This dissertation consists of three studies related to accounting disclosure at the interface of the organization and society. The first study investigates the overlapping perspectives of legitimacy theory, institutional theory, resource dependence theory, and stakeholder theory and integrates these theories into a more cohesive meta-theory of the organization-society interface. The second study examines whether a corporation's charitable contributions represent a corporate social performance strategy or a legitimation strategy. More specifically, study two investigates, from two competing perspectives, how corporate executives rationalize their philanthropic actions. The third study analyzes the relationship between the current tax laws and the fulfillment of corporate foundations' social functions. Taken together, these three studies build upon prior theoretical and empirical work to advance social and environmental accounting research.

Abstract   Background:           The environment of the charity sector is changing. The overall sector of licensed charities in the Netherlands grew over the past couple of years, but this trend is not caused by a growth in contributors, as the numbers show a downwards slope. Besides that, research shows that the individual’s willingness to contribute to charity declines. Next to that, it is visible that the needs and wishes of contributors to charity change. This could possibly imply that individuals are willing to engage with charity, but in a different manner. Purpose:                  The way contributors contribute to charitable organisations is evident, but how and why individuals engage is a relatively unexplored area, as previous research mainly focused on the motivations rather than the dimensions of engagement. Therefore, the research purpose of this paper is to investigate the dimensions of engagement of Dutch individuals towards DCS, whilst it adds to the existing body of literature about contributor engagement in the charity sector. Method:                   The study revolved around a positivistic research philosophy, following a sequential mixed-method research design to gather the information and insights needed. A questionnaire was used to obtain the inputs of 333 unique respondents, which was followed up by 10 semi-structured in-depth interviews to enrich the findings. To analyse the data, various techniques, such as factor analysis, correlation and multiple regression, were executed to reveal statistically significant relationships and influences among the variables. Conclusion:             The results show that the five dimensions of volunteer engagement, namely behavioural, emotional, cognitive, spiritual and social, are also applicable when investigating contributor engagement. However, the study has shown that all dimensions apart from the spiritual one have a statistically significant influence on the contributor engagement of Dutch individuals towards DCS. Further findings and a more profound understanding of the motives of interviewees revealed that the deeper motivations to engage or not engage with DCS are in line with national trends visible within the charity sector. The outcomes could contribute to DCS’ and possibly other charitable organisations’ understanding of the altering needs and wishes of contributors and the Dutch society. More specifically, the findings can contribute to the existing knowledge of the dimensions of engagement and could be utilised for marketing purposes to focus on the right areas when developing future strategies.

個人捐贈為教育、文化及公益慈善機構或團體的重要經費來源，目前我國於租稅上，提供捐贈者可扣抵其課稅所得的租稅誘因，相當於政府利用補貼的方式，降低了捐贈者的捐贈成本。但是否能有效達到激勵捐贈者的效果，則待實證研究分析。 本研究利用民國92年綜合所得稅申報資料分析，實證結果得知，慈善捐贈金額與可支配所得呈正向且顯著的關係；租稅價格變動對慈善捐贈金額變動有負向且顯著之影響，顯示目前政府的租稅政策能夠有效刺激捐贈，但針對高所得者價格彈性的有效性則降低。薪資所得佔可支配所得比率與捐贈金額呈正向之關係。納稅義務人的年齡越大、未婚、女性，較有慈善捐贈的意願。但納稅人申報扶養親屬人數較多及申報自用住宅購屋借款利息較多者，捐贈意願較低。最後，納稅義務人所在的地區也會影響其捐贈支出，隨著納稅人可支配所得增加，地域性的影響也逐漸減小。 / Individual charitable giving is an important source of finance for a wide variety of nonprofit organizations. Charitable contributions are deductible in determining taxable income; therefore, the current income tax system makes the price of charitable contributions less than the price of other goods and services. The deduction can be viewed as a tax subsidy. Whether the tax subsidy can stimulate charitable giving or not should be examined by empirical research. This study uses tax return data obtained from the Taiwan Government Finance and Tax Statistical Databank (for the year 2004). The results indicate that the income elasticity of charitable giving has positive and significant effect on charitable giving; while the tax price elasticity estimate is found to have a negative effect, except for the group of high income taxpayers. Beside price and income, salary to disposable income ratio varies with the giving. Female, married, and elder taxpayers are more likely to donate. However, a taxpayer who claims more deductions for dependents or primary residential house interests will be reluctant to give money to charities. The taxpayer’s registered permanent residence is found to have a strong influence on charitable giving. Nevertheless, as taxpayer’s disposable income increases, the regional factor is diminished gradually. The evidence presented in this study provides a useful foundation for the government to devise the future policy on the charitable deductions.