Vérifier les informations environnementales pour crédibiliser le green reporting et enrayer le green washing

Environmental reporting audit is supposed to be a vector of the green reporting credibility and of the environmental practices which are promoted by a green marketing dedicated. On the contrary, these new form of audit intend to limit the green washing which creates consumers confusion. Empirical study relies first on a content analysis of the environmental communication of agri-food companies and their distributors and suggests diverse environmental strategies. Then, the results of an association analysis reveal a negative contribution of the environmental reporting audit to the environmental reporting credibility which is partially justified.La vérification des informations environnementales est proposée en tant que vecteur de crédibilisation du green reporting et des pratiques environnementales associées et promues via le green marketing. A l’inverse, elle se veut être un frein au développement de stratégies de green washing qui suscitent la confusion dans l’esprit des consommateurs. L’étude empirique recourt tout d’abord à une analyse de contenu des informations environnementales communiquées dans le cadre des rapports annuel ou de développement durable de sociétés agroalimentaires et de leurs distributeurs et laisse entrevoir des stratégies environnementales diversifiées. L’analyse des résultats d’une étude d’association traduit une contribution négative de la vérification à la crédibilisation du message environnemental, qui s’avère être partiellement justifiée

How to account for CSR in the French financial accounting?

International audienceThe good CSR practices initiated by companies suffer from an accounting under-representation in the financial statements. In the light of current French legal developments, we propose an alternative with the accounting recognition of CSR, as a constituent element of the purchased goodwill.In France, the Pacte Law has introduced all companies in the debates relating to CSR, until then rather reserved for large companies. The first major impact of the Pacte Law was to bring about a change in the definition of the company (French civil code, art. 1833), which must be "managed in its social interest, taking into account the social and environmental issues of its business activity”. The effective consideration of these issues has therefore become mandatory, in the sense of a means obligation. The Pacte Law has also encouraged a reflection on the company’s purpose as an internal management tool. Likewise, a new type of company, subject to specific rules, has emerged, that is a mission-led business , whose articles of partnership "specify one or more social and environmental objectives that the company sets itself the mission of pursuing within the framework of its activity".In the continuity of this legal news, we wonder if the CSR recognition, as a constituent element of the purchased goodwill, would be in line with the French financial accounting norms. To do so, we propose an in-depth analysis of the current financial accounting norms.This reflection is part of the logic characteristic of the accounting dynamic approach, according to which all the costs incurred by the company, tangible or intangible, take their place in the balance sheet, because they are necessary for its economic project. Thus, the obligation imposed on all companies to take into account their social and environmental issues raises the legitimate question of the accounting recognition of their social and environmental practices and thereby of the CSR performance created.However, it must be noted that current accounting rules do not allow CSR to be recognized as an asset and more particularly as an intangible asset. Our proposal consists in suggesting the valuation of the company’s CSR as a constituent element of the purchased goodwill. This proposal seems to be consistent with the definition of goodwill, as set out in the French commercial code (art. R123-186). It is all the more justified since the CSR performance is likely to represent a significant recorded value, compared to the other elements representing the current goodwill, in line with the French accounting regulation .This accounting option would make it possible to compensate for the accounting under-representation of the social and environmental company's issues. By doing so, the CSR reporting would no longer be the only way to represent transactions made by the company with its stakeholders. It would also address the main criticism of the CSR reporting inability to produce standardized information

Quelles implications de la loi Grenelle 2 en matière de vérification sociétale ?

Quelles implications de la loi Grenelle 2 en matière de vérification sociétale ?. 2. Congrès français du CSEAR.

Does the assurance level of environmental disclosure affect financial analysts’ decisions? An experimental Study

International audienc

Le lien entre l'engagement sociétal et la performance financière : une application au secteur agroalimentaire

This article proposes to complete the previous literature results relative to a possible link between social and financial performances by analyzing an industry not yet explored, that is to say the agrofood sector. As “engaged consumption seems to be more representative to a sustainable way of consumption and not to a transitory fashion” (Hatchuel & al., 2006), agrofood companies have progressively invested social questions. This article supposes that they are not opposing financial and social stakes as two antagonist strategies, but that they appreciate their social performance as a way to satisfy stakeholders and to contribute indirectly to their profitability. If the first measure of social engagement, that is to say the social reporting indicator shows a positive relation with financial performance, the second one, that is to say the companies selection in a sustainable index, presents a negative relation.Cet article se propose de contribuer aux apports antérieurs de la littérature sur une éventuelle relation entre la performance sociétale des entreprises et leur performance financière en analysant un secteur d’activité jusqu’alors non exploré, à savoir le secteur des industries et distributeurs de l’agroalimentaire. Etant donné que « la consommation engagée semble plus s’apparenter à une tendance durable de la consommation qu’à une mode passagère » (Hatchuel & al., 2006), force est de constater que les sociétés agroalimentaires se sont globalement investies des problématiques sociétales. Il est ici supposé qu’elles n’opposent pas les objectifs de performance financière et sociétale comme deux stratégies concurrentes, mais qu’elles entrevoient au contraire leur engagement sociétal comme un vecteur de satisfaction des stakeholders, favorable à leur rentabilité financière et donc à leur pérennité. Si l’indicateur de diffusion d’information apparaît comme ayant une influence positive sur la performance financière, la sélection des entreprises au titre d’un indice socialement responsable, présente une relation de sens inverse

Does the assurance level of environmental disclosure affect financial analysts’ decisions? An experimental Study

International audienc

Going deeper into the explanatory power of CSR disclosure theories: CSR reporting strategies of food companies between regulation and legitimacy

Extending prior monographies in CSR reporting (Guthrie & Parker, 1989; Deegan, Rankin & Tobin, 2002; Cho, 2009; Laine, 2009), this paper attempts to show that the quest for legitimacy is not the only one factor to explain CSR disclosure strategies in a long period. More specifically, we explore the comparative relevance of three theories, namely the regulation, media-agenda-setting and legitimacy theories. An empirical study of four French Agro-firms is carried out. The French context gives a relevant and original setting because of the issuance of two laws during the 12 last years (2001 NRE Law, decree 2002; 2010 Grenelle 2 Law, decree 2012). Firstly, we observe the effect of these regulations in CSR disclosures. Secondly, we examine whether a relationship exists between the print media coverage related to general or specific CSR concerns of food firms and their reporting practices (media-agenda-setting theory). Finally, we examine if CSR disclosure is released in response to unfavorable media attention related to each firm (legitimacy theory). In that way, we analyze the annual reports of 4 food companies, as well as press articles related to 6 major economic newspapers, over a decade (2001-2010). A grid is developed to measure the extent of disclosure of the 73 index items related to the NRE Law requirements and the food firms specific CSR concerns (Maloni & Brown, 2006). Results indicate that the legal requirements, the print media coverage according the food industry and the individual media pressure represent three explanatory and additional factors, not adversary, of CSR reporting strategy. Overall, it appears that each theory is relevant for a determined period and depends on the characteristics of the company

Does the level of assurance statement on environmental disclosure affect investor assessment?

International audiencePurposeThe purpose of this study is to examine whether different levels of assurance statements of environmental disclosures affect investment choices in the French context where environmental assurance was voluntary until 2012 and became regulated and mandatory since then.Design/methodology/approachThe authors conducted an experiment during the voluntary context – which represents the vast majority of countries – on a sample of 108 financial analysts.FindingsEnvironmental disclosure has a positive impact on investment recommendations. More surprisingly, financial analysts are less likely to give recommendations in favor of a company that displays environmental disclosure with low-level assurance than for a company with no assurance statement at all.Research limitations/implicationsWhen assurance is voluntary and there are at least two levels, this study results suggest that firms should avoid selecting the lowest level of assurance because it negatively affects investor decisions. From this perspective, firms should devote sufficient effort and resources to obtain at least Level 2 environmental disclosure assurance.Practical implicationsGiven the recommendations made by financial analysts, the authors could expect that firms may prefer to engage in a higher level of assurance or to provide no assurance rather than minimize their financial efforts and resources to select a lower level of voluntary assurance regarding environmental disclosure.Social implicationsThis study has implications for the voluntary assurance practices of environmental disclosure and can provide support to regulators to promote higher standards in environmental assurance. It documents the relevance to increase the level of requested assurance for environmental disclosure.Originality/valueTo the best of the authors’ knowledge, very few studies have examined the additional effect of assurance on environmental disclosure in investors’ decisions. The experiment is conducted with financial analysts in the context of voluntary assurance

Agricultural cooperatives performance measurement dilemma: wine cooperatives case in Languedoc-Roussillon

International audienceFrench agricultural cooperatives and especially wine ones show differences of corporate objectives, but also common ones with the private merchants, as they face a common economic environment. However traditional controlling and financial models do not seem adequate to measure ‘sustainable social economy’ performances advocated by the cooperatives philosophy. The main difficulty is that their specific corporate governance introduces competition between short term maximum payments to their raw materials suppliers-patrons and long term investment potentials. So facing this “cooperative dilemma”, we may wonder how agricultural cooperatives balance these conflicting objectives, and which performance measurement specificities they should adopt. In order to try and answer this question, the construction (to avoid repetition of design) of an adapted data base appears to be necessary to design a specific economic and financial measurement model. It will take into account the apparent antinomy of the cooperatives short term and long term objectives, in the context of an economically sustainable development. We present the case of the introduction of COOPERFIC, a decision-aid tool for agricultural cooperatives and their subsidiaries, based upon a specially constructed data base in France. The exploratory results obtained from the test of an original performance measurement model on an ad hoc sample of 87 wine cooperatives lead to some useful guidelines in terms of cooperative governance. Results reveal the apparent antinomy of these firms’ short term and long term objectives, in order to reach their economic and social objectives. This is a “cooperative dilemma’ as well as a “performance measurement dilemma”. These results go also against prejudices or common place lightening that enhancing products value is often much more efficient, as far as members’ payment is concerned, than a reduction of fixed costs or economies of scale

The key role of stakeholders on wine cooperatives governance and performance

International audienceFacing market globalization and volatility, farmers find in agricultural cooperatives a secure way to sale their products, especially in wine sector (strong crisis before 2010). In the same time, cooperatives members and employees became more and more vertical organization averse and look for collaborative decision making process.In this context, traditional corporate governance models based on the classical agency theory appear not to be accurate for agricultural cooperatives governance. Considering a multi paradigmatic model with three dimensions (disciplinary, partnership and cognitive governance), we focused on the link between governance and financial corporate performance.We studied Languedoc-Roussillon wine cooperatives which represent 70% of the output of this huge wine-growing area and we analysed how they overcame their financial difficulties thanks to the involvement of their stakeholders. We used original data, coming from COOPERFIC, a specific decision aid tool designed and managed by Coop de France Languedoc-Roussillon.The results showed the crucial role of the partnership dimension of cooperative governance via stakeholders’ and especially grape growers’ members involvement (directors role). Top financial performance fitted partnership relations inside wine cooperatives, whereas disciplinary and cognitive governance seemed less relevant. Moreover, the three dimensions of agricultural cooperative governance appeared partially interconnected.Even if further surveys will be necessary to have additional analysis on governance mechanisms, it can be stressed that, thanks to our work, decision making process can be improved, paving the way for a more efficient governance and management