Angela Hecimovic

Assurance of Australian Natural Resource Management

Abstract This article traces the challenges encountered in the development of appropriate guidance for an Australian public sector organization embarking on meeting its legislated responsibility of carrying out audits of natural resource management practices and performance, a new and challenging field of audit. The evidence suggests that the development of such guidance is complex, involving significant research development and innovation in which the current array of existing standards or guidance on sustainability and audit were of limited value.

Contributing barriers to corporate social and environmental responsibility practices in a developing country: A stakeholder perspective

Purpose The purpose of this study is to explore the contributing barriers to corporate social and environmental responsibility (CSER) practices. In particular, this study focuses on non-managerial stakeholders’ perceptions of the barriers to CSER practices in a developing country context. The study also investigates the current initiatives undertaken by the different stakeholders, such as government, non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and regulators. Design/methodology/approach The study takes a qualitative approach, undertaking semi-structured in-depth interviews with 26 participants from NGOs, the media, regulatory authorities, government departments, shareholders, trade union leaders and customers. Findings The views of stakeholder groups were analysed to identify the contributing barriers to CSER practices. The findings of the study reveal that corruption and politics, lack of coordination, lack of government initiatives and unsatisfactory implementation of laws are perceived as the major barriers that hinder CSER practices in Bangladesh. The study also found a lack of awareness amongst various stakeholder groups regarding the influential role CSER plays in promoting sustainable development. The current initiatives undertaken by various stakeholders to improve CSER practices were limited but growing. Research Limitations/implications The study utilises the stakeholder theory to examine the role of stakeholders, rather than managers, in relation to CSER practice in Bangladesh. The findings may provide impetus for mitigating CSER barriers in a developing country context. Originality/value This study is one of the few engagement-based studies to explore the non-managerial stakeholders’ views on CSER in a developing country context.

Do stakeholders or social obligations drive corporate social and environmental responsibility reporting? Managerial views from a developing country

Purpose - – The purpose of this study is to explore senior managers’ perception and motivations of corporate social and environmental responsibility (CSER) reporting in the context of a developing country, Bangladesh. Design/methodology/approach - – In-depth semi-structured interviews were conducted with 25 senior managers of companies listed on the Dhaka Stock Exchange. Publicly available annual reports of these companies were also analysed. Findings - – The results indicate that senior managers perceive CSER reporting as a social obligation. The study finds that the managers focus mostly on child labour, human resources/rights, responsible products/services, health education, sports and community engagement activities as part of the social obligations. Interviewees identify a lack of a regulatory framework along with socio-cultural and religious factors as contributing to the low level of disclosures. These findings suggest that CSER reporting is not merely stakeholder-driven, but rather country-specific social and environmental issues play an important role in relation to CSER reporting practices. Research limitations/implications - – This paper contributes to engagement-based studies by focussing on CSER reporting practices in developing countries and are useful for academics, practitioners and policymakers in understanding the reasons behind CSER reporting in developing countries. Originality/value - – This paper addresses a literature “gap” in the empirical study of CSER reporting in a developing country, such as Bangladesh. This study fills a gap in the existing literature to understand managers’ motivations for CSER reporting in a developing country context. Managerial perceptions on CSER issues are largely unexplored in developing countries.

Stakeholder Inclusivity in Social and Environmental Report Assurance

Edgley, Jones and Solomon provide valuable insights into the complexities and challenges involved in the emerging practice of social and environmental report assurance (SERA). Amid the significant growth in the voluntary provision of external assurance statements has been the predominant tendency for content analysis based research. By contrast, this study stands out, because it provides detailed interview evidence from 20 accountant and consultant assurors and emphasises the process rather than content of SERA. Their analysis addresses the following four questions. What are the benefits of SERA to both management and stakeholders? What is the degree of stakeholder inclusivity in the SERA process? What is the extent to which SERA has been captured by management? And, finally, how does SERA change as it matures? The literature review outlines prior work relevant to SERA with particular focus on stakeholder inclusivity and accountability. The authors are quick to recognise the apparent themes in SERA including the need for SERA, quality of SERA statements, managerial capture concerns, stakeholder inclusivity and the distinct differentiation in the assurance approach between accountant and consultant assurors. The authors position their study to evaluate their extensive interview data from assurors for evidence of direct and indirect stakeholder participation, with the intention of illustrating that the SERA process is transformative and that stakeholder inclusivity is no longer intermittent. The contribution of the study lies also in the application of a ‘Freirian’ theoretic lens through which their data is analysed. This enabled the authors to illustrate that the SERA process is dynamic and is beginning to display characteristics of a dialogical process, that is, evidence of a two-way conscious-raising process of mutual disclosures between companies and their diverse stakeholders. They suggest that SERA provides dual-pronged benefits to both management and company stakeholders and signify the importance of SERA in the context of influencing managerial behaviour and accountability. Policy-makers and assurance providers may find the authors’ recommendations helpful in terms of enhancing stakeholder inclusivity and the SERA process.