The purpose of this paper is to analyse the concepts of sustainability, responsibility and ethics focussing on their links and differences, also to understand how companies move…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to analyse the concepts of sustainability, responsibility and ethics focussing on their links and differences, also to understand how companies move respectively in these field; to understand how companies sometimes move away from the basic and deep meaning of these concepts, landing in a merely utilitarian sphere of personal advantage where ethics, instead of being an irreplaceable and essential stronghold, is found to be a fiction or just an instrument.
Design/methodology/approach
The methodology used assumes a theoretical critical approach and, based on the vast literature on the items, is based on a conceptual analysis of the themes of sustainability, corporate social responsibility (CSR) and ethics and of the behaviour that companies can adopt in the three contexts. A critical approach to these issues and concepts can effectively help us to understand how companies are responding to external demands and to the challenges of responsibility and sustainability, which are becoming increasingly pressing.
Findings
Ethics, sustainability, CSR and social and environmental reporting are distinct constructs with different meanings but linked by important conceptual and operational relationships.
Research limitations/implications
The results of the research are the consequence of the application of a critical approach based on a theoretical analysis of the concepts under study. It would be interesting to support the results achieved with empirical research studies.
Practical implications
This conceptual path helps scholars and companies themselves to understand the difference between the three key concepts analysed. Only by understanding the basic meaning will it be possible to really make one’s own and pursue it in the correct way.
Social implications
Nowadays, the authors are overwhelmed by these three concepts which are used as synonyms and incorrectly. This leads to confusion and misunderstandings. Knowledge of the characteristics and differences between these concepts and their concrete applications is of great importance.
Originality/value
This study tries to provide a critical discussion of how the three concepts intersect and differentiate, leading to concrete results or results that have nothing to do with their meaning. There are no conceptual papers in the literature that deal with the three concepts and also analyse the implications on the real world.
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Riccardo Torelli and Federica Balluchi
Amid the current global crisis, biodiversity remains a topic that is often relegated to a few disciplines. Many issues related to the relationship between organizations and the…
Abstract
Purpose
Amid the current global crisis, biodiversity remains a topic that is often relegated to a few disciplines. Many issues related to the relationship between organizations and the ecosystem remain unexplored. This study aims to fill this gap by examining the characteristics of the interrelationship between these two complex and dynamic systems.
Design/methodology/approach
This research is conducted using a constructivist approach, with an interpretivist perspective and a case study methodology. Through this research perspective and an exploratory multiple case study (holistic), the authors assess the implications related to the concept of biodiversity and the impacts that organizational choices could have on the consideration and management of this complex concept.
Findings
The desire of these entrepreneurs to change their ways of doing things and try to produce in a way that respects the ecosystem and enhances natural genetic diversity, while simultaneously drawing value from it in a healthy and sustainable manner, is evident. The orientation toward a sustainable and ecologically innovative business brings the concept of profit into the background on several occasions, leading these bakery entrepreneurs to be visionary green entrepreneurs (or ecopreneurs). The desire to be sustainable and to change the ways of “business as usual” makes these companies and their entrepreneurs an example of “sustainability-as-flourishing.”
Originality/value
By adopting the systems thinking approach and multiple case studies, this study examines the interrelation between some innovative small companies (bakeries) and biodiversity, their motivations to actively engage in biodiversity protection and their roles in protecting agrobiodiversity as well as the natural wealth of the ecosystem.
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Francesco Scarpa, Riccardo Torelli and Simona Fiandrino
This paper aims to understand how companies addressed and revisited their sustainable development goals (SDGs) engagement during COVID-19.
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to understand how companies addressed and revisited their sustainable development goals (SDGs) engagement during COVID-19.
Design/methodology/approach
The study conducts semi-structured interviews with the sustainability managers of 16 Italian listed companies acting for the accomplishment of the SDGs. Then, the interviews’ transcripts and the companies’ sustainability reports were thematically analysed to tease out relevant findings.
Findings
The findings show that companies have intensified their SDGs efforts during COVID-19, implementing an approach closer to the “Sustainability for Braving Crisis”. The findings unveil the transformational mechanisms which determined and facilitated this improvement at three levels of the business SDGs engagement: “WHY” (general awareness and motivations), “HOW” (governance mechanisms, organizational structure and stakeholder dialogue) and “WHAT” (SDGs identification and prioritization and actions for the SDGs). These findings uncover the mechanisms through which a global crisis may prompt and catalyse sustainable business practices, acting as i) an inspirational and empowering event, ii) an organisational lever and iii) a reference point.
Practical implications
This research has important implications for practice and policy, as it offers managers and stakeholders guidance to understand how companies have reshaped their sustainability practices during the pandemic and drives future corporate responses in times of crisis.
Social implications
This study shows that a crisis may be a powerful lever to intensify business sustainability practices towards a better contribution to the SDGs.
Originality/value
This study focuses on how companies have revised their SDGs practices when faced with a global crisis such as COVID-19.
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Riccardo Macchioni, Martina Prisco and Claudia Zagaria
This paper investigates whether board gender diversity is associated with the propensity to prioritize environmental issues in the material topic list on Global Reporting…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper investigates whether board gender diversity is associated with the propensity to prioritize environmental issues in the material topic list on Global Reporting Initiative (GRI)-based reports.
Design/methodology/approach
Regressions analyses are performed using a sample of 755 firm-year observations from Italy over the 2018–2022 period. The data were obtained from hand-collection on GRI-based reports and Refinitiv Eikon database. Board gender diversity is measured through three proxies: the natural logarithm of the number of women directors, the ratio of female representation on board and the Blau index reflecting the proportion of women/men on board. Additional tests are also developed.
Findings
Results show that board gender diversity positively influences the propensity to rank environmental issues at the top of the material topic list on GRI-based reports.
Research limitations/implications
Since the study focuses on the Italian context, results cannot be subjective to an extensive generalization to other countries.
Practical implications
This study highlights the importance of strengthening the female participation on board to prioritize the firm’s impact on environment within the materiality assessment of sustainability reporting.
Originality/value
To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first to investigate the association between board gender diversity and the highest ranked environmental material topics, thus contributing to better understand the role of women directors on materiality assessment within sustainability reporting.
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Matteo Pozzoli, Francesco Paolone, Elbano de Nuccio and Riccardo Tiscini
This paper aims to investigate materiality judgement providing insights, critiques and future research paths in light of the open debate on the role of materiality in corporate…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to investigate materiality judgement providing insights, critiques and future research paths in light of the open debate on the role of materiality in corporate financial disclosure, highlighting potential connections and implications with sustainability and intellectual capital (IC) reporting.
Design/methodology/approach
The research presents an overview of the analysis of financial materiality, including new stimuli from recent studies and regulatory requirements for financial and non-financial reporting. Accordingly, this study used a systematic literature review (SLR) based on a combination of content, text and bibliometric analysis of materiality in accounting research studies, collecting data from the Scopus database as one of the most relevant repositories.
Findings
The SLR identified four relevant research trends, concerning: (1) the relevance of materiality principles in corporate disclosure; (2) financial reporting practices and materiality; (3) theories and approaches in defining financial materiality and (4) the existence of quantitative and qualitative thresholds in the materiality judgement.
Research limitations/implications
The results provide theoretical and practical implications when comprehending the development of the concept of financial materiality in financial statements and whether they can be appropriate in reporting IC as well. We identified future research paths.
Practical implications
From a practical perspective, this study is useful for companies implementing financial materiality based on stakeholder engagement and improving their transparency in financial and non-financial reporting practices.
Social implications
The research investigates if the process for assessing materiality is in line with the expectations of all stakeholders involved in financial and non-financial reporting.
Originality/value
This research is the first to investigate the scientific basis and applicability of the concept of financial materiality to sustainability and IC reporting.
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Elena Giovannoni, Maria Cleofe Giorgino and Roberto Di Pietra
This study aims to explore the engagement between accounting and music in the social and relational construction of accountability. The authors conceive this construction as a…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to explore the engagement between accounting and music in the social and relational construction of accountability. The authors conceive this construction as a dynamic and recursive interplay between the giving of different accounts and the responses that these accounts provoke. The authors investigate the emotional dimension of this interplay, as it is also triggered by music, feeding back into how accountability is constructed and evolves over time.
Design/methodology/approach
This study relies upon a historical analysis of archival and secondary sources about the main music concert organized in 1913 by the founder of “Accademia Chigiana”, one of the leading music academies in Italy. The concert celebrated the first centenary of the birth of Giuseppe Verdi, a worldwide famous Italian music composer, and icon of Italian national sentiment.
Findings
This study shows that music and accounting were profoundly intertwined in the social and relational construction of accountability for the 1913 concert. Accountability evolved through different accounts, also linked to music, and the complex emotional reactions these accounts provoked in the audiences, citizens, media and institutions, leading to always further responses and accounts in the ongoing construction of accountability.
Originality/value
This study extends prior literature on the chameleonic nature of accountability, as well as on its relational and emotional dimensions. The study shows that accountability is relationally constructed and evolves over time through the giving of accounts and the emotional reaction they provoke from others, feeding into further responses and accounts of the accountable subject. The authors show how the chameleonic nature of accountability permeates not only the accounts and the relations of accountability but also the subjects giving and demanding the accounts: these subjects change as chameleons through their interactions and emotions, feeding into the dynamic construction of accountability. The authors also show how arts, like music, can participate in the chameleonic nature of accountability and of its subjects, precisely by engaging with their emotional reactions and responses.