Most extant studies of corporate social and environmental reporting (CSER) tend to examine the volume of CSER by companies. In contrast, the significance of this thesis lies in its focus on key stakeholders who are users of CSER and their needs. The perspectives of multiple key stakeholders, including investing, procuring and campaigning stakeholders, are investigated with respect to what they perceive to be valuable social and environmental reporting in supporting decision making. This thesis also goes beyond CSER and examines social and environmental reporting from other sources, including but not limited to reporting arising from private meetings between companies and stakeholders and information about companies’ social and environmental impact or performance from information intermediaries. Stakeholder perceptions on the value and the qualitative characteristics of social and environmental reporting have been sought through semi-structured questionnaire with individuals drawn from the key stakeholder groups. Consistent with stakeholder theory, it is expected that stakeholder needs may vary. The findings in this thesis support a hypothesised relationship between the value of social and environmental reporting and information qualitative characteristics. Other key findings show that the availability of social and environmental reporting affects stakeholders’ extent of use of social and environmental reporting and that the drivers for the value of information and the extent of use of information are different. The findings present important implications for both company managers and policy-makers. Company managers are better informed concerning stakeholder information needs. Thus they are better equipped to make decisions about the extent, scope and form of CSER. Furthermore, this thesis enables policy-makers to assess whether CSER requirements under current regulatory mechanisms reflect stakeholder needs. Finally this thesis has contributed towards enriching literature in the CSER area.

The thesis investigates the broad areas of accounting's adaptability in handling and reporting environmental effects. The main purposes of the study are: firstly. to draw together the literature of environmental concern and accounting: secondly to establish whether the use of environmental accounting is practised. to ascertain whether there is a suitable medium for environmental reporting and lastly to formulate a theoretical environmental performance model. The overall orientation of the research was to consider whether accounting should break away from its traditional economic and financial principles and broaden its scope to embrace a system that echoes with "environmental concern". In order to address these issues. the methods of evaluating environmental effects are looked at, together with the methods for accounting and reporting them. For these purposes, data were collected using a cross-sectional corporate methodology. The instrument used for the survey was the postal questionnaire. The construction and content of the questionnaire were influenced by the information gleaned from the literature review and, in the main, it covered qualitative, quantitative and financial information. The evidence gathered from the research has shown that environmental accounting and reporting are being practised by a variety of companies and are also becoming more widespread, which demonstrates that accounting is playing an important role in handling environmental transactions. The research has also shown that environmental accounting and reporting are gaining a broader perspective and now embrace environmental management systems. resource efficiency, and general environmental stewardship. Overall, the study recognises and concludes that environmental accounting and reporting, although spreading. should now be supported by environmental accounting and reporting guidelines from the accountancy profession, and in time, by legislation. Also environmental reports should be verified by external auditors in order to improve their integrity and prevent them from being used as a public relations exercise.

The purpose of this study was to develop an environmental reporting framework for the Tanzanian industrial sector. To achieve the purpose, the study started by developing a disclosure index, which was used to measure the current extent of environmental reporting in Tanzania. There were two phases in the process of developing the environmental disclosure index (EDI) for the Tanzanian industrial sector. The first phase involved identifying and refining the items for disclosure from the literature. In particular the studies on environmental reporting/disclosure were reviewed and the items to be included in the initial disclosure index were identified. The second phase involved the development of the final disclosure index using the Delphi inquiry method. In the Delphi inquiry, knowledgeable experts in environmental issues were consulted and asked for their opinion on the items proposed, whether the item should be retained, removed or any addition of new item. Therefore, the role of the experts was, first to confirm and validate items to be included in the EDI, and second, to assess the importance of the disclosure of each item by allocating weight to every item. The extent of environmental reporting in Tanzania was measured by using the EDI developed. The annual and environmental reports from various organisations operating in Tanzania were requested and read to determine the current extent of environmental reporting. The results indicated that the information reported by organisations operating in Tanzania mostly came from the categories ‘Organisational context’ and ‘Management performance, policies and systems. The information from ‘environmental performance’ category was left unreported. After the current extent of environmental reporting has been explored, the environmental reporting framework (ERF) was developed. The framework intended to provide guidance on environmental reporting to organisations (from the industrial sector) of any size operating in the country. In particular the framework provided the guidance on four steps to be followed when preparing environmental reports and the content to be included in the reports. After the ERF was developed, it was tested to investigate its applicability using two case studies. The results indicated that the steps to be followed when preparing environmental reports were valid and implementable. / College of Accounting Sciences / D. Phil. (Accounting Sciences)

This research consists of a broad study in three parts of the social and environmental reporting practices of organisations operating in or sourcing products from a developing country, in this case Bangladesh. The first part of this study explores the social and environmental disclosure practices of the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA), the body responsible for organising the activities of 4,200 entities involved in the export of garments from Bangladesh. By way of interview, this part documents the opinions of numerous senior executives from the BGMEA with regard to any changes in the degree of social and environmental pressures since 1985. Utilising a complementary theoretical perspective that includes legitimacy theory, stakeholder theory and institutional theory this part then performs an analysis of the BGMEA's annual reports (1987-2005), to explore the link between the perceived pressures and changes entailed therein and th e social and environmental disclosure practices of the BGMEA across the period of analysis. The results show that the disclosure practices of BGMEA appear to be directly driven by the changing expectations of multinational buying companies- the group deemed to be the most powerful stakeholder group. This section is the first known study to interview managers from a large organisation in a developing country about shifting stakeholder expectations and then to link these changing expectations to annual report disclosures across an extended period of analysis. The findings then directly lead to the second major part of this thesis which investigates the social and environmental disclosure practices of two major multinational buying companies: Nike and H&M. Adopting a joint consideration of legitimacy theory and media agenda setting theory, this second part investigates the linkage between negative media attention and positive corporate social and environmental disclosures over a 19 year period. The results supp ort the view that for those industry-related social and environmental issues that attract the greatest amount of negative media attention, these companies react by providing positive social and environmental disclosures. The results were particularly significant in relation to labour practices in developing countries-the issue that attracts the greatest amount of negative media attention for the companies in question. While the second part demonstrates that the media influences particular disclosure practices, the third part of the thesis shows what drives the media. Based on the speculation provided in the second part, the third part tests the proposition that the media is an important ally of NGOs in their quest to influence change in corporate accountabilities. Through the use of interviews, the results of this part of the study provide evidence to support previously untested perspectives about NGOs' utilisation of the media. The results reveal that NGOs use the media because the media is responsible for creating real changes in the operations and disclosure policies of organisations sourcing products from Bangladesh. The various pressures impacting the activities of organisations operating in or sourcing products from developing countries constitutes a fascinating area of investigation, and it is hoped that this study will motivate further research in this area.

Thesis (M.A.) University of Missouri-Columbia, 2006. / The entire dissertation/thesis text is included in the research.pdf file; the official abstract appears in the short.pdf file (which also appears in the research.pdf); a non-technical general description, or public abstract, appears in the public.pdf file. Title from title screen of research.pdf file viewed on (June 26, 2007) Includes bibliographical references.

Due to the fact that corporate environmental reporting (CER) is largely voluntary and unregulated, practice has evolved in the absence of a meaningful conceptual framework. This lack of a normative theory stating what should be the content of CER as well as the methods for measuring reported information being largely volumetric or content based, is advanced as a major limitation in the existing literature. In this study, the wellestablished conceptual frameworks for financial reporting are adapted as the basis for a CER conceptual framework in which four characteristics of CER indicate its quality. Empirical methods for the measurement of such characteristics are also adapted from the financial reporting literature. The main aim of this research is to use the adapted framework to examine the extent of variation in the quality of CER and then to test its applicability to the key motivational theories. The empirical work involves a panel of US and UK firms over a two-year period. This allows cross-sectional comparison to be made between different financial accounting regimes (rules- vs. principles-based) as well as permits examination of the development of CER over time. Further, the empirical work is extended to investigate the interrelationship between the financial and environmental performance of a firm. Evidence in support of the legitimacy and institutional theory explanations for disclosure motivations is comprehensively found through the measures of the qualitative characteristics identified. That is, the use of a novel CER framework based on financial reporting quality here enables a more robust understanding of the reporting behaviours than previous work. Moreover, evidence for CER variation owing to the differences in financial reporting regimes is found and thus, it is reasonable to assert that the culture of financial reporting, to some extent, informs the nature of voluntary non-financial reporting. However, perhaps owing to the short time frame of the investigation, evidence of financial rewards from being environmentally effective or through providing CER is not found. The findings from this research will be of interest to preparers and users of corporate environmental reports as well as to policymakers, particularly in terms of enabling them to assess the quality of reporting and its level of fit with their expectations. Moreover, they also shed light on the link between environmental performance, as manifested in carbon emissions, and what is reported.

This thesis examines the strategic and potentially legitimising nature of voluntary environmental reporting. First, the thesis examines the relationship between emission levels on the National Pollutant Inventory and the quantity of total voluntary environmental disclosures, voluntary emission disclosures and positive voluntary environmental disclosures in annual reports. Second, an examination of changes in the quantity of disclosures discussing compliance with the National Pollutant Inventory and/or disclosures concerning pollution emissions is undertaken. Taking into consideration the findings relating to the strategic nature of voluntary disclosures, the thesis then examines the potential of such disclosures to impact upon the usefulness of mandatory annual report disclosure requirements. This is undertaken by investigating whether significant differences exist between environmental disclosure practices in the voluntary sections of annual reports for corporations reporting non-compliance, and those not reporting non-compliance, in the directors' report pursuant with the requirements of s. 299(1)(f) of the Corporations Law. The findings suggest that, for the sample corporations, a change in environmental regulation may have been an impetus for changes in voluntary environmental disclosure practices in annual reports. Disclosures are identified as being discretionary, and potentially reactive to changes in environmental regulation, with a significant increase in the quantity of voluntary disclosures relating to the National Pollutant Inventory and in the number of corporations making voluntary emission disclosures during the period. Hence, voluntary disclosures, although discretionary, may provide some indication of the corporation's actual environmental activities and provides some support for industry arguments to maintain a voluntary environmental disclosure system. A comparison of the quantity and nature of voluntary disclosures for corporations required to report non-compliance with, and those reporting no non-compliance with, environmental regulations in the directors' report found no significant differences in disclosure practices between the two groups; that is, in contrast to the findings of previous research, those reporting non-compliance had no higher propensity for either greater quantities of voluntary environmental disclosures or positive voluntary environmental disclosures. The findings suggest that the limitations faced by s. 299(1)(f) in its early years may have resulted in it not being perceived as a legitimacy threat by the sample corporations or as a lesser threat than others such as the NPI. Therefore, questions remain as to whether the section is able to produce the outcomes proposed at its inception. Overall, taking into consideration the discretionary nature of voluntary environmental disclosures, and the limitations of s. 299(1)(f), concern remains as to the quality of the Australian annual report environmental reporting system and the potential for the existence of voluntary environmental disclosures in the annual report to reduce the usefulness of a mandatory disclosure system to users. These findings suggest a need for further research into the effect of both mandatory and voluntary environmental disclosures on users' perceptions of corporate environmental performance.

Bakgrund: Miljöredovisningen är ett sätt för företagen att beskriva sitt miljöarbete. Den har fått allt större betydelse för företagen i takt med att miljöfrågorna blivit allt viktigare hos intressenter och allmänheten. Det gäller för företagen att visa att man tar ett miljö- och samhällsansvar för att skapa trovärdighet och förtroende i samhället.   Syfte:                                  Att ge läsaren en bild över hur och varför miljöredovisningen ser ut som den gör och vad företagen, som associeras med betydande miljöpåverkan, väljer att fokusera på i sina miljöredovisningar.  Metod:                               En kvalitativ studie som grundar sig i legitimitetsteorin och institutionell teori har utförts. Vi har undersökt litteratur, vetenskapliga artiklar, miljöredovisningar samt fört intervjuer med personer som har behörig kompetens.  Slutsats:                             Studien visar på hur viktig miljöredovisningen är för företagen som associeras med betydande miljöpåverkan. Företagen belyser det viktiga i att kunna vara transparent och visa intressenter och allmänheten att man tar miljöfrågor på största allvar. Studien visar även på hur yttre faktorer påverkar utformningen av miljöredovisningen så som förväntningar och institutionella tryck. Studien visar även på vad företagen fokuserar på i sina miljöredovisningar så som; energieffektivisering, minskning av utsläpp, miljökostnader, miljöinvesteringar, upprättandet av miljömål, miljöstrategier och miljöaktiviteter. / Background:                    The environmental reports are a way for companies to describe their environmental efforts. The environmental reports have become increasingly important for the companies, as the environmental issues have become a priority issue to the general population. Companies now have to show that they can take an environmental and social responsibility in order to build credibility and trust of the society.  Purpose:                            In order to give the reader a picture of how and why environmental reports looks like they do and what companies associated with a negative impact on the environment, chooses to focus on in their environmental reports.  Method:                             A qualitative study based on the legitimacy theory and the institutional theory is conducted in this thesis. A review and examination of literature, scientific articles, environmental reports and engaging interviews with people who have qualified skills in the subject was made.  Conclusion:                       This study demonstrates the importance of the environmental reports for the companies associated with significant environmental impacts. It highlights the importance of being transparent and demonstrates to stakeholders and the public the importance of taking environmental issues seriously. The study also shows how external factors like expectations and institutional pressures affects the general design of the environmental reports. The study also shows what companies are focusing on in their environmental reports such as; energy efficiency, emission reduction, environmental costs and the establishment of environmental goals and strategies.

Corporate Social Environmental Reporting is a process through which companies and organisations can inform the societies within which they operate about their performance on non-economic issues including environmental performance. The Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) is an internationally recognised organisation which has frameworks and guidelines organisations can use to standardise the reports which they issue to the society. Data gathering for reporting on environmental performance can be done in several ways, including by means of the data required for an Environmental Management System (EMS) based on the ISO 14001 “plan – do – check - act” commonly known as the Demming cycle, aimed at continual improvement of environmental performance by an organisation. The clauses in an EMS allow for an organisation to measure its performance and hence the generation of data which can be used for interpretation on environmental performance. The utility of data generated from an EMS is optimised for input towards the generation of a Corporate Social Environmental Report by the level of alignment between the reporting process and the system used for data generation. The aim of this study was to evaluate the level of such an alignment between the two processes for AngloGold Ashanti (AGA), a multinational gold mining company which issues its reports according to GRI guidelines and also has an ISO 14001 EMS in place. The method used entailed a desktop documentary analysis, a questionnaire answered by individuals responsible for implementation of the EMS and an interview posed at corporate level. It was found that despite corporate commitment to continually improve CSER, there is a relative weak alignment between the two systems, with consequent duplication of effort and sub optimal use of human resources. Recommendations for improved alignment include focused education and training of staff on the relationship between CSER and EMS, and improvements in EMS monitoring and measuring procedures. / Thesis (M. Environmental Management)--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2013

Corporate Social Environmental Reporting is a process through which companies and organisations can inform the societies within which they operate about their performance on non-economic issues including environmental performance. The Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) is an internationally recognised organisation which has frameworks and guidelines organisations can use to standardise the reports which they issue to the society. Data gathering for reporting on environmental performance can be done in several ways, including by means of the data required for an Environmental Management System (EMS) based on the ISO 14001 “plan – do – check - act” commonly known as the Demming cycle, aimed at continual improvement of environmental performance by an organisation. The clauses in an EMS allow for an organisation to measure its performance and hence the generation of data which can be used for interpretation on environmental performance. The utility of data generated from an EMS is optimised for input towards the generation of a Corporate Social Environmental Report by the level of alignment between the reporting process and the system used for data generation. The aim of this study was to evaluate the level of such an alignment between the two processes for AngloGold Ashanti (AGA), a multinational gold mining company which issues its reports according to GRI guidelines and also has an ISO 14001 EMS in place. The method used entailed a desktop documentary analysis, a questionnaire answered by individuals responsible for implementation of the EMS and an interview posed at corporate level. It was found that despite corporate commitment to continually improve CSER, there is a relative weak alignment between the two systems, with consequent duplication of effort and sub optimal use of human resources. Recommendations for improved alignment include focused education and training of staff on the relationship between CSER and EMS, and improvements in EMS monitoring and measuring procedures. / Thesis (M. Environmental Management)--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2013