Conceptualising Stakeholder Engagement in Sustainability Reporting

  • Putu Agus Ardiana Department of Accounting, Faculty of Economics and Business, Udayana University, Denpasar, Bali

Abstract

A plethora of studies reveal that stakeholder engagement is critical in sustainability reporting. However, there is a paucity in the literature on how stakeholder engagement in sustainability reporting may lead to more meaningful sustainability reports. This paper aims to conceptualise the role of stakeholder engagement in producing more meaningful sustainability reports. This conceptual paper offers avenues for future empirical research. This paper contributes to the literature and the theory by shedding light on the importance of institutional work in shifting the institutional logic of stakeholder engagement in sustainability reporting from a strategic management tool to an accountability mechanism so that more meaningful sustainability reports are produced. Stakeholder engagement allows the reporting companies to become more aware of sustainability issues that are informed by their stakeholders while the engaged stakeholders also benefit from the information provided by the reporting companies on the issues, agenda, and performance related to sustainability.


Keywords: stakeholder engagement, sustainability reporting, neo-institutional theory

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

References

AccountAbility (2015). AA1000 Stakeholder Engagement Standard. London and Washington D.C.: AccountAbility.

Adams, C.A. (2004). The Ethical, Social and Environmental Reporting-Performance Portrayal Gap. Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, 17(5), 731-757. https://doi.org/10.1108/09513570410567791

Adams, C.A., & Frost, G.R. (2008). Integrating Sustainability Reporting into Management Practices. Accounting Forum, 32(4), 288-302. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.accfor.2008.05.002

Andriof, J., Waddock, S., Husted, B., & Rahman, S.S. (2017). Unfolding Stakeholder Thinking: Theory, Responsibility and Engagement. London and New York: Routledge.

Ardiana, P.A. (2019). Stakeholder Engagement in Sustainability Reporting: Evidence of Reputation Risk Management in Large Australian Companies. Australian Accounting Review, 91(29), 726-747. https://doi.org/10.1111/auar.12293

Bebbington, J., Brown, J., Frame, B., & Thomson, I. (2007). Theorizing Engagement: The Potential of A Critical Dialogic Approach. Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, 20(3), 356-381. https://doi.org/10.1108/09513570710748544

Bellucci, M., & Manetti, G. (2019). Stakeholder Engagement and Sustainability Reporting. London and New York: Routledge.

Bellucci, M., Simoni, L., Acuti, D., & Manetti, G. (2019). Stakeholder Engagement and Dialogic Accounting: Empirical Evidence in Sustainability Reporting. Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, 32(5), 1467-1499. https://doi.org/10.1108/AAAJ-09-2017-3158

Boiral, O. (2013). Sustainability Reports as Simulacra? A Counter-Account of A and A+ GRI Reports. Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, 26(7), 1036-1071. https://doi.org/10.1108/AAAJ-04-2012-00998

Child, J., Lu, Y., & Tsai, T. (2007). Institutional Entrepreneurship in Building an Environmental Protection System for the People’s Republic of China. Organization Studies, 28(7), 1013-1034. https://doi.org/10.1177/0170840607078112

Clarkson, M.E. (1995). A Stakeholder Framework for Analyzing and Evaluating Corporate Social Performance. Academy of Management Review, 20(1), 92-117. https://doi.org/10.5465/amr.1995.9503271994

Déjean, F., Gond, J.P., & Leca, B. (2004). Measuring the Unmeasured: An Institutional Entrepreneur Strategy in An Emerging Industry. Human Relations, 57(6), 741-764. https://doi.org/10.1177/0018726704044954

Demil, B., & Bensédrin, J. (2005). Processes of Legitimization and Pressure Toward Regulation, International Studies of Management and Organization, 35(2), 56-77. https://doi.org/10.1080/00208825.2005.11043728

Dew, N. (2006). Institutional Entrepreneurship: A Coasian Perspective. International Journal of Entrepreneurship and Innovation, 7(1), 13-22. https://doi.org/10.5367/000000006775870442

Dillard, J., & Yuthas, K. (2013). Critical Dialogs, Agonistic Pluralism, and Accounting Information Systems. International Journal of Accounting Information Systems, 14(2), 113-119. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.accinf.2011.07.002

DiMaggio, P.J. (1988). Interest and Agency in Institutional Theory. In Zucker, L.G. (Ed), Institutional Patterns and Organizations: Culture and Environment, 3-21. Cambridge: Ballinger.

Dunn, M.B., & Jones, C. (2010). Institutional Logics and Institutional Pluralism: The Contestation of Care and Science Logics in Medical Education, 1967-2005. Administrative Science Quarterly, 55(1), 114-149. https://doi.org/10.2189/asqu.2010.55.1.114

Ferrero-Ferrero, I., Fernández-Izquierdo, M.A., Muňoz-Torres, M.J., & Bellés-Colomer, L. (2018). Stakeholder Engagement in Sustainability Reporting in Higher Education: An Analysis of Key Internal Stakeholders’ Expectations. International Journal of Sustainability in Higher Education, 19(2), 313-336. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJSHE-06-2016-0116

Freeman, R.E. (2010). Strategic Management: A Stakeholder Approach. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Gao, S.S., & Zhang, J.J. (2006). Stakeholder Engagement, Social Auditing and Corporate Sustainability. Business Process Management Journal, 12(6), 722-740. https://doi.org/10.1108/14637150610710891

Garud, R., Hardy, C., & Maguire, S. (2007). Institutional Entrepreneurship as Embedded Agency: An Introduction to the Special Issue. Organization Studies, 28(7), 957-969. https://doi.org/10.1177/0170840607078958

Greenwood, R., & Suddaby, R. (2006). Institutional Entrepreneurship in Mature Fields: The Big Five Accounting Firms. Academy of Management Journal, 49(1), 27-28. https://doi.org/10.5465/amj.2006.20785498

Greenwood, R., Suddaby, R., & Hinings, C. (2002). Theorizing Change: The Role of Professional Associations in the Transformation of Institutional Fields. Academy of Management Journal, 45(1), 58-80. https://doi.org/10.5465/3069285

GRI (2016). Sustainability Reporting Standards. The Netherlands: Global Reporting Initiative.

Hahn, R., & Lülfs, R. (2014). Legitimizing Negative Aspects in GRI-Oriented Sustainability Reporting: A Qualitative Analysis of Corporate Disclosure Strategies. Journal of Business Ethics, 123(3), 401-420. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-013-1801-4

Hardy, C., & Maguire, S. (2013). Institutional Entrepreneurship. In Greenwood, R., Oliver, C., Sahlin, K., & Suddaby, R. (Eds), The SAGE Handbook of Organizational Institutionalism, 198-217. London: SAGE Publications.

Hörisch, J., Schaltegger, S., & Windolph, S.E. (2015). Linking Sustainability-Related Stakeholder Feedback to Corporate Sustainability Performance: An Empirical Analysis of Stakeholder Dialogues. International Journal of Business Environment, 7(2), 200-218. https://doi.org/10.1504/IJBE.2015.069027

Kaur, A., & Lodhia, S.K. (2018). Stakeholder Engagement in Sustainability Accounting and Reporting: A Study of Australian Local Councils. Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, 31(1), 338-368. https://doi.org/10.1108/AAAJ-12-2014-1901

Keusch, T., Bollen, L.H.H., & Hassink, H.F.D. (2012). Self-Serving Bias in Annual Report Narratives: An Empirical Analysis of the Impact of Economic Crises. European Accounting Review, 21(3), 623-648. https://doi.org/10.1080/09638180.2011.641729

KPMG (2015). Currents of Change: The KPMG Survey of Corporate Responsibility Reporting, London: Klynveld Peat Marwick Goerdeler (KPMG).

Lawrence, T.B. (2013). Power, Institutions, and Organizations. In Greenwood, R., Oliver, C., Sahlin, K., & Suddaby, R (Eds), The SAGE Handbook of Organizational Institutionalism, 170-197. London: SAGE Publications.

Lawrence, T.B., Leca, B., & Zilber, T.B. (2013). Institutional Work: Current Research, New Directions and Overlooked Issues. Organization Studies, 34(8), 1023-1033. https://doi.org/10.1177/0170840613495305

Lawrence, T.B., & Suddaby, R. (2006). Institutions and Institutional Work. In Clegg, S.R., Hardy, C., Lawrence, T.B., & Nord, W.R. (Eds), Handbook of Organization Studies, 215-254. London: SAGE Publications.

Lawrence, T.B., Suddaby, R., & Leca, B. (2009). Introduction: Theorizing and Studying Institutional Work. In Lawrence, T.B., Suddaby, R., & Leca, B. (Eds), Institutional Work, pp. 1-27. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Lawrence, A.T., & Weber, J. (2014). Business and Society, New York: McGraw-Hill.

Maguire, S., Hardy, C., & Lawrence, T.B. (2004). Institutional Entrepreneurship in Emerging Fields: HIV/AIDS Treatment Advocacy in Canada. Academy of Management Journal, 45(5), 657-679. https://doi.org/10.5465/20159610

Manetti, G., & Bellucci, M. (2016). The Use of Social Media for Engaging Stakeholders in Sustainability Reporting. Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, 29(6), 985-1011. https://doi.org/10.1108/AAAJ-08-2014-1797

Marquis, C., & Lounsbury, M. (2007). Vive la Resistance: Competing Logics and the Consolidation of U.S. Community Banking. Academy of Management Journal, 50(4), 799-820. https://doi.org/10.5465/amj.2007.26279172

Michelon, G., Pilonato, S., Ricceri, F., & Roberts, R.W. (2016). Behind Camouflaging: Traditional and Innovative Theoretical Perspectives in Social and Environmental Accounting Research. Sustainability Accounting, Management and Policy Journal, 7(1), 2-25. https://doi.org/10.1108/SAMPJ-12-2015-0121

Mitchell, R.K., Agle, B.R., & Wood, D.J. (1997). Toward a Theory of Stakeholder Identification and Salience: Defining the Principle of Who and What Really Counts. The Academy of Management Review, 22(4), 853-886. https://doi.org/10.5465/amr.1997.9711022105

Ocasio, W., Thornton, P.H., & Lounsbury, M. (2017). Advances to the Institutional Logics Perspective. In Greenwood, R., Oliver, C., Lawrence, T.B., & Meyer, R.E. (Eds), The SAGE Handbook of Organizational Institutionalism, 509-531. London: SAGE Publications.

Oliver, C. (1991). Strategic Responses to Institutional Processes. The Academy of Management Review, 16(1), 145-179. https://doi.org/10.5465/amr.1991.4279002

Rinaldi, L., Unerman, J., & Tilt, C. (2014). The Role of Stakeholder Engagement and Dialogue within the Sustainability Accounting and Reporting Process. In Bebbington, J., Unerman, J., & O’Dwyer, B. (Eds), Sustainability Accounting and Accountability, 86-107. Oxford: Routledge.

Rinaldi L. (2013). Stakeholder Engagement. In Busco, C., Frigo, M.L., Riccaboni, A., & Quattrone, P. (Eds), Integrated Reporting: Concepts and Cases that Redefine Corporate Accountability, 95-109. Switzerland: Springer.

Rodríguez-Gutiérrez, P. (2021). Corporate Communication and Integrated Reporting: The Materiality Determination Process and Stakeholder Engagement in Spain. In Camilleri, M.A. (Ed), Strategic Corporate Communication in the Digital Age, 175-195. Bingley: Emerald.

Scott, W.R. (2014). Institutions and Organizations: Ideas, Interests, and Identities. London: SAGE Publications.

Thornton, P.H., & Ocasio, W. (2013). Institutional Logics. In Greenwood, R., Oliver, C., Sahlin, K., & Suddaby, R. (Eds), The SAGE Handbook of Organizational Institutionalism, 99-129. London: SAGE Publications.

Thornton, P.H., Ocasio, W., & Lounsbury, M. (2012). The Institutional Logics Perspective: A New Approach to Culture, Structure, and Process. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Unerman, J. (2007). Stakeholder Engagement and Dialogue. In Unerman, J., Bebbington, J., & O’Dwyer, B. (Eds), Sustainability Accounting and Accountability, 86-102. New York: Routledge.

Unerman, J., & Bennett, M. (2004). Increased Stakeholder Dialogue and the Internet: Towards Greater Corporate Accountability or Reinforcing Capitalist Hegemony? Accounting, Organizations and Society, 29(7), 685-707. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aos.2003.10.009

Wooten, M.W., & Hoffmann, A.J. (2013). Organizational Fields: Past, Present and Future. In Greenwood, R., Oliver, C., Sahlin, K., & Suddaby, R (Eds), The SAGE Handbook of Organizational Institutionalism, 130-147. London: SAGE Publications.
Published
2022-01-08
How to Cite
ARDIANA, Putu Agus. Conceptualising Stakeholder Engagement in Sustainability Reporting. Jurnal Ilmiah Akuntansi dan Bisnis, [S.l.], v. 17, n. 1, p. 1-21, jan. 2022. ISSN 2303-1018. Available at: <https://ojs.unud.ac.id/index.php/jiab/article/view/78573>. Date accessed: 23 nov. 2024. doi: https://doi.org/10.24843/JIAB.2022.v17.i01.p01.
Section
Articles