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)

Companies disclosing nonfinancial information through sustainability reporting practices provide markets with data on their social, environmental, and governance performance. The quality of sustainability reporting is much discussed in the literature because this quality affects factors such as the credibility of accountability and building stakeholders’ trust in the company. Nonetheless, the concept of quality is multidimensional, and empirical evidence relating to the quality of sustainability reporting presents different findings. Regulations on mandatory nonfinancial disclosure (NFD) open new perspectives for research on sustainability reporting quality (SRQ). This study explored the effect of introducing mandatory NFD on SRQ by focusing on the effects of new legislation (Directive 2014/95/EU) introduced in Italy and Germany. The analysis was conducted through qualitative content analysis of the sustainability reporting practices of Italian and German companies in the top lists of stock exchanges. Sustainability reporting practices of one year before (2016) and one year after (2017) the implementation of Directive 2014/95/EU were compared. The results of 132 observations demonstrated that the quality of sustainability reporting increased after implementation of the law on mandatory NFD. Further, the effect of the law seemed to reduce the differences in SRQ of the two countries before the introduction of mandatory NFD. The results suggested that obligatoriness of NFD affects SRQ together with other relevant determinants focused on by previous research (e.g., company size and industry type).

Mandatory Nonfinancial Disclosure and Its Consequences on the Sustainability Reporting Quality of Italian and German Companies

The purpose of this paper is to provide a systematic and comprehensive review of the existing literature on the determinants of firms reporting practices.,Following a systematic method, the sample literature of 135 studies was collected from the Scopus database. These studies were evaluated in terms of the theoretical lenses applied in the literature, yearly trend, regional distribution, research settings and prior studies finding to provide some recommendations for further research.,The investigation revealed that the literature was more interested in the agency theory in investigating the drivers of voluntary reporting such as company size, age, leverage, liquidity, profitability, corporate governance and ownership structure. Although firm-specific determinants were the most examined in the previous studies, however, the result is still inconclusive. Also, limited work was found on the country-related factors, while internal audit impact has yet to be explored.,Being the first of its kind, this research provides a comprehensive review of the current research landscape on the drivers of environmental or social disclosure and highlights several interesting opportunities for future research.

Drivers of corporate voluntary disclosure: a systematic review

Although several studies have analyzed the role that specific corporate governance mechanisms have on Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) reporting practices, their findings have not been conclusive and the evidence from developing countries is scarce. The theoretical support for this relationship in the previous literature is found in Stakeholder, Agency, Legitimacy, and Good Management theories. Undoubtedly, as the institutional environment has an important impact on CSR reporting practices, it would be relevant for this field of research to analyze this relationship in companies from emerging countries. It is suggested for the sake of convenience to consider different levels of corporate governance mechanisms together due to the high interdependence among them. Consequently, the aim of this paper is to analyze whether different levels of corporate governance mechanisms (at the institutional, group, and firm level) are determinant factors of the CSR reporting practices in BRICS countries (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa). The final sample was composed of 281 companies. On the basis of our results, we conclude that institutional corporate governance mechanisms influence the company’s CSR reporting strategy and that both CSR disclosure practices analyzed are affected by group-level corporate governance mechanisms in companies from family-based societies. Our findings support the appropriateness of separately analyzing this issue in emerging countries.

Which Corporate Governance Mechanisms Drive CSR Disclosure Practices in Emerging Countries

When are stakeholder pressures effective? An extension of slack resources theory

Purpose




This paper intends to compare the sustainability reporting (SR) in three different national and institutional contexts, namely Italy, Brazil and USA, and aims to investigate whether companies show a different approach to SR depending on the institutional setting where they operate.




Design/methodology/approach




To reach this goal, a sample of 150 reports was content-analyzed through a methodology based on a coding process which overcomes part of the limitations in previous works.




Findings




Results observed a relationship between the SR and the characteristics of institutional contexts, thus suggesting that while there is a general acceptance and use of international SR standards and initiatives, the content is influenced by and shaped on the characteristics of the national institutional context. In other words, although a widely diffused base of data and information can be found in the SR of companies in different contexts, the accent is put on specific issues which reflect the political, cultural, religious, legal and otherwise defined institutions in the national system.




Originality/value




Using the institutional theory the paper demonstrated that institutional contexts is one of the drivers of contents of sustainability reports.

Laura Maria Ferri

Papers

The influence of the institutional context on sustainability reporting. A cross-national analysis