An examination of social and environmental reporting strategies

A study examines 3 electric utilities, 2 publicly owned and one privately owned. The basis of the study is legitimacy theory employing a small sample case-type approach. In particular, it is interested in social and environmental disclosures found in annual reports and how these disclosures differen...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Accounting, auditing & accountability journal auditing & accountability journal, 2001-10, Vol.14 (5), p.587
Main Authors: Cormier, Denis, Gordon, Irene M
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Accountability
Annual reports
Capital markets
Case studies
Costs
Efficiency
Electric utilities
Environmental accounting
Legitimacy
Organization theory
Proprietary
Public companies
Qualitative research
Quantitative analysis
Research methodology
Social accounting
Social goals
Society
Studies
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Summary:A study examines 3 electric utilities, 2 publicly owned and one privately owned. The basis of the study is legitimacy theory employing a small sample case-type approach. In particular, it is interested in social and environmental disclosures found in annual reports and how these disclosures differentiate between publicly owned and privately owned enterprises. In this examination, some traditional efficiency measures are used, but it also employs effectiveness measures relying on the proprietary costs and information costs views in the analysis. Major findings are that ownership status and size, which are likely to affect legitimacy, influence the amount of social and environmental disclosure. While environmental disclosures seem to be related to information costs and benefits, this relationship does not seem to hold for social disclosures.
ISSN:0951-3574
1758-4205