What makes organizations so similar? We contend that the engine of rationalization and bureaucratization has moved from the competitive marketplace to the state and the professions. Once a set of organizations emerges as a field, a paradox arises: rational actors make their organizations increasingly similar as they try to change them. We describe three isomorphic processes-coercive, mimetic, and normative—leading to this outcome. We then specify hypotheses about the impact of resource centralization and dependency, goal ambiguity and technical uncertainty, and professionalization and structuration on isomorphic change. Finally, we suggest implications for theories of organizations and social change.

The iron cage revisited: Institutional isomorphism and collective rationality in organizational fields (Chinese Translation)

机构投资者作为证券市场中的重要力量,越来越受到理论界和实务界的关注。论文对宾夕法尼亚大学沃顿商学院会计学教授布赖恩-布希（Brian Bushee）的论文＂The influence of institutional investors on myopic R＆D investment behavior＂（机构投资者对企业短视研发投资行为的影响,以下简称Bushee（1998））进行评价并提出相关的建议和研究方向。

《The influence of institutional investors on myopic R＆D investment behavior》述评

Since the end of the 1990s, sustainability reporting has become an increasingly relevant topic in business and academia. However, literature is still limited in quantity and no major reviews of the latest developments have thus far been presented. This paper provides a review of 178 articles dating from 1999 to 2011 from journals related to business, management, and accounting. Our aim is to identify what determinants of sustainability reporting are examined in the literature and to identify (in)consistencies, gaps, and opportunities for future research. We specifically illuminate factors influencing the adoption, the extent, and the quality of reporting. Based on our findings we provide an otherwise often missing link to theory (especially legitimacy, stakeholder, signaling, and institutional theory). Finally, possible future research themes are discussed by illuminating gaps and underexposed themes in the area of regulation and governance as well as reporting quality and stakeholder perception.

https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/Delivery.cfm/SSRN_ID2330264_code1468472.pdf?abstractid=2290524&mirid=4

Determinants of Sustainability Reporting: A Review of Results, Trends, Theory, and Opportunities in an Expanding Field of Research

Historically, management theory has ignored the constraints imposed by the biophysical (natural) environment. Building upon resource-based theory, this article attempts to fill this void by proposing a natural-resource-based view of the firm—a theory of competitive advantage based upon the firm's relationship to the natural environment. It is composed of three interconnected strategies: pollution prevention, product stewardship, and sustainable development. Propositions are advanced for each of these strategies regarding key resource requirements and their contributions to sustained competitive advantage.

A natural resource-based view of the firm

Determinants of sustainability reporting: a review of results, trends, theory, and opportunities in an expanding field of research

The United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are an urgent call for action by all countries that provide a global framework for achieving global development while balancing social, economic, and environmental sustainability SDGs are addressed to all actors in society, but both academia and professional recognize the particular importance of businesses However, research is still needed to understand the role of companies as sustainable development agents Relying on Scopus database consultation, the current research adopts an interdisciplinary systematic literature review to investigate, analyze, and present state‐of‐the‐art academic literature on the role of businesses in tackling SDGs The final sample comprises 101 papers published between 2015 and 2020 It provides evidence that the main topics discussed by scholars are related to aspects of strategy execution Recognizing different streams that are currently unexplored—despite strictly related to strategic business activities and to the sustainable development as a whole—the study provides many insights for future research on business and SDGs

/pdf/sustainable-development-goals-and-the-strategic-role-of-3gm9hd396d.pdf

Sustainable development goals and the strategic role of business: A systematic literature review

This paper studies the determinants of materiality disclosure among International Integrated Reporting Council (IIRC) Pilot Program companies implementing the IIRC Framework. In other words, it studies which variables influence the way in which such companies provides information about their materiality determination process. In order to test our hypotheses we performed a number of statistical analyses on a unique hand-collected dataset including IIRC and non-IIRC Pilot Program companies for the 2012 and 2013 fiscal years. Our results indicate that industry and some firm-level characteristics (board size and diversity) do play a significant role in the determination of materiality disclosure, whereas the legal environment in which companies operate does not. Also, we found that IIRC Pilot Program companies disclosed more information about materiality than their competitors that did not join the program. This paper provides interesting insights for policy makers (in particular, the IIRC) and extends previous academic literature on integrated reporting. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment

Fostering Stakeholder Engagement: The Role of Materiality Disclosure in Integrated Reporting

The objective of this research was to investigate the terms and conditions that facilitate the quality of sustainability, environmental and social reports of listed multi-utility companies in Italy, taking into account the emerging link between the quality of such reports and some variables (turnover, employees, complexity, etc.). Starting from the sample of companies from the multi-utility sector (chosen because the utilities sector is subject to particular attention and pressure by customers and the community), an evaluation of already-implemented criteria and the principles of sustainability reporting is provided, going through each report.



This paper also highlights the different maturity levels of companies in the application of the principles required by the main reporting models used in the world (Global Reporting Initiative Third Generation: GRI-G3; AA1000 SES Accountability 1000: AA1000), and investigates the reasons for the different approaches to the models' various principles/criteria. Both the level of the materiality of the reports and the inclusiveness of stakeholders are lower than other principles, even for sustainability reports from companies with a high level of compliance. As a result of this study, strategic motivation has been recognized as the discriminatory element with respect to the quality of reports, especially in companies of considerable size. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment.

Corporate social reporting in Italian multi-utility companies: an empirical analysis

The truthful and correct representation of a company's current performance and its future prospects needs to account for a variety of sustainability issues, given that they are exerting an ever greater impact on strategic and operational decisions, risk profiles and balance sheet item valuations.



Nowadays, companies operate in a context in which such issues as sustainable development, environmental policy, and stakeholder engagement are of increasing strategic importance.



While such issues are also addressed in regulatory provisions, they require further study to meet the challenge of representing social and environmental factors, as, in the context of annual report disclosures, it is not possible to proceed simply by analogy.



The present study compares sustainability disclosures from the annual reports of the top 50 listed firms (by number of employees) in two countries – Italy and the United Kingdom – which have different legal systems. The objective is to analyze whether different territorial contexts might affect, under different headings, the qualitative aspects of the non-financial disclosures contained in the annual reports of the firms under examination. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment

Non‐financial Information About Sustainable Development and Environmental Policy in the Annual Reports of Listed Companies: Evidence from Italy and the UK

Chiara Mio

Papers

Sustainable development goals and the strategic role of business: A systematic literature review

Fostering Stakeholder Engagement: The Role of Materiality Disclosure in Integrated Reporting

Corporate social reporting in Italian multi-utility companies: an empirical analysis

Non‐financial Information About Sustainable Development and Environmental Policy in the Annual Reports of Listed Companies: Evidence from Italy and the UK

Internal application of IR principles: Generali's Internal Integrated Reporting