Through the juxtaposition of theory and a meso-level empirical illustration of the environmental disclosures included in the annual reports of Canadian public companies operating in the mineral extraction, forestry, oil and gas, and chemical industries over the 1982 to 1991 period, the current study attempts to increase our understanding of the role and functioning of environmental disclosures. Our analyses focus on three concerns: the influence of external pressure on environmental disclosures in annual reports, including the amount and types of strategies used in disclosure; the characteristics of environmental disclosure vis-a-vis other “social” disclosures; and the association between environmental disclosures and actual performance. We question whether such disclosures highlight positive environmental actions, obfuscate negative environmental effects or both.

Managing Public Impressions: Environmental Disclosures in Annual Reports

Prior empirical research into factors which are influential in determining the extent and nature of corporate social reporting has primarily been concerned with the impact of corporate characteristics (such as size and industry grouping) or general contextual factors (such as the social, political and economic context). Relatively little prior work has examined the internal contextual factors and their impact on reporting despite increasing emphasis in the field of practice on reporting processes and governance structures. In this study interviews were conducted with seven large multinational companies in the chemical and pharmaceutical sectors of the UK and Germany in order to identify any internal contextual factors influencing the nature and extent of reporting. The work highlights the lack of explanatory power of the existing social reporting theories. A more inclusive model of corporate social reporting is presented.

Internal organisational factors influencing corporate social and ethical reporting: Beyond current theorising

This paper provides one review of the social accounting literature of the last 25 years or so with particular attention to the role played by Accounting, Organizations and Society (AOS) in its development. The principal theme of the essay is that social accounting, at its best, is designed to open up a space for new accountings between the ‘conventional' accounting literature and practice and the ‘alternative' critiques and theorising. It seeks to do this, as the title suggests, through privileging — even demanding — engagement and imaginings of new accountings that — it seems inevitable — owe at least as much to pragmatism as to critique. Despite many poor beginnings and a heavy weight of substantive critique, the social accounting project(s) are advancing and are increasingly informed by the alternative/critical projects. The way forward proposed is for social accounting to both draw more from the wealth of theorising and, simultaneously, to take more confidence in itself and learn how to write up — and publish — the extensive experience of engagement which is so central to social accounting.

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The social accounting project and Accounting Organizations and Society. Privileging engagement, imaginings, new accountings and pragmatism over critique?

Offers a comprehensive critique of the spread of auditing in both the public and private sectors and shows how to achieve a better balance between audits and other forms of accountability. Michael Power is Professor of Accounting at the LSE. ‘A rare attempt to stand back and question the very notion of auditing and the place it has assumed in our society.’ Financial Times

The Audit Explosion

The purpose of this article is twofold. First, it assesses in detail the extent to which corporate reporting on ethical, social and environmental issues reflects corporate performance in case study company Alpha. This “reporting‐performance” portrayal gap is a key measure of the extent to which an organisation is accountable to its stakeholders. Alpha's disclosures concerning its ethical, social and environmental performance for the years 1993 and 1999 were compared with information obtained on Alpha's performance from other sources. Two different pictures of performance emerged leading to the conclusion that, in the case of Alpha, reports do not demonstrate a high level of accountability to key stakeholder groups on ethical, social and environmental issues. Of particular concern is the lack of “completeness” of reporting. Second, the article assesses the potential of recent standards or guidelines developed by the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) and the Institute of Social and Ethical AccountAbility (AccountAbility) as well as the industry's own “responsible care” initiative to reduce this “reporting‐performance” portrayal gap and improve corporate accountability. The conclusions point to the need for other measures to improve accountability including mandatory reporting guidelines, better developed audit guidelines, a mandatory audit requirement for MNCs and a radical overhaul of corporate governance systems.

The ethical, social and environmental reporting‐performance portrayal gap

Accounting practices are deeply implicated in the current financial crisis and in proposals for recapitalizing financial institutions and restoring stability to the global financial system. This essay discusses the methodological and theoretical gaps in accounting research that explain our failure to anticipate the crisis and limit our ability to analyze and respond to it.

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Global financial crisis: The challenge to accounting research

This paper presents an institutional analysis of the processes underlying the globalization of professional service and labor markets. Focusing on the accountancy sector, the research documents the ongoing efforts by non-market institutions, including transnational accounting firms and industry lobbies in Europe and the US, to create a global market for accounting and auditing services under the auspices of the World Trade Organization (WTO). The research shows how international trade agreements, specifically the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) and the Disciplines on Domestic Regulation in the Accountancy Sector, are being used to eliminate domestic regulations that industry views as barriers to trade and investment, such as diverse national and sub-national licensing and qualification requirements, regulations limiting scope of practice and forms of business organization, and non-harmonized technical standards. The paper discusses the implications of theses trends for the future of domestic regulation and democratic forms of economic governance.

Disciplining domestic regulation: the World Trade Organization and the market for professional services

Globalization of businesses raises major questions about the regulation of corporations, both in the national and international context. The debate is marked by two competing views. The ‘hyperglobalists’ claim that in a globalized world, nation-states cannot take effective actions to regulate multinational businesses, especially those relating to banking and finance. In response, the ‘skeptics’ accept the view that to regulate corporations, the nation-state has always had to restructure itself. However, they challenge the contention that globalization has reduced the power, functions and authority of the state. The paper contributes to the debate through an examination of some of the processes leading to the forced closure (and the aftermath) of the Bank of Credit and Commerce International (BCCI), a bank that operated from 73 countries. It particularly focuses upon the role of the banking regulators and their reliance upon auditing technologies to regulate major banks. The paper sides with the ‘skeptics’ and argues that the nation states, especially major Western states, remain important players in the regulation of global businesses. It concludes that the nation-state’s capacity to regulate global enterprises is compromised by history, domestic concerns and relationships with class and capitalist interests rather than by globalization per se.

Globalization and the state–profession relationship: the case the Bank of Credit and Commerce International

Social critiques of accounting have challenged the conventional view of corporate social disclosure as a neutral, technical tool for enhancing corporate social responsibility, and stressed the ideological role accounting plays in legitimating corporate activities. This paper extends the literature on the role of accounting in ideological conflict by examining the ideological role accounting and social disclosure played in the South African divestment debates in the United States during the 1970s and 1980s. The history of the Sullivan Principles and institutional divestment from South Africa provides an empirical context for examining both the potential and limits of accounting's capacity to serve the interests of subordinate groups and social movements.

The role of accounting in ideological conflict: Lessons from the South African divestment movement

This paper presents a response to Miller and O'Leary's (1994) study of the factory modernization at Caterpillar's Decatur plant and the role of accounting and other expertises in constituting subjectivities. The research draws extensively from interviews with workers in Caterpillar's Decatur plant to develop a defense of historical materialism against postmodern interpretations of managerial accounting practices that abandon the concepts of class, ideology, and social structure.

Patricia J. Arnold

Papers

Global financial crisis: The challenge to accounting research

Disciplining domestic regulation: the World Trade Organization and the market for professional services

Globalization and the state–profession relationship: the case the Bank of Credit and Commerce International

The role of accounting in ideological conflict: Lessons from the South African divestment movement

The limits of postmodernism in accounting history: The Decatur experience