Societal determinants of corporate social disclosures : an international comparative study

The purpose of this study is to investigate whether corporate social disclosure levels are determined by society. A social accounting methodology is applied, consisting of a hypothetico-deductive approach. Social accounting research is a critical or interpretative branch of financial accounting research. The main difference from financial accounting is the unqualified acceptance of a social reality by social accounting researchers. Empirical evidence is assessed with the application of a system-oriented theoretical framework. The theoretical framework consists of a combination of theories: Stakeholder Theory, Legitimacy Theory and institutions from Institutional Theory. Research questions are developed out of the theoretical framework, which are input for the development of hypotheses. Stakeholder Theory and Legitimacy Theory are both suggested to explain corporate social disclosure levels and its relation with economic institutions, social institutions and political institutions. Prior research supports the suggested relationships, especially studies that take a similar outside-in approach; these studies suggest outside effects on the internal corporate social disclosure decision. Corporate social disclosure data are provided by Sustainalytics, which are similar to the often-studied KLD social performance data. Economic institutional variables applied are of legal origin, as a determinant of corporate governance systems and freedom of markets. Social institutional variables applied are national culture dimensions and combined measures. Political variables applied are political and civil freedom, national environmental and labour law indices. The sample tested consists of 600 large corporations from 22 countries. The corporations are part of what is known as Morgan Stanley Capital International index. They are all large corporations. Statistical testing with the use of bivariate correlations, t-tests and multivariate regression models largely support the hypotheses suggested. The main conclusion is that corporate social disclosure levels are related to the way society is organised. The outcomes of the study show several confirmations of theoretically suggested relationships. Economic institutions are weakly related to corporate social disclosure levels on the basis of a stakeholder orientation of societies, or communitarianism. The relationships that were suggested by theory and some of the prior literature were weakly and partially confirmed. The found relationship between corporate social disclosure levels and governmentally supported freedom of markets can be explained by stakeholder theory, especially communitarianism. Another variable related to communitarianism, the distinction between legal origins, which describes corporate governance systems, is not found to be relevant to explain corporate social disclosure levels. Legitimacy issues certainly play a role as a determinant of corporate social disclosure levels, but not with regard to economic institutions. The relationship described between corporate social disclosure levels and national cultures is consistent with the associations suggested by stakeholder theory. Legitimacy has been related in the past mainly with corporate characteristics, company size, and sensitive industry membership. As this study only applies data on large corporations measured by market capitalisation, sensitive industry membership remains as the main relevant corporate legitimacy variable. The sensitive industry membership variable causes the models with social institutional variables to improve. Political institutions are related to corporate social disclosure levels, though differentiated. The relationship between freedom and corporate social disclosure levels is described by applying stakeholder theory. Stakeholder theory states that the influence that stakeholders can have on the corporation depends on the salience of their needs. The relationship is confirmed, as expected. Political institutions are related to the way corporations deal with legitimacy issues. Clear relations are found between corporate environmental disclosure levels and national environmental performance indices. A relationship between corporate employment disclosure levels and national employment law indices is difficult to confirm. A generally valid relationship between corporate social disclosure levels and political institutions is not clearly found. A general conclusion is that meso-level institutions have shown to be relevant determinants of corporate social disclosure levels. The systems-oriented framework is found to be applicable in explaining relationships between levels of corporate social disclosure and the institutional environment. The conclusion that societal, institutional determinants are relevant for corporate social disclosures implicitly supports the acceptance of a social reality of social accounting, as institutions are social by definition.LEI Universiteit LeidenCoherent privaatrech

The power of the CEO and environmental decoupling

This paper examines the impact of the power of the chief executive officer (CEO) on environmental decoupling. We define environmental decoupling as a gap between firm's claims about the environmental sustainability and actual environmental sustainability performance. Based on the managerial power theory, we argue that powerful managers are more involved in environmental decoupling and use environmental reporting in a more opportunistic manner than their less powerful peers. We analyse a dataset of 4576 firm-year observations of US-listed firms for the period 2002–2017. We find that powerful CEOs decouple firm's environmental performance from environmental reporting. These findings are robust to a battery of analyses and show that powerful CEOs do not show true commitment towards corporate environmental sustainability. The results provide important implications for investors, policymakers and fund managers. Useful future research recommendations are also provided to guide the research in the domain of environmental sustainability

Societal determinants of corporate social disclosures : an international comparative study

Corporations disclose social information which is likely to relate to their social responsibility activities. The disclosed social information is called social disclosures, a term borrowed from financial accounting and reporting. Why do corporations want to disclose information regarding their social responsibility activities? This study contains a search for the answer to that question. It is a study on the societal determinants of corporate social disclosures. The considered societal determinants are institutional and they are explained by a system-theoretical framework of stakeholder and legitimacy theory. According to the currently dominant research paradigm in financial accounting, corporations have a narrow focus on the decision-usefulness of corporate information and the creation of shareholder value. This study is different. It assumes that managers are aware of the bigger picture of society and the position of their corporations in society. In this study it is shown that managers can have a broader focus than just on shareholder value creation. This is a volume in the series of the Meijers Research Institute and Graduate School of Leiden University9789400600881 (eisbn)Dissertati

Does Institutional Context Affect CSR Disclosure? A Study on Eurostoxx 50

We propose to investigate the relationship between corporate social responsibility disclosure and institutional/environmental factors among a sample of European listed companies. We find that, by using several traditional explicative variables, institutional factors affect the level of CSR disclosure, in a context where the EU Commission has been paying growing attention to social and environmental accountability of listed companies (see the EU Dir. 95/2014). Our findings are further supported by multivariate regression, where ESG score (measure of CSR disclosure) is regressed on nine variables which represent the expression of institutional factors. By looking at the institutional determinants of CSR disclosure, we are seeking to pose a challenge for future research agenda, in order to understand whether CSR does actually reflect an effective commitment of firms to accounting practices and rules, as a form of social behavior, or whether it is just a tool to manage stakeholders’ perception and to comply with regulation

Reporting on impact

Rapporteren over impact staat centraal in dit artikel, in het bijzonder rapporteren over de koppeling van impact aan concepten als waardecreatie, purpose en Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) en Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Rapportage over niet-financiële informatie is voor een groep ondernemingen verplicht, maar binnen de wettelijke kaders is veel ruimte voor eigen invulling. Dit onderzoek laat zien hoe die eigen invulling gestalte heeft gekregen op het gebied van waardecreatie en impact en wat 'good practices' zijn op dit vlak. Het laat ook zien dat vrijwel alle ondernemingen proactief over duurzaamheid rapporteren, maar dat een aantal elementen achterblijven in de rapportage, zoals langetermijndoelstellingen, vergelijkbaarheid en balans, de transitie naar een duurzaam bedrijfsmodel en meer en relevantere indicatoren op impact. Een eerste stap is gezet om ten aanzien van ESG naast operationele informatie ook relevante diepgaander strategische informatie te geven

Genome-wide analysis of intracellular pH reveals quantitative control of cell division rate by pHc in Saccharomyces cerevisiae.

BACKGROUND: Because protonation affects the properties of almost all molecules in cells, cytosolic pH (pH(c)) is usually assumed to be constant. In the model organism yeast, however, pH(c )changes in response to the presence of nutrients and varies during growth. Since small changes in pH(c )can lead to major changes in metabolism, signal transduction, and phenotype, we decided to analyze pH(c )control. RESULTS: Introducing a pH-sensitive reporter protein into the yeast deletion collection allowed quantitative genome-wide analysis of pH(c )in live, growing yeast cultures. pH(c )is robust towards gene deletion; no single gene mutation led to a pH(c )of more than 0.3 units lower than that of wild type. Correct pH(c )control required not only vacuolar proton pumps, but also strongly relied on mitochondrial function. Additionally, we identified a striking relationship between pH(c )and growth rate. Careful dissection of cause and consequence revealed that pH(c )quantitatively controls growth rate. Detailed analysis of the genetic basis of this control revealed that the adequate signaling of pH(c )depended on inositol polyphosphates, a set of relatively unknown signaling molecules with exquisitely pH sensitive properties. CONCLUSIONS: While pH(c )is a very dynamic parameter in the normal life of yeast, genetically it is a tightly controlled cellular parameter. The coupling of pH(c )to growth rate is even more robust to genetic alteration. Changes in pH(c )control cell division rate in yeast, possibly as a signal. Such a signaling role of pH(c )is probable, and may be central in development and tumorigenesis

Mapping and conceptualizing the measurement of organizational social value using systems thinking

Studies about social value have been devoted to issues or phenomena, projects, or activities of organizations but none have evaluated the organizational social value as oppose to economic value. Our question is: in the field of business and economics, how has organizational social value been scholarly or academically analyzed? By performing a systematic literature review of articles, and using scientometric analysis of 45 articles. 34 out of the 45 articles were mapped into the extended systems thinking: input, process, output and environment (IPOE) framework. Our results indicate that: a) input and environment dimensions have been most researched while process and output have been least researched; b) applicability of the IPOE framework as a mapping tool for organizational social value but requires further confirmation; and c) social value creation nonprofit, hybrid and for-profit organizations may be linked together. Our research would be helpful for organizations interested in measuring their social value.Coherent privaatrech