This dissertation consists of three separate, but inter-related, studies overarching a common theme labeled "the role played by social and environmental accounting disclosures using different methodologies and framed within legitimacy theory." The first study investigates the use of different language techniques in social and environmental disclosures (SED) and tests whether the impression management hypothesis holds when disclosures are measured as such. The second study extends the "legitimacy on the Internet" arguments of Patten and Crampton (2004) by examining the content and presentation of corporate website environmental disclosure in relation to firm environmental performance of four size-matched sample groups constructed based on industry environmental sensitivity and America's Toxic 100 membership (the top 100 polluters in the US). The third study investigates whether and how Total, one of the world's largest integrated oil and gas companies headquartered in France, utilized legitimation strategies such as social and environmental disclosures, to respond to two significant environmental incidents. Taken together, these three studies build upon prior theoretical and empirical work to substantiate and advance social and environmental accounting research using various methodological lenses and perspectives.

Digitalisering anses vara den enskilt största förändringsfaktorn i världen och har medfört betydande utveckling i samhället. Den svenska arbetsmarknaden har påverkats i stor utsträckning av digitaliseringen, då den lett till radikala förändringar för organisationer samt yrkesroller, däribland redovisningskonsulter. Tidigare forskning redogör för att digitalisering medfört både möjligheter och utmaningar för redovisningsbranschen. Studiens huvudsakliga syfte är att undersöka hur digitalisering inom redovisningsbranschen påverkar redovisningskonsulters yrkesroll. Studiens avsikt är att bidra till ökad förståelse för den inverkan digitaliseringen har haft på redovisningskonsulters verksamheter, arbetssätt, arbetsuppgifter samt kompetenser och därmed vilka möjligheter respektive utmaningar som uppkommit för yrkesrollen. Studien utgår ifrån en kvalitativ metod där 14 semistrukturerade intervjuer med redovisningskonsulter från diverse byråer har utförts. Det empiriskt insamlade materialet har jämförts med institutionell teori och legitimitetsteori samt tidigare forskning för att nå en slutsats. Studiens slutsats är att digitaliseringen har medfört en rad olika möjligheter samt utmaningar kopplade till redovisningskonsulters arbetssätt, arbetsuppgifter, kompetenser samt deras verksamheter. Ett förslag till vidare forskning inkluderar att studera förändringen digitaliseringen har haft på redovisningskonsultens yrkesroll över tid. Studien är skriven på svenska. / Digitalization is considered to be one of the most significant advancements in modern society. The Swedish labor market has been greatly impacted by the radical changes brought forth by digitalization as it continues to shape processes within organizations and professional roles, particularly in the field of accounting. This study aims to investigate the impact of digitalization in the accounting industry and its effects on the role of accounting consultants. The study also seeks to further the understanding of existing literature and their explorations of how digitalization influences the work procedures, job assignments, and competencies of accounting consultants' and their companies. In addition, data gathered during this study will evaluate any challenges highlighted by digitalization within the accounting profession. The study will utilize qualitative research methods by analysis of 14 semi-structured interviews. The participants of the interviews include accounting consultants from various agencies in Sweden. Empirically gathered material will be compared to institutional theory and legitimacy theory along with previous research to reach a conclusion. The study concludes that digitalization has resulted in various opportunities and challenges linked to accounting consultants' work procedures, job assignments, competencies, and operations. A suggestion for further research includes studying the change digitalization has had on the accounting consultant's professional role over a period of time. This study is written in Swedish.

Bakgrund & Problem: Företag idag ställs inför nya krav om socialt- och miljömässigt ansvar och bedöms utefter deras förmåga att uppfylla dessa. Därmed har kommunikation och redovisning genom hållbarhetsrapporten blivit viktig. Om företagets CSR arbete och sociala ansvar överensstämmer med samhällets förväntningar kan företaget ses som legitim, men om dessa förväntningar inte efterlevs kan legitimiteten istället påverkas negativt. Företag använder sig utav kommunikationsstrategier för att legitimera sitt agerande och därmed är hållbarhetsredovisningen problematisk då den inte kan anses vara ett svar på att företaget uppfyller sin ansvarsskyldighet. Ytterligare problem med hållbarhetsredovisningen är att den utelämnar information som är betydelsefull för intressenterna. Syfte: Studiens syfte är att öka kunskapen för mottagare av företagens hållbarhetsrapporter så de kan fatta beslut om företaget på ett mer kritiskt sätt. Metod: I denna studie används en kvalitativ metod genom att en innehållsanalys genomförs av fem företags hållbarhetsrapporter. Vidare används en kvantitativ metod för att genomföra frekvensanalys av företagets intressenter. Resultat: Resultatet visar att strategier för att behålla legitimitet används både innan och efterskandal, medan strategier för att reparera legitimiteten används efter skandal. Mer exakt är det behålla legitimitet på ett pragmatiskt sätt och reparera legitimitet på ett moraliskt sätt som är de mest använda strategierna i hållbarhetsredovisningarna. Därutöver visas även en koppling mellan pragmatisk legitimitet och de interna intressenterna. / Background and problem: Nowadays companies need to face the new requirement of social- and environmental responsibility and are assessed by how they fulfill these demands. Because of this communication and accounting through sustainability reports have been important. If the company's CSR work and social responsibility are in line with society's expectations it can be considered legitim, if the expectations do not comply the legitimacy of the company will drop. Consequently, companies use communication strategies to legitimize their actions, and because of this sustainability reporting can’t be seen as a way of transparency. Furthermore, sustainability reporting does omit information that is significant to its stakeholders.  Aim: The study aims to increase the knowledge of sustainability reports for receivers of the report to make better and more critical decisions.  Method: This study was conducted in a qualitative method, a content analysis was performed on five companies' sustainability reports. Moreover, a quantitative method was used for the frequency analysis of the company's stakeholders.  Conclusion: The result shows that strategies to maintain legitimacy are used both before and after the scandal, while strategies to repair legitimacy are used after the scandal. More precisely, maintaining legitimacy pragmatically and repairing legitimacy morally are the most used strategies in sustainability reporting. In addition, a connection between pragmatic legitimacy and the internal stakeholders is also shown.

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On August 2, 2004, Citigroup traders based in the UK sold short more than $13 billion worth of government bonds only to buy them back seconds later at a profit of about $18.2 million dollars. This strategy was carefully planned, the consequences acknowledged by key participants, and it was profitable to the serious detriment of other market participants. The event is ethically questionable because it violates the spirit of European regulation. The purpose of this study is to investigate disclosures made by and about Citigroup surrounding a regulatory investigation into this short-sale within the contexts of legitimacy and institutional anomie theories.

This thesis sets out to examine whether there is a relationship between financial performance and CSR in fashion companies. Furthermore, there are significant regional differences in different markets; for instance, the European Union aims to counter the negative impact of fast fashion as part of a grander plan to become climate neutral by 2050. Therefore, a regional comparison is of particular interest as environmental regulations are increasing. Since the USA and the EU are home to the largest and most valuable brands to date, these regions will be examined in this thesis. This relationship is measured by using ESG scores as a proxy for CSR. The results stipulate that the relationship between financial performance and CSR activities is weak. Nevertheless, regional context is found to be a significant moderator variable in this relationship. The results indicate that CSR practices are more important in terms of financial performance in the EU.

Yes / Irrespective of the fundamental role of legitimacy in industrial relations as well as social and organisational life, little is known of the subtle meaning-making strategies through which organisational concepts, such as employment relations and engagement, are legitimised in modern world of work, particularly in developing countries such as Nigeria, which results in managerial capture. As a result, this paper explores the discursive legitimisation strategies used when making sense of employment relations in Nigeria’s conflictual, non-participatory employment relations terrain. Relying on Leeuwen’s (1995) legitimisation strategies, critical discourse analysis (CDA) and call by Bailey, Luck & Townsend (2009) and Legge (1995) to widen employment relations discourse, we explore interview, focus group and shadow report data, and distinguish and analyse five legitimisation strategies. The strategies include authorisation, moralisation, mythopoesis, rationalisation, and management. Therefore, we contend that while these specific legitimisation strategies appear in separate data source, their recurrent manifestation and application underscores legitimising discourse of managerial capture in Nigeria’s employment relations.

Background and Problem: Sustainability reporting is a growing interest in today’s organizations and it is essential to report on non-financial matters. Many of the existing frameworks have been criticized for being used only of symbolical reasons which is why the concept of integrated reporting and the <IR> framework have been developed. One of the cornerstones in the <IR> framework is human capital which is one of the most valuable assets in an organization. Traditionally, employee costs have only been treated as an expense and there have been limited disclosures in corporate reports. In the current business world it is instead seen as an investment in human resources. Since previous studies have shown an increase of human capital disclosures when corporate reports become integrated, integrated reporting might be the solution to this problem. Purpose: The purpose of this study is to examine if there are differences in human capital disclosures between integrated reports and separate annual and sustainability reports in companies listed at OMXS30. Delimitations: This study’s empirical examination is limited to include the companies listed at Stockholm OMX30. Only corporate reports issued for the year 2014 are treated. Methodology: For this study a self-constructed disclosure scoreboard with human capital- related items has been used to collect data from the companies’ corporate reports. Also additional information beyond the pre-determined items has been collected to extend the data collection. Empirical Results and Conclusion: The results show that human capital seems to be a subject that is relatively little reported about. The integrated reporting companies do not disclose more information compared to non-integrated reporting companies. However, the results show that integrated reporting companies seem to have a more future-oriented focus and that the disclosures are more dispersed throughout the reports. It can be concluded that company sector and size do not affect the amount or type of information.

合理性理論認為，公司實際的環境績效必須與攸關公眾的期望一致，否則便出現合理性威脅。有合理性威脅的公司，必須向握有公司存續經營准駁權的攸關公眾揭露環境資訊，以合理化其永續經營的權利。為了探究管理當局公開環境揭露的誘因，本研究即根據合理性理論，以我國上市公司中合理性出現威脅的公司為對象，針對該等公司的年報環境揭露程度進行研究，探討攸關公眾之期望與公司年報環境揭露程度間的關係。 本研究之樣本係為60家過去環境績效表現不佳的上市公司，研究期間為民國89年，同時採用數量評估和品質評估兩種評分方式，在對資料之分配進行常態性檢定後，以Spearman等級相關和Mann-Whitney U test進行檢定。 實證結果顯示：（一）在敘述性統計方面，各公司均以「公開發行公司年報應行記載事項準則」所規定的應行記載事項為揭露架構，且多以表格或分點、逐項的方式進行說明，揭露項目雖然一致但揭露內容卻有各自表述的情形。若將數量和品質評估進行比較，染整業及染顏料業之揭露係以宣揚和美化性質的陳述為多，較少論及具體的環保措施，而石化業、化工業和鋼鐵業所揭露資訊的質和量則均高。（二）在假說檢定方面，年報環境揭露程度與平面媒體報導程度、公司規模、所有權結構成顯著正相關。食品、飼料及肥料業可能因為污染問題以及環保訴求略異於其他產業，故年報環境揭露程度顯著異於他業；石化業和化工業則可能因為長年積累的污染問題，使得攸關公眾關切甚殷，故受到合理性威脅的影響較大，其年報環境揭露程度亦顯著異於其他產業。綜合本研究的實證結果，以揭露品質進行的測試多為顯著正相關，較能支持合理性理論的推論，可見國內管理當局認為，當公司實際的環境績效不符攸關公眾之預期，在年報中採取較高程度的環境揭露品質能有助化解合理性威脅，以爭取公司之永續經營權利。 / Legitimacy itself has been defined by Lindblom（1994）as a condition or status which exists when an entity，s value system is congruent with the value system of the larger social system of which the entity is a part. When a disparity, actual or optional, exists between the two value systems, there is a threat to the entity，s legitimacy. Based on the social contract concepts described above, legitimacy theory posits that environmental disclosures（EDs） are made as reactions to disparities, which threaten the sustaining rights of corporations, between relevant publics， expectations and actual performance. In other words, corporations legitimize its existence through making EDs. This study，s objective was to investigate management，s motivations of publicizing EDs voluntarily based on the legitimacy theory. We sampled 60 listed companies which had unsatisfactory past environmental performance. We studied the relationship between their annual reports， ED levels and relevant publics， expectations. After coding these companies， EDs on their 2000 annual reports by using both quantity assessment and quality assessment, we tested hypotheses with Spearman rank-order correlation and Mann-Whitney U test. The results were summarized below. First, based on descriptive statistics, we found most companies， EDs were in compliance with the required disclosure items regulated by law. However, every company had its own interpretation of what each requirement really meant. Regarding the results of two methods of enumeration, the Dyeing industry，s quantitative disclosure levels were high but its qualitative disclosure levels were lower. Petroleum and chemical industries， disclosure levels were very high in terms of both methods. Second, hypothesis testing showed that annual reports， ED levels were positively correlated with the level of print media coverage, firm size, and ownership structure. In addition to food, feed and fertilizers industries, petroleum and chemical industries， ED levels were also significantly different from other industries. Additionally, the qualitative disclosure evidence presented more persuasive results than the quantitative one in our findings. The hypothesis that corporations facing more print media coverage on their environmental performance would legitimize their sustaining rights by making better quality environmental disclosures was supported.

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