Michelle Rodrigue

Contrasting realities: corporate environmental disclosure and stakeholder-released information

Purpose - – This paper aims to study the informational dynamics that take place between a firm and its stakeholders with respect to corporate environmental management. Design/methodology/approach - – The analysis is based on a case study contrasting environmental information reported by the case firm with environmental information about the firm disclosed by four stakeholder groups or their representatives (governments, the community, environmental non-governmental organizations and investors) over three years. The information flow of disclosure is also considered. Findings - – The results suggest that the informational dynamics are composed of multiple related patterns. The patterns range from correspondence between disclosures to stakeholders complementing or contradicting corporate disclosures. Different patterns are associated with different levels of interactions from stakeholders, who are most involved when they combine disclosure patterns around key environmental issues for the forest industry. Limited interactions are observed from the firm, suggesting a symbolic engagement within the dynamics and a strategic accountability approach. Research limitations/implications - – Limitations are found in the focus on disclosure outlets without examination of their production and reception, and in the inherent nature of the documents collected to represent each perspective. Some stakeholder groups were excluded from the study due to data unavailability. Originality/value - – This paper offers an in-depth analysis of firm-stakeholders interactions with respect to environmental reporting and maps the information flow of their disclosure.

Volume and Tone of Environmental Disclosure: A Comparative Analysis of a Corporation and its Stakeholders

Abstract In this paper, we seek to provide a description of disclosures arising from various stakeholder groups in the social sphere. As such, we extend Rodrigues article “Contrasting Realities: Corporate Environmental Disclosure and Stakeholder-Released Information” (2014. Accounting, Auditing and Accountability Journal 27 [1]: 119–149) by conducting a case study to examine and compare corporate and stakeholder communications made over a three-year period. We specifically focus on the volume and tone of environmental disclosures. We explore the topics emphasised by each party in their respective disclosures and analyse their tone by categorising the information as positive, negative or neutral. Through a detailed quantitative analysis, we highlight the differences in how various actors portray the organisation and its activities. We argue that this is of relevance since neither corporate nor stakeholder disclosures are merely passive reflections of reality, but rather, they play a part in constructing, forming and legitimating particular discourses and constructions of worldviews within society. Our findings demonstrate how these disclosures differ with regard to the topics covered and the tone used; hence, the stakeholder disclosures we analysed present an alternative view of the organisations activities. By systematically analysing and comparing different parties’ disclosures, we contribute to the literature by extending our understanding of stakeholder information releases in the light of corporate disclosures.

'Integrated Reporting Is Like God: No One Has Met Him, but Everybody Talks About Him.' The Power of Myths in the Adoption of Management Innovations

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the process through which an International Integrated Reporting Council (IIRC) pilot company adopted “integrated reporting” (IR), a management innovation that merges financial and non-financial reporting.,A seven-year longitudinal ethnographic study based on semi-structured interviews, observations, and documentary evidence is used to analyze this multinational company’s IR adoption process from its decision to become an IIRC pilot organization to the publication of its first integrated report.,Findings demonstrate that the company envisioned IR as a “rational myth” (Hatchuel, 1998; Hatchuel and Weil, 1992). This conceptualization acted as a springboard for IR adoption, with the mythical dimension residing in the promise that IR had the potential to portray global performance in light of the company’s own foundational myth. The company challenged the vision of IR suggested by the IIRC to stay true to its conceptualization of IR and eventually chose to implement its own version of an integrated report.,The study enriches previous research on IR and management innovations by showing how important it is for organizations to acknowledge the mythical dimension of the management innovations they pursue to support their adoption processes. These findings, suggest that myths can play a productive role in transforming business (reporting) practices. Some transition conditions that make this transformation possible are identified and the implications of these results for the future of IR, sustainability, and accounting more broadly are discussed.

To whom are we talking? A commentary of the sea symposium at the EAA2009

he 32nd Annual Congress of the European Accounting Association [hereafter, EAA] was held in May 2009 at Tampere, Finland. The largest scholarly accounting event in Europe again attracted a large crowd, namely some 1100 participants from over 50 nations around the world. Like in other EAA congresses an important feature of the academic program were the nine symposia, which featured prominent contributors discussing up-to-theminute issues in accounting practice,