They are not used to disclose social impacts or to legitimate NPOs. SR practices usually lack common frameworks, disclosure of outputs and outcomes, stakeholder engagement, dissemination and assurance by third parties. Originality/value - The chapter contributes to the international debate on CSR by providing the perspective of reporting requirements and practices in Italian NPOs. It analyses the ongoing reform of NPOs and gives the stock of SR practices prior to the reform entering into force. This makes it possible for future research to assess the impact produced by the reform.
Particular attention must be paid to the institutional structure of the agricultural production based on cooperation. Development of cooperation in agriculture improves the competitiveness, secures
a better availability of means of production and services, helps farmers improve market links and boost efficiency. This on its turn will support the economic growth. Thus, the realization of these measures will undoubtedly yield valuable results, what will contribute to the development of agriculture and improved competitiveness and economic growth of the country. Georgia is able to meet not only the demands of its own people for food, but it can also become the exporter of agricultural foodstuff what will strengthen the country and support higher living standards of the Georgian population.
This article synthesizes the large but diverse literature on organizational legitimacy, highlighting similarities and disparities among the leading strategic and institutional approaches. The analysis identifies three primary forms of legitimacy: pragmatic, based on audience self-interest; moral, based on normative approval; and cognitive, based on comprehensibility and taken-for-grantedness. The article then examines strategies for gaining, maintaining, and repairing legitimacy of each type, suggesting both the promises and the pitfalls of such instrumental manipulations.
This essay is intended as a self-reflective, auto-critique of the ‘social accounting community’. The essay is directed at the academic community of accountants concerned with social accounting. This `community' is predominantly concerned with English language accounting journals and is preoccupied with the social and environmental practices of the larger private sector organisations. The essay is motivated by a concern over our responsibilities as academics in a world in crisis and a concern that social accounting is losing its energy and revolutionary zeal. This community's social accounting endeavours have taken place in almost complete ignorance of the activities and developments in non accounting communities and, in particular, developments in the public and third sectors. The essay reaches out to the public and third sector work and literature as an illustration of one of the ways in which ‘our’ social accounting can try to prevent itself from becoming moribund.
There has recently been a resurgence of interest in social and environmental reporting (SER) in both the private and the public sector; however, its meaning and application in the public sector are relatively new, and it has been little investigated. Our article is aimed at gaining a better understanding of the reasons underlying the adoption of SER by Italian local authorities by applying the concept of management fashion (Abrahamson 19962.
Abrahamson , E . 1996 . Management Fashion . Academy of Management Review , 21: 1 : pp254 – 85 . View all references). Empirical analysis shows that both socio-psychological and techno-economic forces combine to shape the SER phenomenon, and a managerial fashion is currently in place among Italian local authorities. Thus, even when SER is adopted in response to ‘technical’ gaps, its label largely depends on its being driven by the need to signal that LAs are adopting a tool which is gaining momentum in academic and professional discourse. However, both forces are influenced not so much by a concern for sustainability as by the context of public-sector reform processes.
What makes organizations so similar? We contend that the engine of rationalization
and bureaucratization has moved from the competitive marketplace to the state and
the professions. Once a set of organizations emerges as a field, a paradox arises:
rational actors make their organizations increasingly similar as they try to
change them. We describe three isomorphic processes--coercive, mimetic, and
normative-leading to this outcome. We then specib hypotheses about the impact of
resource centralization and dependency, goal ambiguity and technical uncertainty,
and professionalization and structuration on isomorphic change. Finally, we suggest
implications for theories of organizations and social change.
While many sociologists have noted that organizational legitimacy is important for organizational survival, legitimacy has been infrequently empirically examined. This paper presents a conceptual framework in which organizational legitimacy is defined as the congruence between the values associated with the organization and the values of its environment. Challenges to organizational legitimacy and responses to these challenges are illustrated in a discussion of the American Institute for Foreign Study. Corporate philanthropic contributions, the composition and size of boards of directors, and the content of annual reports and other organizational communications are presented as efforts on the part of organizations to achieve legitimacy. The focus on processes of organizational legitimation can be used in analyzing a variety of organizational behaviors that are components of organization-environment interaction.
Argues that the formal structure of many organizations in post-industrial society dramatically reflect the myths of their institutional environment instead of the demands of their work activities. The authors review prevailing theories of the origins of formal structures and the main problem which those theories confront -- namely, that their assumption that successful coordination and control of activity are responsible for the rise of modern formal organization is not substantiated by empirical evidence. Rather, there is a great gap between the formal structure and the informal practices that govern actual work activities. The authors present an alternative source for formal structures by suggesting that myths embedded in the institutional environment help to explain the adoption of formal structures. Earlier sources understood bureaucratization as emanating from the rationalization of the workplace. Nevertheless, the observation that some formal practices are not followed in favor of other unofficial ones indicates that not all formal structures advance efficiency as a rationalized system would require. Therefore another source of legitimacy is required. This is found in conforming the organization's structure to that of the powerful myths that institutionalized products, services, techniques, policies, and programs become. (CAR)
Much of the extant research into why companies disclose environmental information in the annual report indicates that legitimacy theory is one of the more probable explanations for the increase in environmental disclosures since the early 1980s. Legitimacy theory is based on the idea that in order to continue operating successfully, corporations must act within the bounds of what society identifies as socially acceptable behaviour. The purpose of the practical research undertaken and reported in this paper is to extend the applicability and predictive power of legitimacy theory by investigating to what extent annual report disclosures are interrelated to: attempts to gain, maintain and repair legitimacy; and the choice of specific legitimation tactics. The quasi-experimental method adopted utilised semi-structured interviews with senior personnel from three large Australian public companies. The findings indicated support for legitimacy theory as an explanatory factor for environmental disclosures. Moreover, findings about the likelihood of specific micro-legitimation tactics being used in response to legitimacy threatening environmental issues/events, and dependent on whether the purpose of the response is designed to gain, maintain or repair legitimacy, are reported.
This paper argues for research into the effectiveness of government strategies for a 'carbon neutral public sector'. We review initiatives in three OECD countries: New Zealand, Australia and the UK. In all jurisdictions, government agencies have consistently stressed 'leading by example' as a rationale for adoption. 'Direct mandate' by the Prime Minister (NZ); 'organic development' from wider central government sustainability initiatives (UK); and a more 'laissez faire' approach by Australian Federal and State Governments, were identified as the general pathways leading to implementation. Our assessment indicates: a lack of understanding of the implementation process for carbon neutrality; a need to identify and critically examine the 'offset threshold' at which mitigation efforts cease and offsetting is adopted; an absence of any evaluation of the 'leading by example' rationale; a lack of inter-country comparisons; a gap in understanding the relationship with economic and social aspects of sustainability; and a need to evaluate the utility of core government departments as the focus of carbon accounting. We urge colleagues to consider research in this area with a view to contributing to the interdisciplinary solutions which we believe are required.
The results of KPMG surveys of corporate social responsibility reveal that while, in 1993, 13% of the top 100 companies in 10 countries published a separate report about their environmental and social impacts, this figure almost tripled to 33% (for 16 countries) in the 2005 survey. At the same time casual observation leads to the conclusion that in the nineties “environmental” and/or “health and safety” reports dominated the reporting scene. More recently, however, most companies publish an “environmental and social” or a “sustainability” report. In particular, from the 2002 survey to the 2005 survey, the percentage of separate reports (for the global top 250 companies) that correspond to the label “sustainability” and “social and environmental” have increased from 24% to 85%, with a corresponding decline (from 73% to 13%) for environmental, health and safety reports. These trends are explored in this chapter using the lens of institutional theory to assist our understanding of these large scale shifts in both report production and reporting nomenclature. Questions which arise in this context include: what mechanics underlie the process of the largest corporations moving in the same direction? Why do so many reports evolve in a similar way over such an array of countries, in such different contexts?
Through the juxtaposition of theory and a meso-level empirical illustration of the environmental disclosures included in the annual reports of Canadian public companies operating in the mineral extraction, forestry, oil and gas, and chemical industries over the 1982 to 1991 period, the current study attempts to increase our understanding of the role and functioning of environmental disclosures. Our analyses focus on three concerns: the influence of external pressure on environmental disclosures in annual reports, including the amount and types of strategies used in disclosure; the characteristics of environmental disclosure vis-á-vis other “social” disclosures; and the association between environmental disclosures and actual performance. We question whether such disclosures highlight positive environmental actions, obfuscate negative environmental effects or both.
Practices of social reporting 491 Downloaded by
- Mussari
- Monfardini
Mussari & Monfardini: Practices of social reporting 491 Downloaded by [Simon Fraser University] at 01:48 14 November 2014
La rendicontazione sociale negli enti locali: Analisi dello stato dell'arte
- B Siboni
Siboni, B. (2007) La rendicontazione sociale negli enti locali: Analisi dello stato dell'arte, Milan: Francoangeli.