This diploma thesis focuses on semantic diversity of reporting verbs in French and English fiction. Among these verbs there are not only neutral or semantically marked transitive speech verbs but also intransitive ones or those that do not belong to the category of speech verbs but express different circumstances of a speech act. The objective of the thesis is to provide a contrastive analysis of reporting verbs in original and translated English and French fiction texts, their classification and evaluation of different factors that potentially affect their selection. The topic will be studied on the basis of the data from the parallel corpus Intercorp. The thesis attempts to contribute to a better understanding of reporting clauses. The outlined findings may be helpful especially to translators and fiction writers.

Syftet med studien har varit att undersöka och analysera hållbarhetsredovisningens förändring samt incitamenten bakom åtagandet av frivillig hållbarhetsredovisning i svenska kommuner. Utgångsläget för studien har varit att förklara hur kommunernas hållbarhetsredovisning har utvecklats och harmoniserats under perioden 2015–2019 samt vilka incitament som ligger bakom kommunernas frivilliga hållbarhetsredovisning. För att besvara studiens syfte och problemformulering har empiri samlats in genom en innehållsanalys av kommunernas hållbarhets- och årsredovisningar samt intervjuer. Innehållsanalysen har utförts på fem svenska kommuner och intervjuer har utförts med tre respondenter från hållbarhetsavdelningar i tre av studiens fem granskade kommuner.   I analysen har insamlad empiri tolkats med hjälp av den teoretiska referensramen, vilken behandlar intressentteorin och legitimitetsteorin. Resultatet påvisar att kommunernas redovisningsform i de frivilliga hållbarhetsredovisningarna har utvecklats genom en övergång till separata hållbarhetsredovisningar. Resultatet konstaterar även att det sker ett skifte i kommunernas tillämpning av redovisningsstandard till att tillämpa SDG som redovisningsstandard i kommunernas hållbarhetsredovisningar. Till följd av övergången till tillämpningen av SDG som redovisningsstandard har antalet upplysta SDG:er ökat i majoriteten av kommunernas hållbarhetsredovisningar. Även upplysningsformen har förändrats genom en ökning av kvantifierade upplysningar, vilka redovisas verbalt i kombination med mätetal. Det framgår även en påtaglig ökning av harmonisering av hållbarhetsredovisning i kommunerna mellan åren 2015–2019. Både den formella och materiella harmoniseringen tilltar. Det primära incitamentet bakom kommunernas frivilliga hållbarhetsredovisning är uppdraget från politikerna som är kommunernas primära intressenter. De sekundära incitamenten framgick att vara påvisande av legitimitet och ansvarsskyldighet. / The purpose of this study was to examine and analyze the change in sustainability reporting as well as the incentives behind the commitment of voluntary sustainability reporting in municipalities. The initial point for the study was to explain how the municipalities' sustainability reports have developed and harmonized during the period 2015–2019 and what incentives are behind the municipalities' voluntary sustainability report. To answer the study's purpose and problem formulation, empirical data have been collected through content analysis of the municipalities' sustainability and annual reports and interviews. The content analysis was conducted in five Swedish municipalities and interviews were conducted with three respondents from sustainability departments in three of the study's five municipalities.   In the analysis, collected empirics have been interpreted with the help of the theoretical framework which deals with stakeholder theory and legitimacy theory. The result shows that the municipalities' form of accounting in the voluntary sustainability reports has been developed through a clear transition to separate sustainability reports. The result also clarifies that there is a shift in the municipalities' application of accounting standard to applying SDG as the accounting standard in the municipalities' sustainability reports. As a result of the transition to the application of SDG as the accounting standard, the number of informed SDGs has increased in the majority of the municipalities' sustainability reports. The form of information has also been changed through an increase in quantified information, which is reported verbally in combination with measurements. There is also a marked increase in the harmonization of sustainability reporting in the municipalities between the years 2015–2019. Both formal and material harmonization are increasing. The primary incentive behind the municipalities' voluntary sustainability report is the assignment from the politicians who are the municipalities' primary stakeholders. The secondary incentives proved to be legitimacy and accountability.

Over the past few years, the expectations of stakeholders regarding Sustainable Development have strengthened the importance of CSR or Sustainable Development practices in companies. In France, NRE laws and more recently the Grenelle Environment Forum required from companies to disclose and publish information on environmental, social and societal issues. On the international level, the Global Reporting Initiative gives a framework for CSR reporting. Companies tend to improve their CSR policies by setting action plans, objectives, and publishing dedicated reports. Subsequently, to assess their performance, companies need to design specific indicators in order to measure environmental, social and societal information. It is all the more challenging that intangible information, such as biodiversity or human capital, are very difficult to evaluate. Still, when comparing the performance of companies, even in the same sector of activity, it appears that indicators are actually very hetero-geneous and do not allow to perform a proper comparison. This thesis will explore current practices of CSR or Sustainable Development reporting and more specifically the use of indicators in the private sector as well as their limitations and areas for improvement. A mutli-method approach, including a literature review, a case-study and an interview, has been used to perform the research.

Background:  The introduction of the EU-taxonomy for sustainable activities in 2020 aims to create a shift in investments to foster sustainable growth. It classifies an organisation as “green” or not based on a predetermined set of categories and criteria. However, not all organisations are included. Small to medium enterprises are not included, and do not need to report on their activities. However, there exist SMEs which decided to still, to the extent possible, voluntarily comply with the EU-taxonomy. This form of voluntary compliance has not been explored in the prior literature.    Purpose:  The purpose of this study is to investigate the “Why” and the “How” of SMEs voluntarily compliance with the EU-taxonomy sustainability regulation.   Method:  In order to fulfil the purpose an interpretive qualitative approach has been adopted in this study. A comparative case study is used to develop an understanding of the individual cases but also their comparative aspects through a cross analysis. The information from the cases was collected through semi-structured interviews as well as from secondary data such as annual reports.    Conclusion:  This study concludes that while there are a multitude of reasons why an SME voluntarily complies to the EU-taxonomy, such as reputation and environment. “How” an organisation voluntarily complies is highly dependent on the industry and resources of an organisation.

Background: The arctic ice is melting, and the world is faced with the most significant societal challenge so far, climate change. Companies worldwide have a significant impact on carbon emissions, and therefore, sustainability reporting is an essential tool to increase transparency. Sustainability reporting has an increasing role in the societal context since requested by stakeholders; stakeholders are also more engaged in companies conducting sustainability reports.   Purpose: This thesis aims to explore a case company and the connection between conducting a sustainability report and the potential change in organizational culture that follows. Therefore, the research aims to answer the question of how the change is perceived within the company.  Method: The thesis was conducted in a qualitative approach with an interpretivism paradigm. A single case study was used to gain deep insight and knowledge from a company that had just started its sustainability reporting journey. The research context was based in Sweden. The findings were collected through semi-structured interviews; employees on all company levels were interviewed to get results that represent the whole company.   Conclusion: The findings showed that changes were occurring within the organizational culture when the organization started its sustainability reporting. The main changes were increased stakeholder engagement and increased internal communication. The organization has experienced much growth lately. However, sustainability reporting cannot be singled out to be the only driver for the major changes occurring in the company.

The aim of this study was to compare and present differences between two methods of self-reporting data in the use-case of litter picking, how they affect the potential of engagement in the activity of picking- and reporting litter and if they can be beneficial for behaviour change. The first being a virtual button in the user interface of a mobile phone application and the other being a physical Bluetooth button called Flic connected to the application. By recruiting ten students, the participants used the application along with both methods to report litter picks over two weeks. Using semi-structured interviews with the participants and collecting data on their picking behaviour, with the help of a thematic analysis, resulted in a few themes that were recurring experiences expressed by the users: Benefits and weaknesses, Preference, Engagement, Future usage and Social aspect. Subjective- and objective measures of engagement are also presented based on the responses from the interviews and data regarding specific picking behaviour. The results indicate a preference for Flic and it was also perceived as the method that could provide the highest engagement. The biggest reported differences between them were the aspect of tangibility and simplicity of Flic and the accessibility with using UI-reporting. Even if Flic was the preferred method, weaknesses regarding losing it or obtaining one indicates it would not work as a stand-alone solution in the case of litter picking. A combination would therefore be the optimal solution. / Målet med studien var att jämföra och presentera skillnader av självrapportering av data mellan två metoder i en skräpplocknings applikation, dess potential för att skapa engagemang och rapportera, samt om de kan vara lämpliga för beteendeförändring inom skräpplockning. Den första metoden är genom en virtuell knapp i applikationens användargränssnitt och den andra är genom en fysisk Bluetooth-knapp som heter Flic som är kopplad till applikationen. Tio studenter rekryterades för att använda applikationen och rapportera skräpplockning med hjälp av metoderna under två veckor. Användning av semistrukturerade intervjuer och insamling av deltagarnas data, med hjälp av en tematisk analys, resulterade i ett antal teman som var återkommande mellan användarna för båda metoderna: Fördelar och nackdelar, Preferens, Engagemang, Framtida användning samt Social aspekt. Subjektiva- och objektiva mått av engagemang presenteras också baserat på svaren från intervjuerna och den insamlade datan. Resultatet indikerar en preferens för rapportering med Flic och den uppfattades även som den metod som skulle kunna leda till högst engagemang till att plocka och rapportera skräpplock. Även om Flic var den föredragna metoden så antyder nackdelarna att exempelvis få tag i en samt rädsla att tappa bort den, att metoden troligtvis inte skulle fungera som en självständig lösning. En kombination skulle därav vara den bästa lösningen i fallet av självrapportering av skräpplockning.

Despite being mandated reporters by law, preschool teachers often fail to report suspicion of child abuse or neglect. Although research has been conducted regarding reasons why teachers do not report, no study has yet examined preschool teachers' thinking as decisions are being made. Therefore, the purpose of the study was to examine the in-the-moment decision-making process of preschool teachers to report or not report cases of suspected child abuse or neglect. Three research questions guided this exploration of teachers' responses to cases of possible child abuse or neglect, the reasons teachers give for their responses, and their confidence in the correctness of their decisions to report or not to report child abuse or neglect. The conceptual framework for this study was the ethical decision-making model of Meneghetti and Seel. The research was a phenomenological study using the think aloud protocol of van Someren, Barnard, and Sandberg. Three scenarios of possible child abuse cases were used as the basis for the face-to-face interviews in which 6 lead preschool teachers described their thought processes. The purposeful sample comprised 6 lead teachers in a major city in the United States with children aged 2 through 5. A thematic analysis method and coding strategy were used to answer the research questions. The findings in this study were consistent with the literature in that most of the teachers did not elect to report their suspicion of child abuse or neglect, but were inhibited by lack of clear understanding of what constitutes abuse and neglect, and by a desire for more information. This study contributes to positive social change by indicating a need for more training of preschool teachers in their mandated reporter role, which can result in more confident decision making and greater success in protecting young children.

Arts reporting in the contemporary South African press seems to be in somewhat of a crisis. Although on the surface the “entertainment” and “lifestyle” supplements of the major newspapers seem to be thriving, on closer inspection, it will be found that the journalism is severely lacking in critical analysis, creativity and useful information. This research report will use the reporting of jazz found in the arts supplements of two major newspapers - THISDAY and Mail&Guardian - to investigate the production of cultural reporting, and to question the kind of messages and representations the print media is sending out to the public concerning arts and culture. The research will show that economic pressures from both media owners and advertisers for profit maximisation are having a detrimental effect, and that the print media is taking a passive role in the production of arts reporting, leading to a media that is formulaic, gossip- and celebrity-news driven, and essentially uncritical.

Large European auto manufacturers are responsible for being at the forefront when the industryis advancing towards a more sustainable practice. However, there is a problem with assessing companies´ sustainability performance because it can be camouflaged through low-quality reporting, preventing stakeholders from scrutinizing companies’ commitment to sustainable development. Instead, a substantive reporting practice where companies show their actualsustainability performance through high-quality reporting is preferable. Nonetheless, existing research fails to explain the changes in sustainability reporting practices, as there is limited research focusing on European auto manufacturers and much of the research only covers one specific point in time. This thesis will investigate changes in the disclosure quality of 4 large European auto manufacturers over five years and answer how their sustainability reporting practices have changed by analyzing 20 sustainability reports through quantitative content analysis. The findings signal a move toward more substantive sustainability reporting where two companies significantly increased, and two had minor advancements. It indicates less camouflaging of sustainability performance which is crucial to promote sustainable development and provide incentives to transition towards sustainable practices. However, the information did not become more accurate, which caused concerns as auto manufacturers may have found other ways to camouflage sustainability performance.

Background: All companies need to portray themselves to society and since the majority of employment stems from SMEs there are different ways SMEs can communicate to society and their stakeholders. This can be communicated through both formal and informal reporting. Purpose: The purpose of this thesis is to identify the relationship between SMEs and their stakeholders in the context of reporting. Through the widespread distribution of SMEs as a topic the purpose is to further investigate SMEs and their use of formal and informal reporting. Methodology: This thesis adopts a qualitative comparative case study of Swedish SMEs. The sample consisted of ten companies where an abductive approach was used throughout the study. The findings were analyzed with the help of stakeholder theory, agency theory and institutional theory to answer the research question. Conclusion: The findings indicate that the studied companies in general use different kinds of formal and informal reporting for each stakeholder. The findings also indicate that by using different kinds of reporting for each stakeholder, the company thus aligns the interests of the stakeholders with the company and therefore reduces information asymmetry. Regarding what kind of information they choose to report, previous knowledge is proven to be one of the most important factors since knowing what the stakeholders want can be crucial for any company.