تجزیه و تحلیل گزارشات مسئولیت اجتماعی شرکت
Abstract
1- Introduction
2- Theoretical background
3- Corporate Environmental Profile Methodology (CEPM)
4- Empirical analysis
5- Discussion
6- Conclusion
References
Abstract
The environmental dimension of corporate sustainability is a key factor in firms’ success and viability. This implies that firms put emphasis on resource conservation strategies in order to protect their financial position. In recent years, the environmental aspects of firms have been examined with respect to their corporate environmental profile. This paper proposes a new approach for assessing the corporate environmental profile in light of environmental management practices, the environmental performance and reporting practices. To do so, a flexible benchmarking–scoring methodology was developed. It is based on a set of well-defined indexes and environmental indicators proposed by the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) in order to assess information published in Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) reports. A sample of firms was used to test the proposed methodology so as to highlight its advantages and disadvantages.
Introduction
Environmental information is very useful for helping firms develop essential tools to improve communication with stakeholders as well as to face potential future risks and exploit possible new opportunities (Larrinaga-González et al., 2001; De Beer and Friend, 2006). Many theories (e.g. the stakeholder theory, the resource-based theory, the knowledge-based theory) and also accounting literature (the legitimacy theory and accountability theory) (Russo and Fouts, 1997; O’Donovan, 2002; Nikolaou, 2017) have been used to explain the efforts of businesses to improve their environmental profile through strategic management. Recently, many firms want to make progress on improving their environmental profile mainly as a response to the regulatory regime (i.e. the reactive approach) or as a strategy on a voluntary basis, in order to meet stakeholder needs (i.e. the proactive approach) (Alvarez, 2019). Moreover, literature provides evidence that benefits from improvements in a corporate environmental profile are different across sectors. Specifically, the mining and chemical industries gain “the social licence to operate” (Moffat and Zhang, 2014), while the food and beverage industry seeks a competitive advantage (Maloni and Brown, 2006). The credit sector mainly aims to eliminate potential transfer of financial risks to lending procedures due to firms’ environmental failures (Coulson and Monks, 1999).