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Landén, Johannes, and Edvin Malmberg. "Sustainability reports: environmental friendly or a greenwashing tool? : A study of how global mining companies use sustainability report." Thesis, Högskolan i Jönköping, Internationella Handelshögskolan, 2016. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:hj:diva-30105.
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Taheri, Kayvan, Daniel Bergman, and Filip Henriksson. "The role of sustainability reports in investment analysis." Thesis, Jönköping University, JIBS, Accounting and Finance, 2010. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:hj:diva-12405.
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Bergman, Daniel, Kayvan Taheri, and Filip Henriksson. "The role of sustainability reports in investment analysis." Thesis, Jönköping University, JIBS, Accounting and Finance, 2010. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:hj:diva-12878.
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Fourie, R., and D. Lubbe. "Trustworthiness of South African sustainability reports : an overview." Journal for New Generation Sciences, Vol 10, Issue 3: Central University of Technology, Free State, Bloemfontein, 2012. http://hdl.handle.net/11462/616.
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Published ArticleIt is widely assumed that sustainability reporting is a mechanism that companies can use to demonstrate their trustworthiness with regard to development in a sustainable manner. This article uses the Mayer, Davis and Schoorman trust model as basis to discuss how sustainability reporting can enhance trustworthiness in a sustainable development context. The study also uses a survey-questionnaire, sent to South African sustainability reporters, to explore whether they are finding sustainability reporting useful for enhancing companies' trustworthiness among stakeholders in a sustainable development context. Respondents indicate, amongst other things, that sustainability reporting in South Africa has a role to play in enhancing trustworthiness, more so among contractual stakeholders than among community stakeholders. To entrench trust benefits in the long term will however require long term strategies. Such strategies should focus on increasing the engagement of community stakeholders, authentic use of the GRI and implementing effective control systems that prevent the misuse of sustainability reports, while not preventing the formation of real trust.
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Demircioglu, Edessa, and Karoline Norheim. "Organizational façades and hypocrisy within sustainability reports : A qualitative content analysis of Royal Bank of Scotland’s sustainability reports between 2008-2013." Thesis, Högskolan i Jönköping, Internationella Handelshögskolan, 2019. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:hj:diva-43791.
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Abstract Background: Sustainability reporting is an important communication channel for corporations to increase legitimacy in the public eye and handle different stakeholder demands (Blanc et al., 2017). In order to manage different stakeholder demands scholars have developed different theories to detect any inconsistencies between a corporation’s communication and actions, namely organizational façades and organizational hypocrisy. Purpose: The purpose of this master thesis is to understand in which way RBS are misleading, in form of communication, their customers in their sustainability reports. This phenomenon is investigated between 2008-2013. It is under this period the FCA (2016) investigation concluded that the bank had misled their customers. Method: This thesis adopts the qualitative content analysis when conducting the research. This method aids to categorize the text data which helps to make a large sample of text more attainable and easier to analyse and find connections within the data. In this thesis the textual data is coded into one of the three following codes: (i.) Rational façades - the organization meet fundamental norms of rationality. (ii.) Progressive façades - the organization do not only show rationality but also progress. (iii.) Reputational façades - statements that are disclosed in order to meet demands of the most critical stakeholders (Abrahamson, & Baumard, 2008) Conclusion: The results show that the most frequently apparent façades in the sustainability reports are progressive façades, followed by reputational façades and lastly rational façades. Moreover, the findings of this thesis uncovered clear sub-categories fitting under each façade. The sub-categories discovered were eight folded. Lastly, the results show that RBS shows signs of organizational hypocrisy, since their sustainability report disclosures and their actions are not in line, during the investigation period.
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Omoloso, Oluwaseyi, W. R. Wise, Kathleen Mortimer, and L. Jraisat. "Sustainability Disclosure in the Leather Industry - 166: A Content Analysis of Selected Sustainability Reports." Verein für Gerberei-Chemie und -Technik e. V, 2019. https://slub.qucosa.de/id/qucosa%3A34131.
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In today’s business environment, organisations are increasingly reporting their sustainability credentials through different channels. However, in a traditional industry with a complex supply chain as leather, many companies do not publicly disclose details of their sustainability activities, while a considerable number of companies report on the environmental sustainability aspect alone. Hence, this study identifies good practices of sustainability reporting, discussing the sustainability information extracted from the reports of a selected number of companies in the leather industry.
A thematic content analysis was used to extract sustainability information from either the website, annual report, sustainability report or corporate social responsibility report of six leather companies. A review of existing literature assisted in categorising different practices under the three sustainability dimensions while a highlight of patterns among practices followed.
The results show that the companies are observing a good practice of either dedicating a section of their website to revealing their sustainability activities or utilising their sustainability reports. Additionally, these companies follow a good practice of reporting their activities based on the economic, social and environmental sustainability dimensions, rather than focusing on just one of the aspects. Amongst the six companies, energy efficiency and reduction in greenhouse gases emission were the most occurring environmental sustainability practices. On the other hand, health and safety occurred as the dominant social sustainability practice of the leather industry, while economic sustainability practices have not been well defined, providing an opportunity for future research.
Conclusively, the study provides a useful resource for managers and companies in the leather industry to learn from brands that have been embarking on sustainability efforts and assist them in getting a grasp of the concept, in readiness for strategy formulation, implementation and reporting. This study provides knowledge of the sustainability criteria to be met by small, medium sized and large leather supply chain actors on their sustainability journey.
Take-Away:
1. The companies are observing a good practice of either dedicating a section of their website to revealing their sustainability activities or utilising their sustainability reports.
2. The companies also follow a good practice of reporting their activities based on the economic, social and environmental sustainability dimensions, rather than focusing on just one of the aspects.
3. Energy efficiency and reduction in greenhouse gases emission were the most popular environmental sustainability practices, health and safety was the dominant social sustainability practice while economic sustainability practices have not been well defined.
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Afjei, Sayed MR. "A Content Analysis of Sustainability Dimensions in Annual Reports." FIU Digital Commons, 2015. http://digitalcommons.fiu.edu/etd/1926.
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This study examines the triple bottom line of sustainability, in the context of both profit-oriented and non-profit oriented organizations. Sustainability is a compound result of interaction between economic, environmental, and social dimensions. Sustainability cannot be achieved without balance between all three dimensions, which has implications for measuring sustainability and prioritizing goals. This study demonstrates a method for measuring organizational sustainability achievement in these three dimensions of sustainability.
Content analysis of the annual reports of corporations from the United States, Continental Europe (and Scandinavia), and Asia reveals that the economic dimension remains the preeminent aspect, and corporations still have a long way to go to reach comprehensive sustainability by maintaining a balance between the three dimensions of sustainability. The analysis also shows a high level of isomorphism in the sustainability practices of corporations, suggesting that even the most sustainable corporations are taking a somewhat passive role in prioritizing sustainability goals.
A list of 25 terms for each dimension of sustainability (economic, environmental, and social) has been developed which can be used by corporations to develop and communicate their sustainability practices most effectively to the maximum number of their stakeholders. In contrast, botanical gardens demonstrate more balance among the three dimensions of sustainability.
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Ahmad, Sadaf. "Non-profit Organizations : Development of nonprofit organization’s sustainability reports." Thesis, Högskolan i Borås, Akademin för textil, teknik och ekonomi, 2021. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:hb:diva-26554.
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This study aims to analyze and evaluate three non-profit organizations regarding how their sustainability accounting reports have changed and developed between year 2017 and year 2019. The study analyzes how parameters in the sustainability index have been taken into consideration to perceive which parameters are the three non-profits organization’s focal points. In addition, the study will analyze how sustainability accounting reports meet the stakeholder's information needs. Given the prevailing issues and purpose of the study, a qualitative method is relevant to this study. The selection of organizations is based on organizations' availability of sustainability reports for the assessment period. In this study, non-probability selection was chosen, where the selection was made through a preliminary investigation. The study is based on a secondary data method which is a flexible and appropriate approach. This thesis consists of empirical studies that will help strengthen the quality of the study. The data collected in the empirical data have been analyzed on the basis of the theoretical frame of reference. Frame of reference in this thesis is based on sustainable development, sustainability accounting, Venn diagram of sustainable development, triple bottom line and stakeholder theory. The empirical data in this thesis consists of Red Cross Sweden, Save the Children Sweden and WWF. Based on the result of this thesis, the parameters under dimensions, environmental responsibility, social responsibility and financial responsibility in each organization have similarities. For example, the environmental requirements for purchasing and procurement are seen in both the Red Cross' and Save the Children's sustainability reports. Another example of similarity that can be seen in all three organizations' sustainability reports is gender equality and diversity. The organization's focus for different parameters in sustainability reports depends on the type of business they have. The development of each organization's sustainability reports in 2017 has been remarkable. Prior to 2017, Save the Children was a pioneer in presenting sustainability reports. While the Red Cross and WWF began to present sustainability reports in 2017. According to their stakeholder analysis, all three respective organizations have included all parameters that are important to their stakeholders. Through their dialogues with both internal and external stakeholders, the respective organizations meet the stakeholders' need for information.Syfte: Denna studie syftar till att analysera och utvärdera tre ideella organisationer och hur deras hållbarhetsredovisning rapporter har förändrats och utvecklats mellan åren 2017 och2019. Studien analyserar hur parametrar i hållbarhetsredovisning rapporter har beaktats. Studien kommer också att analysera hur hållbarhetsredovisning rapporter möter intressenternas informationsbehov. Metod: Med hänsyn till uppsatsens syftet och frågeställningar har studien en kvalitativ ansats. Studien utgår ifrån en sekundärdata metod som är ett flexibelt och lämpligt tillvägagångssätt. Studien består också av empiriska studier som kommer att bidra till att stärka studiens kvalitet. Den insamlade datan i empirin har analyserats med underlag av den teoretiska referensramen. Teoretiska perspektiv: Den teoretiska referensram som uppsatsen bygger på är hållbarutveckling, hållbarhetsredovisning, triple bottom line och intressentteori. Empiri: De tre ideella organisationer som har undersökts i denna uppsats är Röda Korset, Rädda barnen och WWF. Resultat: Parametrarna under dimensioner, miljöansvar, socialt ansvar och ekonomiskt ansvar i respektive organisation har likheter. Till exempel ses miljökraven för inköp och upphandling i både Röda korsets och i Rädda barnens hållbarhetsrapporter. Ett annat exempel på likhet som kan ses i alla de tre organisationernas hållbarhetsrapporter är jämställdhet och mångfald. Organisationens fokus för olika parametrar i hållbarhetsrapporter beror på vilken typ av verksamhet de har. Utvecklingen av respektive organisations hållbarhetsrapporter under 2017har varit anmärkningsvärt. Före 2017 var Rädda barnen en pionjär när det gäller att presenterahållbarhetsrapporter. Medan Röda Korset och WWF började presentera hållbarhetsrapporter först år 2017. Alla de tre respektive organisationerna har enligt sin intressentanalys inkluderat alla parametrar som är viktiga för deras intressenter. De respektive organisationerna försöker genom sina dialoger med både interna och externa intressenter möter intressenternas behov av information.
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Papoutsi, A. "An exploration of the disclosure of practices for environmental and social sustainability in sustainability reports." Thesis, City, University of London, 2018. http://openaccess.city.ac.uk/19260/.
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This dissertation explores the value of disclosure in sustainability reports. Sustainability reports are part of the information provided publicly by companies and may reveal information about the type of sustainability practices adopted by the company and extent of implementation. To this end, we explore (1) developed constructs using sustainability reporting, and (2) consistency with established sustainability performance measures. Till now, limited research has been conducted pertaining to the specific operational practices that companies are reporting on for the sake of developing a new measure of social and environmental sustainability out of them. Finally, (3) using the proposed measure, we explore links to financial performance and firm size. To meet these three research objectives, we first synthesize and obtain from the literature and relevant guidelines a list of operational practices for environmental and social sustainability. Next, content analysis of 331 sustainability reports is implemented. In particular, scoring is carried out on the identified environmental and social practices to see which of those are prioritized in companies’ sustainability reports. Based on the prevailing practices, we develop two constructs for social sustainability and three constructs for environmental sustainability. These constructs allow us to identify ‘leader’ and ‘laggard’ companies in four industrial sectors for comparison and provide illustrative text from their sustainability reports to demonstrate our scoring methodology. Second, we check consistency of our developed measure with existing measures of sustainability that are considered valuable. Specifically, we correlate our measure with Dow Jones Sustainability Index and Environmental Social and Governance data and find that all three measures are positively and significantly correlated with each other at the same level. Given the consistency between the three measures, we argue that our measure for sustainability performance is valuable and thus sustainability reporting appears to have some value. Finally, we explore the link between our developed measure with financial performance and firm size. Existing literature has extensively studied this relationship using established measures of sustainability performance, thus the results remain inconclusive. We revisit this relation by investigating whether our developed measure can shed light on that relationship. Structural equation modeling is performed, which indicates that there is not a significant relationship between our developed measure and financial performance, at least in the short term, as is consistent with similar research using ESG or other established measures. Thus, some aspects of sustainability but not all appear to be positively linked to financial performance. Also, to account for the industry effect, we are performing cluster analysis in four industrial sectors and identify upper and lower clusters, based on companies’ total sustainability disclosure score. Our analysis indicates sector specificity as regards the relationship between sustainability disclosure and financial performance based on the proposed instrument. Also, size expressed by revenues does not affect the measure we developed, as suggested by some of the literature.
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Akkam, Nawras, and Ambele Bih Norberter Andusa. "The First Time Assurance on Sustainability Reports and Risk Premiums." Thesis, Umeå universitet, Företagsekonomi, 2016. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:umu:diva-114730.
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The economic utility of sustainability has been a recent domain under scrutiny by several academicians. More specifically, researchers have investigated the positive effects of sustainability reporting on firms from different angles. One of these angles is sustainability’s effect on firms’ prestige in the market, which is inevitably connected to market indicators, such as, risks and returns. Consequently, this research paper is positioned as a complement to previous researchers’ work within the field of sustainability reporting and its positive effects on firms. This paper’s foremost aspiration is to fill a knowledge gap in research by finding empirical evidence whether the first time assurance on sustainability reports causes a lower subsequent cost of equity capital. For this matter, the researchers’ methodology was deductive in nature, which relied on investigating established theories that are connected to the two dimensions of the research question; cost of equity capital and assurance on sustainability reports. This investigation formed the researchers’ theoretical schemata upon which they both neglected certain theories in favour of others and formed a verifiable theoretical research hypothesis. In this research, Sweden, a country known for its dedication for sustainability, was chosen as a market from which a sample was collected. The researchers conducted their study in a panel format where the same information about 44 different companies was collected on several years. Due to the fact that the number of listed firms that had been reporting their sustainability reports was quite moderate, a census study was convenient and applicable. The researchers ended up with a sample of 44 firms that constituted 352 observations, which formed the basis for the statistical inference. The empirical study employed several regression models of panels to reach the most representative model that fitted the data in hand. Also, to guarantee higher quality results the fitted model, the Two- way Error Component Fixed-effects Model, was tested for heteroskedasticity, cross- sectional correlation, autocorrelation and non-stationarity. This model revealed a relatively low explanatory power that drove the researchers to interpret their statistical findings with great caution. At a specific level of statistical significance, the regression model revealed a significant correlation between assurance on sustainability reports and a subsequent lower cost of equity capital. This result was refuted at higher levels of significance. Thus, the researchers were able to answer the research question affirmatively, to a certain extent, and to demonstrate that the research’s results verify the underpinnings of neo-institutional and signalling theories.
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Johansson, Deborah, and Therese Lundberg. "The Assurance Process of GRI Sustainability Reports : Influence on Accountability and Transparency." Thesis, Internationella Handelshögskolan, Högskolan i Jönköping, IHH, Företagsekonomi, 2012. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:hj:diva-18058.
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Sustainability reporting aims to inform stakeholders of the companies’ activities within environmental, social and economic issues. The reporting is a tool to increase transparency and it shows the company’s effort to take responsibility and account for its actions. Assurance of sustainability reports is an increasing trend that strengthens the credibility of the reports. There is a risk, however, of management taking control over the assurance process. In order to improve the quality of the sustainability report and its usefulness for the stakeholders, reporting and assurance standards have evolved. The purpose of the study is to describe and analyse the assurance statements of sustainability reports of public listed companies in Sweden. The findings allow the evaluation of how the assurance process influences accountability and transparency. The study is a content analysis of eleven assurance statements from 2010. The findings are categorized and analysed by assurance provider: accountants and consultants. The difference between the assurance statements were mainly due to the assurance standard used. The assurance statements provided by the consultants were more descriptive and stakeholder oriented compared to the accountants. We highlight the importance of the assurance process’ usefulness and discuss the limited level of assurance applied in the engagements. We argue that, an open and standardized assurance process increases transparency that enables stakeholders to make own judgements whether the company takes responsibility and accounts for its actions. Transparency also creates incentives for the reporting company to be accountable. To increase transparency and accountability, it is essential to involve stakeholders in the assurance process.
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Quinlivan, Michael Dale. "Local government accountability – financial, efficiency, effectiveness and sustainability performance reports : stakeholder perspectives." Thesis, Curtin University, 2012. http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/2025.
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The question posed in this study was whether local government is held accountable for their financial management, efficiency, effectiveness and sustainability and if local government reports contribute to this. In this study perceptions of how residents form their views about the performance of their local government were gained by interviewing residents and senior managers. Three local governments differing in the size of the organisation, the demography of the residents, and their urban environment took part in the study. A qualitative methodology within the constructivist paradigm was used with the rigour of the study being judged in terms of its method and analysis, and the findings and recommendations assessed against quality criteria particularly its usefulness in the real world of local government.Using a grounded research approach, the study found that residents’ perceptions of local government are highly subjective and influenced by many factors including trust in the local government, personal experience, public perceptions and personal values. Using economics of information theory in which the cost of information is balanced against the benefits of the information, residents’ behaviour was classified into four categories: detached, vicarious, specific purpose and engaged. A tentative model of assurance emerged from the findings. The model provides a means of explaining the personal, institutional and exogenous conditions that affect the benefits and cost to residents of performance information. The emergent model was used to understand issues about the accountability of local government, and implications for community engagement, models of management and local government sustainability programmes.
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Herbert, Shelly. "Trends in sustainability disclosures in the integrated reports of South African listed companies." Master's thesis, University of Cape Town, 2018. http://hdl.handle.net/11427/29783.
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Over the last 30 years organisations have increased their sustainability disclosures in response to an increased focus on corporate sustainability, which considers the economic, environmental, and social aspects of an organisation. With the introduction of integrated reporting, organisations are encouraged to use integrated thinking to create value for their organisation in the short and long term, using all of the capitals or resources available to them. The new emphasis on reporting on maximising the organisation’s human, social and relationship capital, along with its natural capital echoes the focus of sustainability reporting. However, the objectives of integrated and sustainability reporting differ in their focus, between a focus on shareholders and value creation, compared to a focus on the organisation’s impact on the environment, society, and the economy. This exploratory study examines trends in sustainability disclosure in the integrated reports of South African listed companies. It explores the trends in companies’ sustainability information in their integrated reports from 2011, when integrated reporting became mandatory in South Africa, following the implementation of the King Code of Governance Principles (King III) of 2009. It covers reporting up to 2015, when the 2013 International Integrated Reporting Framework (the Framework) of the International Integrated Reporting Council was adopted in South Africa. It also takes into account the 2013 G4 Guidelines of the Global Reporting Initiative. Interpretive content analysis is used, which involved creating a disclosure checklist based on the disclosure categories outlined in the G4 requirements. Issues relating to Broad-based Black Economic Empowerment ('BBBEE’) which are specific to South Africa were included in the disclosure checklist. This study does not seek to measure compliance with the requirements of the GRI, or the quality of the sustainability disclosures, but rather uses the requirements as a guide for sustainability disclosures that could be included in the integrated reports of South African companies. Statistical techniques were then used to determine if significant trends in disclosure were observable in the integrated reports from 2011 to 2015. The results show that there was a notable change in how sustainability disclosures are presented in the integrated reports, although there is no meaningful change in the number and type of sustainability disclosures. Industry classification, and the age and size of companies were also found to be significant in the quantity and quality of sustainability disclosures observed. This study provides insight into the integrated and sustainability disclosure practices of South African listed companies. It also examines their compliance with the guidance provided in the Framework relating to the preparation of fully integrated reports.
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Danarp, Martin, and Anas Ramish. "Sustainability reports - Legitimizing negative aspects : A qualitative study on the Swedish steel industry." Thesis, Umeå universitet, Företagsekonomi, 2019. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:umu:diva-160729.
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Problem: Legitimacy is a resource that organizations depend on for their survival. According to legitimacy theory companies need to make sure that they are recognized as operating within the bounds and norms of society and sustainability reports is a way for companies to communicate this. Due to an addition to the Swedish annual accounting law in 2016, large companies are required to produce a sustainability report and to report the consequences that the company operations has on the environment, social conditions, employees, respect for human rights and counteracting corruption. Because companies are required to disclose these negative aspects, they need to do it strategically to not damage their legitimacy. Purpose: The purpose of this study is to understand how Swedish companies in the steel industry legitimize negative aspects of their operations in sustainability reports and to understand if there is a pattern between the type of negative aspect disclosed and the type of legitimation strategy used. Method: To achieve the purpose of our study, a qualitative method has been used. A multiple case-study with a document analysis has been conducted on the sustainability reports of Sandvik, SSAB, Boliden, LKAB and Outokumpu for year 2018. To conduct this study, legitimacy theory and Hahn & Lülfs (2014) legitimation strategies have been essential to fulfill the purpose. Results: Swedish companies in the steel industry use Hahn & Lülfs (2014) legitimation strategies and our new identified legitimation strategy, balancing, to legitimize negative aspects in their sustainability reports. We found four clear patterns between the type of negative aspect reported and the strategy used to legitimize the aspect. Conclusion: Our findings confirm that Hahn & Lülfs (2014) strategies to explain how companies legitimize negative aspects in sustainability reports are also applicable to the Swedish steel industry. The contribution to previous research on this topic is the new additional strategy that is used by the analyzed companies.
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Jufors, Henrik, and Per Karlsson. "Fund managers and analysts relation to sustainability : The investment decision, motives for sustainable investments and configuration of the sustainability reports." Thesis, Karlstads universitet, Handelshögskolan, 2017. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:kau:diva-62849.
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The concept of sustainable development has increased a lot in recent times and has spread throughout society. A group traditionally known for focusing on financial aspects is the investors, but because of the increased focus on sustainability from different stakeholders many of them also focus on including corporate social responsibility information in their investment decisions. Through a qualitative approach this study is meant to explore how investors, especially fund managers, implement sustainability data into their investment decisions, what motivates them to invest sustainably and how they perceive the configuration of the reports. To achieve this purpose, eleven respondents with considerable knowledge and experience of working with sustainability were interviewed. The results indicate that the respondents do use sustainability data in their investment decision and that they also use different kind of sources for obtaining this information. There are several different reasons why they work with sustainable investments including minimizing risks, profits, customer demand and personal interests. Lastly, there is a desire among the respondents for a standardized framework regarding the sustainability reports similar to the financial equivalent.
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Upadhyay, Aditya. "Strategic Decisions to Increase Performance Band in Carbon Disclosure Project Reports." ScholarWorks, 2016. https://scholarworks.waldenu.edu/dissertations/2901.
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In 2014, only 48% of S&P companies scored high-performance band B ratings and above in their Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) reports to attract the interest of institutional investors holding U.S. $92 trillion plus assets under management. This multiple case study explored the business leaders' strategic decisions to improve the performance band ratings in the companies' CDP reports. The conceptual framework for this study was stakeholder theory, which suggests that businesses should incorporate the interest of institutional investors to minimize the climate-related risks that could affect their investment decisions. The target population for this study was business leaders from S&P 500 companies in the eastern United States who have experience in making strategic decisions to improve performance band ratings in the CDP reports. Data collection included semistructured face-to-face interviews with 4 business leaders and an exploration of company archival documents related to carbon management. Using Yin's data analysis method 5 themes emerged: governance, risk management, target and initiatives, measurement and verification, and transparency and disclosure. These themes highlighted companies' governing strategies for better carbon management, which are essential in achieving better performance band ratings in the CDP reports to attract the interest of intuitional investors. Better carbon management by S&P 500 companies will facilitate a positive social change by reducing greenhouse gas emissions that are detrimental to human health and well-being of its stakeholders.
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Rocha, Tatiana Aparecida Coêlho. "Análise do relatório GRI enquanto ferramenta para a mensuração da sustentabilidade empresarial." Universidade de São Paulo, 2012. http://www.teses.usp.br/teses/disponiveis/96/96132/tde-21122012-110538/.
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O aumento significativo da deterioração das condições ambientais e sociais em muitas partes do mundo indicam que a sustentabilidade como um todo pode estar ameaçada. Assim a sustentabilidade empresarial tornou-se um objetivo bastante almejado e de fundamental importância não só para as empresas que sofrem constantes pressões sociais, mas também para toda a humanidade. Por esses motivos, cada vez mais empresas estão adotando relatórios de sustentabilidade para demonstrar seu engajamento com a sustentabilidade empresarial. Para tanto, é preciso utilizar indicadores adequados para a mensuração de desempenho dessas organizações em relação à sustentabilidade. Assim, esta dissertação analisou relatórios de sustentabilidade e identificou que o relatório de sustentabilidade GRI vem sendo utilizado não apenas como um relatório de transparência mas como um certificador, portanto tem como objetivo avaliar se o GRI pode ser analisada como ferramenta adequada para a caracterização de empresas brasileiras enquanto sustentáveis, por meio de revisão bibliográfica, pesquisa em modelos de indicadores de sustentabilidade e análise dos relatórios das seis empresas brasileiras atestadas como A+. Como resultado desta pesquisa verificou-se que o GRI deve ser melhorado em vários e importantes aspectos para que possa ser usado como certificador da Sustentabilidade Empresarial.The significant increase of deteriorating environmental and social conditions in many parts of the world indicate that sustainability as a whole may be threatened. Thus corporate sustainability has become a very desired objective and of fundamental importance not only for companies that suffer constant social pressures, but also for all mankind. Thus, seek sustainability has come to represent a real need for organizations to be able to survive. For these reasons more and more companies are adopting sustainability reports to demonstrate their commitment to corporate sustainability. Thus, this dissertation examined sustainability reports and identified the GRI sustainability report has been used not only as a transparency report but as a certifier therefore aims to evaluate whether the GRI can be considered as suitable tool for characterizing companies while Brazilian sustainable, through literature review, research on models of sustainability indicators and analysis of the reports of the six Brazilian companies certified as A +. As a result of this research it was found that the GRI should be improved in several important respects so that it can be used as certifier Corporate Sustainability.
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Al-Halwachi, Jafar, and Maria Eklind. "Sustainability assurance : A qualitative study exploring the assurance process, team and report of sustainability assurance." Thesis, Umeå universitet, Företagsekonomi, 2020. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:umu:diva-172161.
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Sustainability assurance is on the uprising. Nowadays, more and more companies are thinking about sustainability which resulted in a growing market for sustainability assurance. The global reporting initiative (2013, p.6) defines sustainability assurance as “the use of external, independent reviews of sustainability management processes and final disclosures is intended to increase the robustness, accuracy and trustworthiness of disclosed information.”. Unlike financial auditing, sustainability assurance ismostly unregulated and there are various guidelines and frameworks issued to help the assurance provider. The lack of mandatory regulations has resulted in a fragmented assurance environment where different approaches is used by different assurance providers. This in turn has contributed to the sustainability assurance process being unknown. The uncertainty around sustainability assurance affect the usersof the assurance report, for example stakeholders’, which can find it difficult to identify, interpretand compare the results of the sustainability assurance.The purpose of this study is to contribute to the limited knowledge on sustainability assurance, by investigating the sustainability assurance from both auditors’ and non-auditors’ perspectives.To assist in fulfilling the purpose, four main themes were developed; assurance team, assurance process, assurance report and the future of sustainability assurance. To fulfill the purpose of this study, the research questions are;“What is the audit process of sustainability reports?”“What does the sustainability assurance team look like?”“What does the sustainability assurance report look like?”The result in this study suggests that the process of sustainability assurance looks different depending on the assurance provider. The findings also suggest that the assurance team almost looks the same, regardless who is the assurance provider. When it comes to the results regarding the assurance report, it is evident that there are many ways to improve theusefulness and informativeness of the report. Furthermore, the findings of this study contribute to the limited knowledge of sustainability assurance by thoroughly exploring the assurance process.
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Månsson, Ulrika, and Anna Törnroos. "New legal requirements for sustainability reporting in Sweden : its influence on the content of the reports." Thesis, Uppsala universitet, Företagsekonomiska institutionen, 2019. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-389423.
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In 2017 changes (SFS 2016:947) for sustainability reporting in Sweden were made in the Annual Accounts Act (SFS 1995:1554). Since the regulation was recently imposed, there is little evidence for how it has impacted the content of sustainability reports. This study explores the use and amount of quantitative versus qualitative information before and after the regulation. This to explore how it has affected the content and thereby the identified quality factors: transparency, comparability, verifiability and assurance. A content analysis was performed where 17 companies from Nordic-Large cap were chosen and their sustainability reports were studied. The result show that the content of the reports differs, this since new information have been added, for example information about risks and policies. However, the content is also similar in many instances between the years, for example in terms of value words and the type of information provided in tables and charts. The factors of quality have been affected by these similarities and differences. Additionally, the study also show that the regulation has not reduced the amount of qualitative information in relation to quantitative information which has had a negative impact on the four quality factors.
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Pouvreau, Baptiste, and Pierre Sonier. "Corporate social responsibility disclosure in corporate communication : A content analysis of the automotive industry’s sustainability reports." Thesis, Umeå universitet, Företagsekonomi, 2012. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:umu:diva-57063.
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Problems related to sustainable development such as environmental issues, human rights, orlabor conditions, are nowadays deeply integrated in our society. It became primordial forcompanies to take into consideration these problems in their business development. For morethan a decade now, car companies started to publish official documents summarizing theircommitments in favor of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) actions. Through thesesustainability reports, car producers disclose information concerning their sustainable policyand bring details to stakeholders on performed sustainable actions. Because publication of sustainability reports is a relatively new phenomenon, a lot of studies still have to be made in this sector. In this way, no main studies were made regarding howCSR actions performed and disclosed by car companies evolved in the past decade. Didcompanies keep focusing on the same type of sustainable actions or did some changes occuron the way they conduct their CSR policies? No trends were available to try to understandhow car companies CSR actions evolved. This thesis is an attempt to fulfill this gap and bringa first set of useful findings on this topic. Based on three different car producers which are BMW Group, Ford Motor Company andMitsubishi Motors Corporation, our study analyses these companies 2002, 2006 and 2010sustainability reports and looks at how CSR actions are disclosed. The purpose is firstly todescribe how companies’ CSR commitment disclosure is evolving between 2002 and 2010and secondly to find explanation to the key trends. In order to achieve this, we used six mainCSR categories (Economic, Environment, Human Rights, Labor Practices and Decent Work,Product Responsibility and Society) and classified disclosed information in relation with thesecategories to create trends. For each of these six categories, sub-categories were used in orderto be more precise in the analysis process of the documents. Results showed an important interest of car producers for the environment category whichrepresents, on average, more than 40% of disclosed information in sustainability reports.Society category trend shows an important increase between 2006 and 2010 which led it tobecome the second most represented category in reports. Other categories trends present amore stable evolution with time. As it is explained more in detail in our analysis part, thisattraction toward environmental issues for car producers can be explained by the badreputation given to car producers in terms of emissions, energy consumption and moreglobally environmental protection. Cultural background and business mindset are alsoinfluencing companies’ choices. Responsive behaviors resulting from stakeholder’s pressureas well as adaptation to a weak regulatory framework are additional elements to explain the key disclosure trends.
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Virén, Henrik, and Sandro Dahlström. "Communication of Environmental Issues : A Comparison Between Sustainability Reports and Social Media in the Automotive Industry." Thesis, Högskolan i Skövde, Institutionen för handel och företagande, 2018. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:his:diva-16161.
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Sustainability is a topic that has become increasingly important for companies over the last decades. The increasing pressure from stakeholders has led to communication of sustainability to be very important for companies who wish to be seen as sustainable. The main way corporations communicate their sustainability activities are through the annual report. Whether in a standalone sustainability report or as an integrated part of the whole annual report, most of the larger companies today have some form of sustainability reporting. Over the last years, other ways of communicating sustainability activities have surfaced. The social media boom has created an excellent communication channel for companies to directly communicate with its stakeholders. In the automotive industry environmental issues have been a focus point for many companies over the last decades. Pressure from society and stakeholders to produce more environmentally friendly vehicles have only increased over the last years. This leads us to the purpose of this study, which is to compare the communication of environmental issues in social media and in sustainability reports in the automotive industry. The study has been done by conducting a content analysis of the sustainability reports and posts on social media sites. Beside the content analysis, our thesis contains a quantitative part to emphasize which environmental topics the companies communicate about. The Global Reporting Initiatives environmental indicators have been used to do the quantitative part of this study. This has helped us divide the different information into various environmental topics to see what is being communicated. The timeframe for the study have been 1st of January 2015 to 31st December 2017, which means we have looked at three years of social media activity and three sustainability reports for the companies in the study. The companies involved in the study are BMW, Groupe Renault, Volvo Cars, and Volkswagen. The results of our study show that social media and sustainability reports to be very different types of communication channels. Social media revolves around short promotional messages, while sustainability reports aim to give a more fair and broad view of the companies’ environmental engagements. In sustainability reports we have found information to cover most of the environmental indicators, while on social media there is a focus on a smaller amount of topics. Another finding concerns target audience which differ for the studied communication channels. Social media are more directed towards the customer type of stakeholders, while the sustainability reports are more directed towards an investor type of stakeholder.
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Burlin, Lisa, and Malin Wennberg. "Fastighetsbolags hållbarhetsrapportering : Nya lagens påverkningar på eller förändringar av hållbarhetsrapporterna." Thesis, Linköpings universitet, Företagsekonomi, 2018. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:liu:diva-148859.
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Bakgrund: Ett tillägg i årsredovisningslagen innebär att bolag, som uppfyller storlekskriterierna, från och med för räkenskapsåret 2017 ska upprätta en hållbarhetsrapport. Tillägget anger också innehållet, för att skapa förståelse för bolagets utveckling, ställning och resultat. Syfte: Syftet med denna studie är att analysera effekter på fastighetsbolagens hållbarhetsrapporter från 2016 till 2017 av det nya lagkravet. Vidare handlar det om att analysera om det finns likheter eller skillnader mellan statliga, kommunala och noterade fastighetsbolags hållbarhetsrapporter. Metod: En kvalitativ forskningsstrategi bestående av en undersökning av två statliga, ett kommunalt och sex noterade fastighetsbolags hållbarhetsrapporter. Vi genomförde fem intervjuer för att få en djupgående blick över vad det nya lagkravet har skapat för effekter. Resultat: Effekterna varierar men gemensamt för de nio bolagen är: tydligare struktur, utvecklat om riskhantering och om sociala förhållanden. Övergripande liknar de statliga, kommunala och noterade bolagens hållbarhetsrapporter varandra, genom att de redovisar enligt aspekterna ekonomi, miljö och social hållbarhet. De statliga bolagens rapporter skiljer sig från de kommunala och noterade bolagens, genom att deras hållbarhetsrapporter genomgående har en tydligare struktur och transparens. Kanhända förklaras det av att de statliga bolagen hållbarhetsrapporterat under en längre följd av år än de övriga.Background: The Swedish Parliament issued an addition to the annual accounts act, requiring the companies which fulfil the size criteria to produce a sustainability report, starting for the financial year 2017. This addition defines content, needed for the understanding of the company’s development, financial position and performance. Purpose: The purpose is to study effects on investment property companies’ sustainability reports from the year 2016 to 2017, due to the addition. Furthermore, whether there are similarities or differences between reports by state-owned, municipally-owned and listed investment companies` sustainability reports. Method: A qualitative research strategy consisting of a study of sustainability reports by two state-owned, one municipally-owned and six listed investment property companies. We did five interviews to see what the new requirement created for effects on the investment property companies. Results: The effects vary but, in common, the reports for year 2017 by the nine companies have: a more clearly defined structure, a more developed risk management and more on social conditions. Overall, the state-owned, the municipally-owned and the listed investment property companies' sustainability reports are similar to each other, by reporting in terms of economy, environment and social sustainability. The state-owned companies` reports differ from those by the municipally-owned and by the listed companies, as their sustainability reports have a clearer structure and transparency. Maybe can be explained by the longer period of years the state-owned companies have reported on sustainability.
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Altinisik, Celina, and Kerim Gargovic. "Hållbarhetsredovisning : En studie om hur övergången till G4 har påverkat hållbarhetsrapporter i bygg- och fordonsbranschen." Thesis, Södertörns högskola, Företagsekonomi, 2018. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:sh:diva-36386.
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Background and problem: Global Reporting Initiative has come up with new guidelines for how companies should report sustainability. GRI is at the front regarding sustainability reports. The new G4 standard has meant that companies should only report what is considered essential to their business. The problem in the study is that it is criticized for GRI, as it is based on the triple bottom line, which is considered a misunderstood concept. Some research even shows problems with the indicators that GRI use. Furthermore, there is research showing that the automotive and construction industry is among the largest environmentalists in the world, while various scandals characterized the automotive industry. Purpose: The purpose of this study is to highlight what construction and vehicle companies consider to be important in their sustainability reports according to GRI's latest guideline G4. Method: This study has used a quantitative method. A content analysis has been the basis for the study where the sustainability reports have been in focus. Furthermore, the data collected has been transferred to a coding schedule and a coding manual. This has since been derived from an analysis of the collected data. Conclusion: The transition from G3 to G4 has led companies to take into account the essentiality requirement, which means that we see major differences between the different regulatory frameworks. Even though research shows that building and automotive industries pose a threat to the environment, our study shows that these companies still choose to take into account their stakeholders' views primarily. The stakeholders' demands via the materiality analyzes diverge any studies that criticize the construction and automotive industry regarding environmental aspects.
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Hui, Wing-chi, and 許榮枝. "Corporate sustainability and environmental reporting in Hong Kong: current status and future prospects." Thesis, The University of Hong Kong (Pokfulam, Hong Kong), 2004. http://hub.hku.hk/bib/B31255851.
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Norton, Janel Lynn. "Global CSR And Photographic Credibility: Exploring How International Companies Portray Efforts Through Photographs in CSR Reports." Scholar Commons, 2012. http://scholarcommons.usf.edu/etd/4185.
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We are living in the age of the visual. Imagery is an important element in constructing and deriving meaning through symbols, colors, and context. Images may hold persuasive power, be used as evidence, or simply provide a moment of beauty. Organizations rely on photographs to help them convey an image to their stakeholders within annual reports. Telling an organizations' story through photographs has become an intrinsic part of their efforts to convey sustainability. We live in the age of transparency, and organizations that construct an image that is not truthful will face consequences in today's socially connected and conscious world. Corporate social responsibility has become the triple bottom line in many global organizations, but they have yet to embrace the ethics of visually conveying these efforts in a truthful way. This study explored organizations that have been deemed the most open and honest in their CSR reporting to determine if that extends to the use of photographs within these reports. Findings suggest that although truthful photographs do exist within CSR reports, few can be validated due to lack of photo credit or caption information. Publications who do not provide this level of transparency in their visual reporting run the risk of producing skeptical CSR reports.
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Tencati, Antonio. "Corporate social responsibility and firm performance : state of the art and perspectives in social, environmental and sustainability performance management." Thesis, De Montfort University, 2015. http://hdl.handle.net/2086/11022.
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Over more than forty years many proposals have been drawn up to complement, integrate and overcome the traditional methodologies measuring the financial dimension of corporate performance. In parallel, thousands of companies, and especially the listed ones, have introduced, developed and implemented different practices of non-financial reporting. So, what is the state of the art with regard to the most important initiatives aimed at supporting companies in managing social, environmental and sustainability performance? And, what are the current corporate approaches to sustainability evaluation and reporting? In order to answer the two research questions, the study introduced a collaborative paradigm, based on a relational view of the firm, which recognizes the strategic value of stakeholder relationships. The stakeholder framework (that is, the multiple bottom line approach) is the lens adopted to conduct the study. With regard to the first question, a broad and up-to-date review of the most important standards and tools – aimed at managing, controlling, evaluating, and reporting the social, environmental and sustainability performance of companies – has been carried out. In reference to the second question, a qualitative content analysis, based on an interpretive perspective, of the current corporate practices has been conducted. The investigation mainly explored the social/CSR/sustainability reports of sixteen leading companies from four crucial industries (i.e., four firms per each of the four industries: banks, retailing, telecommunications, and utilities). In comparison with previous contributions in this area, the analysis is characterized by depth (that is, the number of items checked for every company), breadth (i.e., the number of stakeholders and documents/information sources covered), and complexity because of the interpretive nature. What emerged from the overall study is that, because of several and different reasons (essentially, complexity and the still prevailing focus on financial value for management tools; redundancy and incompleteness for corporate reports; and lack of innovation, that is, isomorphism, for both), the prevailing methodologies and the corporate evaluation and reporting activities are unable to fully assess the sustainability, that is, the quality, of the corporate relationships with the stakeholder groups. Therefore, in order to fill the gap new solutions are needed. As an attempt to address this point and reconnect theory and practice, a sustainability evaluation and reporting system, that is, the SERS2 methodology, characterized by an innovative, stakeholder-based scheme of integrated report, has been advanced.
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Lindelöf, Stina, and Sofia Stensson. "Redovisning av jämställdhet i större svenska revisionsbyråers års- och hållbarhetsredovisningar." Thesis, Högskolan i Skövde, Institutionen för handel och företagande, 2014. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:his:diva-9648.
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Bakgrund och problem: Jämställdhet är ett aktuellt ämne som diskuteras bland både forskare och medier. Revisionsbranschen anses som en jämställd bransch samtidigt som undersökningar visar att kvinnor i de större företagen inte uppfattar den så jämställd som den genom könsfördelningen verkar vara. Forskare menar att det är viktigt att följa hur information om kvinnor och män redovisas i företags års- och hållbarhetsredovisningar för att se hur uppfattningar förändras över tid. Studier har genomförts i syfte att se hur företag redovisar sociala faktorer, såsom jämställdhet, men dessa finnes underrepresenterade i Sverige vilket leder fram till studiens problemformulering: Vad redovisar större svenska revisionsbyråer om jämställdhet i sina års- och hållbarhetsredovisningar och hur har denna redovisning förändrats från räkenskapsår 2007/2008 till och med räkenskapsår 2011/2012? Syfte: Syftet med studien är att identifiera och beskriva vad större revisionsbyråer i Sverige redovisar om jämställdhet i sina års- och hållbarhetsredovisningar för att få bättre insikt i denna redovisning. Delsyftet är även att beskriva hur denna redovisning har förändrats från räkenskapsår 2007/2008 till och med räkenskapsår 2011/2012 för att se hur engagemanget i frågan utvecklats. Metod: Års- och hållbarhetsredovisningar från de fyra största revisionsbyråerna i Sverige studerades från räkenskapsår 2007/2008 till och med räkenskapsår 2011/2012. Den metod som användes för att samla in informationen var en kvalitativ innehållsanalys där en undersökningsmall som följde Weberprotokollet utformades. Resultat och slutsatser: Endast ett av företagen redovisade ett uppsatt mål om jämställdhet i sina rapporter men företagen uttryckte istället jämställdhet som en strävan eller utmaning. Företagen redovisade lagstadgad könsuppdelad statistik och frivilliga upplysningar om jämställdhet. Däremot var redovisningen om jämställdhet bristfällig hos några av företagen vilket gjorde att det var svårt att identifiera tydliga förändringar. De redovisade frivilliga upplysningar vilket skulle kunna förklaras med att de redovisar detta i syfte att skapa legitimitet gentemot sina intressenter. Nyckelord: Jämställdhet, legitimitet, intressenter, redovisning, årsredovisningar, hållbarhetsredovisningarBackground and problem: Gender equality is a current topic discussed among researchers and the media. The audit industry is considered as an equal branch while surveys show that women in the larger companies do not perceive it as equal as gender balance appears to be. Researchers believe that it is important to monitor how information about women and men is reported in the company's annual and sustainability reports to see how perceptions change over time. Research has been carried out to see how companies report on social factors such as gender, but these studies are underrepresented in Sweden, which leads to the study´s question: What do major Swedish auditing firms report about gender equality in their annual and sustainability reports and how has this reporting changed between 2007/2008 – 2011/2012? Purpose: The purpose of this study is to identify and describe what the major auditing firms in Sweden report on gender equality in their annual and sustainability reports to gain a better understanding of this reporting. Another purpose is to describe how this report has changed between 2007/2008 – 2011/2012 to see how the involvement has developed. Method: Annual and sustainability reports from the four largest auditing firms in Sweden were studied between 2007/2008 – 2011/2012. The method used to collect the information was a qualitative content analysis where a list that followed the Weber protocol was created. Results and conclusions: Only one company reported a goal of equality in its reports, but all companies expressed equality as an ambition or challenge. The companies reported statutory gender statistics and voluntary disclosures. The results showed, however, that the reporting of equality was deficient in some of the companies that made it difficult to identify changes. They reported voluntary disclosures, which could be explained by that they report this in order to create legitimacy to their stakeholders. Keywords: Gender equality, legitimacy, stakeholders, accounting, annual reports, sustainability reports
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Elmaghrabi, Mohamed E. L. "The institutionalisation of integrated reporting : an exploration of adoption, sustainability embeddedness and decoupling." Thesis, University of Stirling, 2014. http://hdl.handle.net/1893/21402.
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The thesis conveys three discrete, yet interconnected, studies embracing issues revolving around the exploration of integrated reporting adoption and embeddedness using an institutional theory lens. Integrated reporting can be described as ‘a holistic and integrated representation of the company’s performance in terms of both its finance and its sustainability’ (King III, 2009, p. 54). The first study explores the mimetic, normative and regulative institutional factors, at both an organisational field (meso) and country (macro) levels, affecting the adoption of integrated reporting. Moreover, it provides a portrayal for the adoption of the new practice among corporations. The study uses a relatively large sample driven from the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) report list and tests it empirically using panel data from 2002- 2010. The second study develops a measure to capture sustainability embeddedness in corporate reports and uses the measure to explore and describe sustainability embeddedness in the integrated reports. Additionally, indicators on sustainability embeddedness in the de facto GRI guidelines are highlighted in comparison to the measure developed. Finally, the third study explores the determinants of sustainability embeddedness in integrated reports using a decoupling lens. More specifically, the study examines the effects of integrated reporting age (as a proxy for early and late adoption), the level of reporting of GRI sustainability guidelines (GRI application level), report assurance and corporate governance on sustainability embeddedness in integrated reports. The study finds that the application of integrated reporting emerged in 2001 amongst only a few corporations in Europe and South America, and was spread among all continents by 2010. While mimetic and normative factors at a meso level were significantly related to integrated reporting adoption, regulative and normative factors at a macro level were found to be of limited association with integrated reporting adoption. Interestingly, corporate size, a firm characteristic control variable, was found to be negatively associated with IR adoption. Exploring sustainability embeddedness in integrated reports in the second study reveals that on average integrated reporters covered 54.4% of the indicators on sustainability embeddedness on the constructed index. Integrated reporters were found to show that sustainability is embedded in some aspects as stakeholder dialogue, executive members’ commitment to sustainability and developing measures to report on various environmental impacts. Conversely, integrated reporters conducting business as usual and prioritised financial aspects in others aspects as remuneration, promotion and appraisal, employee sustainability engagement and investor dialogue regarding sustainability. The results also show that there are great discrepancies in the levels of sustainability embeddedness coverage between integrated reporters. Sustainability embeddedness scores were found to decline, especially in the most recent years of adoption. Regression results in the third study did not find evidence that early adopters of integrated reporting had significantly higher sustainability embeddedness than later adopters. Additionally, corporate governance mechanisms were also unable to explain sustainability embeddedness scores, with the exception of the positive association between corporate two-tier boards and sustainability embeddedness. Embedding sustainability was found to be mainly associated with GRI application level. There was limited evidence to suggest that integrated reporters providing assurance for their reports had higher sustainability embeddedness scores. The studies, taken together, contribute to the body of literature on CSR adoption in general and the adoption of integrated reporting and its practices in particular. The studies also provide contribution and implications by testing institutional theory in a new context.
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Tsui, Wai-kit, and 徐偉傑. "Corporate sustainability reporting in Hong Kong: just a new form of propaganda?" Thesis, The University of Hong Kong (Pokfulam, Hong Kong), 2004. http://hub.hku.hk/bib/B31256016.
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Bhogal, Ramandeep, and Karandip Singh Logani. "Hållbarhetsredovisning : Publika företags drivkrafter bakom hållbarhetsredovisningen." Thesis, Södertörns högskola, Institutionen för samhällsvetenskaper, 2014. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:sh:diva-26927.
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Syfte: Syftet med denna uppsats är att analysera och systematisera vilka drivkrafter som är aktuella idag gentemot tidigare framtagna drivkrafter, för publika företag, för att upprätta en hållbarhetsredovisning. Metod: I denna uppsats har den kvalitativa arbetsmetoden tillämpats. Vi ansåg att den kvalitativa metoden var mer tillämpbart på vår studie då vi hade avsikt att på en djupare förståelse för företagens drivkrafter bakom hållbarhetsredovisningen. Vi har valt att genomföra semistrukturerade intervjuer i form utav både ett personligt möte och via telefon. Empiri: Det sammanställda resultatet från vår undersökning är att det finns en hel del olika drivkrafter bakom företagens hållbarhetsredovisningar. Majoriteten utav företagens drivkrafter är likadana, skillnaden är inte betydande.. Många utav drivkrafterna från tidigare gjord forskning är inte förekommande idag. Slutsats: Slutsatsen med denna studie är att drivkrafterna till varför publika företag upprättar en hållbarhetsredovisning till en viss del skiljer sig gentemot tidigare framtagna drivkrafter. De främsta aktuella drivkrafterna bakom publika företags hållbarhetsredovisningar är att företagen skapar en legitimitet genom att ha en transparens emellan företaget och dess intressenter, det föreligger en efterfrågan från ägare och nya potentiella investerare och förbättra interna processer och den interna organisationen för att skapa en långsiktighet.
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Lundström, Felicia, and Max Skatka. "Hållbarhetslogik i de svenska storbankerna : En analys av utvecklingen av bankernas hållbarhetsredovisningar." Thesis, Linköpings universitet, Företagsekonomi, 2017. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:liu:diva-138506.
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Bakgrund och Problematisering: I dagens samhälle har hållbarhetsfrågor fått ett allt större fokus och många företag upprättar hållbarhetsredovisningar för att beskriva hur de jobbar med hållbarhet. Företags hållbarhetsarbete har även blivit mer harmoniserat runt om i världen vilket eventuellt innebär att det har vuxit fram hållbarhetslogiker inom vissa branscher. Samtidigt har bankernas hållbarhetsarbete fått en större uppmärksamhet i medier där bland annat negativa händelser såsom Panamaskandalen och Finanskrisen 2007-2008 har belysts, vilket har lett till att folk tappat förtroendet för banker. Syfte: På grund av den ökade uppmärksamheten och förändringar i hållbarhetsarbetet är syftet att analysera om det går att se en viss hållbarhetslogik inom de fyra svenska storbankerna, Handelsbanken, Nordea, SEB och Swedbank, samt hur den i så fall har utvecklats över tid. Metod: För att se om det finns en hållbarhetslogik inom de fyra bankerna är uppsatsen uppbyggd på en kvalitativ innehållsanalys av bankernas hållbarhetsredovisningar och av deras årsredovisningar i de fall då separata hållbarhetsredovisningar inte finns. Kodning av redovisningar har skett i dataprogrammet Nvivo för kvalitativa innehållsanalyser. Redovisningarna har kodats utifrån fyra kategorier: anställda, etik, miljö och samhälle. Resultat: Det finns en hållbarhetslogik inom bankerna som delvis kan förklaras av att de ingår i samma organisationsfält då de alla verkar på samma marknad, erbjuder liknande produkter och tjänster, har liknande intressenter och följer samma lagar. I hållbarhetsredovisningarna syns det framförallt en tydlig utveckling gällande hur bankerna har tagit större ansvar med åren när det gäller miljö och etik. Denna utveckling kan kopplas till hur de anpassat sig till förändrade normer, lagar och värderingar i samhället. Till en viss del har även påtvingad isomorfism bidragit till att en hållbarhetslogik vuxit fram eftersom bankerna har varit tvungna att anpassa sig efter skärpta regelkrav såsom högre kapitalbuffertar och finansiering av terrorism.Background and Problematization: In today’s society the knowledge about sustainability has increased, therefore many companies have decided to publish a sustainability report where they explain how they conduct their operation in a sustainable manner. Companies sustainability efforts have also become more harmonized around the world which might indicate that a certain sustainability logic has developed. Media have recently especially paid attention to issues of banks and have enlightened negative occurrences such as the tax evasion in Panama and the financial crisis of 2007-2008 that have led to people losing their confidence in banks. Purpose: Due to the increased attention and changes in sustainability work, the purpose of this study is to analyse if there exists a sustainability logic within the four major banks in Sweden, Handelsbanken, Nordea, SEB and Swedbank and how the logic has developed over time. Methodology: In order to see if there exists a sustainability logic within the four banks we decided to conduct a qualitative content analysis of the banks’ sustainability reports. The reports have been coded in a software program called Nvivo. The reports have been coded based on four categories: employees, ethics, environment and society. Result: There exists a sustainability logic within the banks which partially can be explained by the fact that they are a part of the same business field. They all operate in the same market, offer similar products and services, have similar stakeholders and follow the same laws and regulations. In the sustainability reports we can see a clear development regarding the level of responsibility banks have taken when it comes to their impact on environmental and ethical questions within their investments and customers. This development can be explained by how they have adapted to changed norms, laws and values in the community. We can also see how a coercive isomorphism has contributed to a harmonization of their sustainability work through changed laws regarding both capital demands and financing of terrorism.
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Westergren, Eric, and Linn Hasselgren. "Does stakeholder pressure have an effect on the quality of the sustainability report?" Thesis, Umeå universitet, Företagsekonomi, 2020. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:umu:diva-172187.
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Our planet suffers from severe climate change and environmental issues has never been as important as it is now. Countries and communities come together to get involved in environmental questions and to work against a sustainable future. Companies are also expected to take act on this concern and incorporate sustainability into their business practices. To account for this, company’s disclosure a sustainability report and the numbers of companies that do so has increased rapidly the last years. From 2011 to 2013 there was almost a 50% increase of submitted sustainability reports. Since then, sustainability reporting has gone from optional to mandatory as a new law came into place in 2016. However, as companies start to disclosure sustainability reports more than ever before, new issues have arisen. The lack of regulation means that there is no guarantee for quality in the report and studies has shown that the stakeholders demand higher quality and more transparency of the sustainability report. Thus, it could be of importance for companies to produce reports of better quality in order to meet the demands of their stakeholders. Retaining a good relationship is crucial and it affects the growth of the company as it affects competitive advantage and the possibility to manage risks. Previous literature has found evidence that stakeholder pressure has influence on the transparency, which has similarities to quality, of the sustainability reports globally. With this thesis we aim to contribute with additional information to existing literature with a new geographical area, Sweden. We also aim to contribute to understanding of how quality of the sustainability reports can be determined. The critical assessment of the sustainability reports from each stakeholder becomes more important and previous literature has shown that different stakeholders have different effect on transparency in the sustainability reports. First and foremost, the purpose of this thesis is to investigate if the pressure from different stakeholder groups has an effect on the quality of the sustainability report. We intend to do so with the following research question: Does stakeholder pressure have an effect on the quality of sustainability reports? The companies will be split into four different groups based on the industry the company operates within and the sub-purpose is to see if there is any difference in the impact on the quality of the sustainability reports between the different groups. The quality will be determined by adherence level to the GRI G4 framework, how many other standards and guidelines the report is in compliance with and the existence of external assurance. The population is the 127 companies who has their reports available in the GRI database. We have conducted a quantitative study using a linear regression analysis on those 127 companies. The results led us to the conclusion that the relationship between stakeholder pressure and the quality of the sustainability reports cannot be explained by the model used in this thesis. A two-sample t test was conducted for each group of industry to see if there was any difference of the mean of quality if the companies was represented in the industry or not. The results showed us that the mean of the quality was higher for the companies operating in an environmentally sensitive industry.
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Zimmerer-Benz, Mona. "Differences in CSR Disclosure : Does the Content of CSR Disclosure vary between Code Law and Common Law Countries?" Thesis, Högskolan Dalarna, Företagsekonomi, 2020. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:du-35073.
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Only a handful of studies focuses on the relationship between the legal origin and the content of CSR reports, based on the institutional differences. The previous studies have contradicting results. The paper aims to add to the body of research by analyzing the relationship between the legal origin and its effect on the content of CSR disclosure. To analyse the content a scoring index is developed following Clarkson, Li, Richardson, & Vasvari, 2008 and Ong 2016. 45 CSR reports from 8 different countries are analysed and the research period is 2018 or FY 2019. The findings suggest that companies from code law countries do publish more in-depth CSR reports. The key findings are that code law countries disclose more employment related information and that institutional regulations lead to better disclosure. Overall, this study extends the discussion on the effects of the legal origin.
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Claesson, Andreas, and Jakob Nordh. "Hållbarhetsredovisning : En studie kring skillnader mellan granskade respektive icke granskade företag." Thesis, Örebro University, Swedish Business School at Örebro University, 2010. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:oru:diva-9275.
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The purpose of this study was to examine the differences between non-audited and audited sustainability reports and in that way indicate the significance of auditing to the contents of a sustainability report. The study was delimited to include three companies that create sustainability reports according to GRI guidelines, and also have changed from non-audited to audited reports.
The study is an exploratory study where we started from companies that follow GRI's standard and who have changed from being non-assured to assured and certified. In order to examine any differences we have started out from corporate sustainability reports and with the basis of these latter gather those changes which may have occurred during the changeover. We therefore chose to conduct a literature review on each company's non-audited sustainability reports and compare them with each company's audited and certified sustainability reports. Furthermore our study has been made on the basis of an assessment model based on the concepts of materiality, completeness and comparability.
The study showed that the audited sustainability reports in all companies were more focused and more detailed about the aspects GRI established for the performance indicators. The study also revealed that the audited sustainability report in one of the studied companies had more neutral image on managing and supporting the positive qualities that exist in the waste products and wastes. The study also showed that the audited sustainability report of another of the studied companies, unlike the non-audited, contained information about problems and indirect effects of the business. In further another company appeared to increase the comparability of the audited sustainability report. The summary conclusion of the study was that the differences that emerged between the non-audited and the audited sustainability reports showed that the audit had significance for the contents in the sustainability report regarding to materiality and partly for the completeness and comparability.
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Yang, Lilia, and Nanxiang Shao. "Sustainability Strategies in IKEA with the focus on Production and Suppliers." Thesis, Linnéuniversitetet, Ekonomihögskolan, ELNU, 2019. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:lnu:diva-85636.
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“Waste of resources is a mortal sin at IKEA.” – Ingvar Kamprad IKEA, as one of the biggest furniture companies in the world (Alänge, 2015), makes it interesting to have a look into their practices to gain a deeper insight by looking at how they work on a more sustainable and environmental friendlier world. Since Ingvar Kamprad, the founder of this company, mentioned sustainability from the earliest years, this work will provide an insight on how the sustainability annual reports of IKEA present their sustainability strategies to the reader every year. The researchers use the secondary analysis method to provide the theoretical framework and apply a case study to conduct the empirical data of the company IKEA. Since (Harte et al., 1991) pointed out that annual reports are an important source of environmental information. The database is in form of annual reports from the year 2010 till 2018 that were provided by the company IKEA itself. Through the pattern matching method the numbers over the years are compared and discussed due to their development. Furthermore, the areas “production” and “supplier” are selected from the supply chain management and also included in the analyzes section, since both, the development of other organizational relationships in the supply chain and the environmental corporation can become an integral part of the company (Seuring & Müller, 2008). Through diagrams in the empirical chapter this work will provide a comparison between the different factors in the mentioned areas of the supply chain management and discuss the actual development and partly improvements of the factor’s “energy”, “waste”, “production” etc. and the promises and goals from the IKEA’s side.
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Brooks, Sarah E. "Image Trends in Corporate Environmental Reporting: Bolstering Reputation through Transparency or Widening the “Sustainability Gap”?" Digital Archive @ GSU, 2012. http://digitalarchive.gsu.edu/communication_theses/96.
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As companies discover the monetary benefits of a positive environmental image, a proliferation of green imaging confounds the public sphere. The consequence becomes the disarticulation of terms like environmental excellence, sustainable development, and minimum environmental harm. Because the oversaturation of greening efforts has elicited public distrust, stakeholders need timely and accurate information regarding environmental claims. As a major vehicle for communicating these efforts, corporate environmental reports (CERs) are laden with colorful and sublime images. This study examines the functionality of images found in CERs from 27 industry leaders, applying Sonja Foss’s tenets of visual rhetorical analysis to identify the nature and function of the images and offer an evaluation based on emergent themes. Because images are increasingly important to corporate transparency, the study concludes with several best practice recommendations to serve as ethical image design strategies and to reflect the ways companies address impactful operations.
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Brodach, Ari. "A communication study on climate change for the European Environment Agency a case study of the key role of information dissemination in catalysing a societal transition toward sustainability /." Lund, Sweden : International Institute for Industrial Environmental Economics, Lund University, 2001. http://www.iiiee.lu.se/information/library/publications/reports/2001/Ari-Brodach.pdf.
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Perez, Fabiana. "A evolução dos relatórios de sustentabilidade no setor de mineração." Universidade de São Paulo, 2008. http://www.teses.usp.br/teses/disponiveis/3/3134/tde-11082008-214020/.
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Nos últimos anos nota-se uma preocupação crescente das empresas com responsabilidade empresarial e desenvolvimento sustentável. A divulgação dos resultados por meio da publicação de relatórios de desempenho ambiental, de sustentabilidade e/ou balanços sociais pode demonstrar eficiência e melhorar as relações com as diversas partes interessadas. A publicação de estudos sobre a utilização de relatórios de sustentabilidade no setor de mineração contribui indiretamente para fomentar a evolução dessa prática nas empresas e contribuir para a melhora da imagem da mineração. O objetivo desta pesquisa é investigar de que modo tem-se dado a evolução dos relatórios de sustentabilidade publicados pelas empresas do setor de mineração. Foi desenvolvido um roteiro de avaliação dos relatórios, baseado em referências internacionais de boas práticas e na literatura sobre o tema. A avaliação foi feita somente em termos de atendimento ou não a 62 requisitos ou tópicos que deveriam idealmente constar de relatórios de sustentabilidade de empresas desse setor. Os requisitos foram agrupados nas seguintes categorias: Contexto e compromissos, Gestão, Desempenho econômico, Desempenho social, Desempenho ambiental e Acessibilidade e garantia. O roteiro foi aplicado a 35 relatórios preparados entre 1997 e 2006 por cinco grandes empresas multinacionais do setor de mineração. A hipótese de evolução na qualidade e na abrangência dos relatórios foi confirmada com uma tendência positiva. A alta média das pontuações totais dos relatórios analisados e a alta porcentagem de apresentação de informações recomendadas para o setor mostram o esforço dessas empresas na identificação de riscos e resposta às partes interessadas. As seis categorias de informação analisadas mostraram resultados diversos, tanto em pontuação obtida quanto à tendência de evolução A categoria que recebeu as melhores pontuações foi \"Contexto e Compromissos\" enquanto a que recebeu as menores notas foi \"Acessibilidade e Garantia\". O método de avaliação mostrou-se eficaz para a avaliar a abrangência ou completude dos relatórios. Nas empresas analisadas os processos de processos de publicação estão estabelecidos, e é possível não só continuar evoluindo para discussões mais profundas, como também compartilhar informações e lições aprendidas para difundir a prática em todo o setor. Passada a fase inicial de amadurecimento dos relatórios, é momento para as empresas avançarem nas suas práticas de divulgação, buscando atender às melhores práticas e expectativas das partes interessadas de uma maneira mais completa, atingindo o próximo patamar de qualidade em relatórios de sustentabilidade.During last years companies have an increasing concern about corporate social responsibility and sustainable development. Performance disclosure through sustainability, social or environmental reports can demonstrate efficiency and improve the relationship with stakeholders. Publishing researches about the usage of sustainability reports in mining sector can indirectly promote the evolution of this practice in companies and contribute to improve the public image of the sector. The goal of this research is investigating how sustainability reports are evolving in mining companies. A method was developed for reports assessment, based on international good practices and literature about sustainability reports. The assessment was made in terms of presence or not of 62 topics which ideally should be presented in sustainability reports of this sector. The topics were organized in the following categories: Context and Commitment, Management, Economic performance, Social performance, Environmental performance and Assurance and accessibility. The method was applied to 35 reports published between 1997 and 2006 by five big multinational mining companies. The assumption of evolution in report quality and completeness was confirmed, with a positive trend. A high mean of reports score as well as a high percentage of disclosing mining specific information show the effort of these companies in risk identification and response to stakeholders. It was noticed that the six information categories analyzed presented different results, both in adherence to the developed framework and in evolution trend. The category which had the highest score was \"Context and Commitments\" while the category which had the lowest scores was \"Assurance and accessibility\". The assessment method was efficient to assess comprehensiveness or completeness of reports. The reporting process is established in the companies analyzed, and it is possible to keep evolving with orientation to deeper issues, as well as sharing information and lessons learned to disseminate good practices in the mining sector. Beyond the initial phase of reporting, it is time for companies to improve their reporting processes by complying with all best practices available and responding to stakeholders\' expectations in a more comprehensive way, reaching the next level of quality in sustainability reporting.
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Malmberg, Cecilia, and Arbenita Dautaj. "Att konstruera hållbarhet : Kommunikation inom fast fashion." Thesis, Högskolan i Borås, Akademin för textil, teknik och ekonomi, 2015. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:hb:diva-561.
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Hållbarhet är ett begrepp som har skiftande innebörd, både inom vetenskap och populärvetenskap. Forskning kring hållbarhet har ett särskilt fokus på kartläggning av orsakssamband och enbart ett fåtal studier fokuserar på att kartlägga och utforska hur begreppet hållbarhet konstrueras genom företags kommunikation. Inom redovisning efterfrågas ofta ett mer principbaserat och konceptuellt angreppssätt, och då detta enligt vår litteraturöversikt ges begränsat utrymme inom forskning kring hållbarhet, finns det möjligheter till att bidra med förståelse på området. Syftet med denna studie är att utforska hur begreppet hållbarhet kommuniceras och därmed konstrueras av företag med affärskonceptet fast fashion. Det finns en distinktion mellan handling och kommunikation och den här studien behandlar enbart kommunikationsaspekten. Vi har genomfört en kvalitativ innehållsanalys av hållbarhetsredovisningar för företag med affärskonceptet fast fashion. Studien har en tvärsnittsdesign med ett teoretiskt urval och top of mind-associationer. Totalt inkluderades tre företag i studien och deras respektive hållbarhetsredovisningar för rapporteringsåret 2013. I analysen har vi arbetat utifrån en abduktiv ansats inspirerat av ett foucauldianskt perspektiv. Den teoretiska modellen utvecklades med hjälp av tidigare litteratur om hållbarhetsdefinitioner och användes som en utgångspunkt för att kategorisera de textavsnitt som identifierades i respektive analys. Vår utforskning av företagens kommunikation av hållbarhet leder till slutsatsen att begreppet snarare konstrueras som produktiv aktivitet än handlingsklokhet i och med företagens tydliga fokus på stegvis anpassning och efterlevnad av såväl koder som specifika regler. Weak sustainability är mer framträdande än strong sustainability i företagens hållbarhetsrapportering, men det finns även en glidande skala mellan dessa. Till skillnad från övriga studier kring konstruktion av hållbarhetsbegreppet riktar denna studie in sig på företag med ett visst koncept (i.e. fast fashion) i utforskningen av hur hållbarhetsbegreppet kommuniceras och konstrueras. Studiens bidrag är utvecklandet av den teoretiska modellen i form av en glidande skala samt ökad konceptuell förståelse för konstruktion av hållbarhet. Vi argumenterar således för en glidande skala mellan de teoretiskt definierade hållbarhetskategorierna, medan andra studier enbart presenterar sina resultat enligt dikotomier.Considering both science and popular science, sustainability is a concept of diverse meanings. Scientific research concerning sustainability has a particular focus on plotting causal links. Only a few studies focus on plotting and exploring the concept of sustainability as it is being conveyed by businesses via communication in corporate sustainability reports. Within the accounting field, there is a common demand for a principles-based and conceptual approach. Thus, while our literature review shows scientific research on sustainability has given limited attention to this approach, there are vast opportunities to contribute to this field by enhancing the comprehension of this issue. Consequently, the aim of this study is to explore the way in which the concept of sustainability is communicated and hence constructed by fast fashion businesses. As there is a distinction between practice and communication, this study merely focuses on the communication aspect.We have conducted a qualitative content analysis based on corporate sustainability reports issued by fast fashion corporations. The study applies a cross-sectional design and a theoretical sampling technique coupled with top-of-mind associations. In total, three corporations were included in this study, resulting in a sample of three corporate sustainability reports from the reporting year of 2013. During the analysis, an abductive approach inspired by a foucauldian perspective was applied. The theoretical model was elaborated on the basis of previous research and academic literature on the definition of sustainability and it served as an initial structure for categorization of the empirical observations.Our findings indicate that companies portray a clear focus on gradual adjustment and conformity to various codes as well as regulations, which leads to the conclusion that companies included in this study construct sustainability in terms of skills rather than wisdom. Furthermore, our findings point to the conclusion that elements of weak sustainability are more prominent than elements of strong sustainability in corporate sustainability reports. However, a notable finding is the existence of a sliding scale between these paradigms. As opposed to other studies regarding the construction of sustainability, this study focuses on a certain business concept (i.e. fast fashion) exploring the communication and construction of the concept sustainability. The contribution of our study is an evolution of the model in terms of a sliding scale and increased conceptual understanding of the term sustainability. We argue a sliding scale between weak and strong sustainability should be taken into account, while previous studies have presented their findings solely as dichotomies.This paper is written in Swedish.
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Grewal, Ravinder, Hasret Cetinkaya, and Isabella Demircan. "Hållbarhetsredovisningar : en kvalitativ studie om hur företag argumenterar för förhållandet mellan CSR och lönsamhet i sina hållbarhetsredovisningar." Thesis, Högskolan i Borås, Akademin för textil, teknik och ekonomi, 2020. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:hb:diva-24364.
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Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) har blivit en viktig del i samhället av den anledning att människors engagemang i hållbarhetsfrågor ökat. Företag fokuserar på att integrera CSR aktiviteter i företags strategier genom att ta ekonomiskt, socialt och miljömässigt ansvar. I tidigare forskning framgår det att det finns ett samband mellan CSR och lönsamhet då CSR aktiviteter kan medföra lönsamhet. I sökandet efter legitimitet kommunicerar företag ut sitt ansvarstagande och sina hållbarhetsinvesteringar i hållbarhetsredovisningarna. Huvudsyftet med studien var att undersöka hur företag argumenterar för förhållandet mellan CSR och lönsamhet. Denna kvalitativa studie är baserad på en dokumentstudie som studerar hållbarhetsredovisningar för tio olika företag inom olika branscher. Vid insamling av data från företagens hållbarhetsredovisningar låg fokuset på att identifiera argument som indikerade förhållandet mellan dess hållbarhetsinvesteringar och lönsamhet. Den insamlade datan analyserades genom att kategorisera argumenten i enlighet med Couplands fyra typer av legitimeringsstrategier: samhällelig legitimering, ansvarsfull legitimering, de-legitimering och kontext-specifik legitimering. Vid kategorisering av argument framkom det att branschtillhörighet är en faktor som påverkar vilket av de tre ansvar inom CSR som företagen prioriterar mest i sina hållbarhetsredovisningar. Företag använder legitimeringsstrategier som presenteras av Coupland med avsikt att legitimera sina hållbarhetsinvesteringar. Studiens resultat visar att företag använder främst strategin “ansvarsfull legitimering” för att legitimera hållbarhetsinvesteringar genom att betona sambandet mellan hållbarhetsarbete och lönsamhet.Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) has become an important part of today’s society as awareness about sustainability has increased among people. Companies are focusing on engaging CSR activities in their corporate strategies through being responsible economically, socially and environmentally. As mentioned in the previous studies, practicing of CSR activities can also generate profitability and hence the relationship between CSR and profitability is presented. In order to legitimise themselves, companies tend to communicate their responsibility and their investments in sustainability through sustainability reports. The main purpose of the study was to examine how companies legitimise their investments in sustainability by presenting arguments for the relationship between their CSR activities and profitability. This qualitative study is based on a document study where sustainability reports for ten companies operating in different branches are studied. The focus while studying the content of sustainability reports was to identify arguments indicating the relationship between their investments in sustainability activities and profitability. The collected data was analysed by categorizing it according to Couplands four types of arguments for legitimation: societal legitimation, responsible legitimation, de-legitimation and context-specific legitimation. During the categorization of the arguments, it was also identified that what responsibility companies tend to argument the most for depends on their respective branch. In order to legitimise their investments, companies are inclined to use the legitimation strategies suggested by Coupland. The conclusion of this study is that most of the companies use the strategy responsible legitimation to legitimise their sustainability investments by emphasizing the relationship between their sustainability work and profitability.This thesis is written in swedish.
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Ryhn, Erik, and Magnus Sjögren. "Påverkansfaktorer på hållbarhetsredovisningar ur företagens perspektiv." Thesis, University of Gävle, Department of Business Administration and Economics, 2009. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:hig:diva-4590.
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Syfte: Huvudsyftet med denna studie är att belysa de faktorer som har påverkat och styrt utvecklingen av svenska företags hållbarhetsredovisningar. Detta gör vi genom att studera litteratur samt tidigare vetenskapliga artiklar inom ämnet. Utifrån detta konstruerar vi enkäter som vi skickar ut till respondenter på svenska företag. Vi hoppas att med resultatet av denna enkätundersökning kunna bidra med kunskap och förståelse kring vad som påverkat utvecklingen av företags hållbarhetsredovisningar sett ur företagens perspektiv.
Metod: Med hermeneutiken som utgångspunkt har vi antagit en kvalitativ metod. Inom den kvalitativa metoden har vi antagit ett aktörsynsätt. Vårt aktörsynsätt gör att vår ambition med studien är att tolka och förstå de aktörer vi studerar snarare än att förklara deras handlingsmönster. Genom att tolka andra aktörer har vi skapat vår egen uppfattning och verklighetsbild av det vi studerar.
Studiens bidrag: Studien bidrar med att belysa vikten av investerare som påverkande intressent när det gäller hållbarhetsredovisningar. Vidare finner vi i studien att GRI och dess utveckling av riktlinjer för utformning av hållbarhetsredovisningar också är en stark påverkansfaktor till förändringar av företagens hållbarhetsredovisningar. Även om de två ovanstående faktorerna tycks vara de starkaste orsakerna till förändring så visar studien att förändring skett på grund av långt fler faktorer.
Purpose: The main purpose of this study is to highlight the factors that have influenced and guided the development of the Swedish corporate sustainability reports. We do this by studying literature and previous scientific papers in the subject. From this we construct questionnaires which we send out to the respondents in Swedish companies. We hope that with the results of this survey could provide knowledge and understanding of what has influenced the development of corporate sustainability reports from companies' perspective.
Method: With the hermeneutic as basis, we have adopted a qualitative approach. In the qualitative method, we have adopted an actor-approach. Our actor-approach allows our ambition of this study is to interpret and understand the actors we are looking at rather than to explain their behaviour. By interpreting the other actors we have created our own perception and reality of what we are studying.
The study's contribution: The study contributes to highlight the importance of investor-sensitive stakeholder in terms of sustainability reports. Furthermore, we find in the study that GRI and its development of guidelines for the design of sustainability reports is also a strong influence factor to the change of corporate sustainability reports. Although the above two factors seem to be the strongest reasons to change, the study shows that the change occurred because of many more factors.
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Falkenros, Helena, and Melissa Salih. "Hållbarhetsredovisning : En studie om huruvida hållbarhetsredovisningar inom samma bransch är jämförbara." Thesis, Södertörns högskola, Företagsekonomi, 2017. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:sh:diva-34679.
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Problemformulering: Idag anses det vara problematiskt att identifiera och jämföra företagsprestationer av deras hållbarhetsarbete och inte minst ur ett intressentperspektiv då svårigheter uppkommer gällande jämförbarhet av prestationer mellan företag, liksom över tid i ett och samma företag. Syfte: Extern redovisning är framförallt till för användarna, det vill säga företags intressenter, som ska kunna ta välgrundade beslut genom att jämföra olika företag med varandra. Studien syftar därför till att studera jämförbarheten mellan företags hållbarhetsredovisningar, inom samma bransch men även över tid inom ett och samma företag. Detta för att skapa förståelse för om det är möjligt att jämföra hållbarhetsredovisningar ur ett användarperspektiv. Metod: Studien har genomförts genom att både en kvantitativ och kvalitativ innehållsanalys med en abduktiv ansats. Undersökningen har utförts genom att hållbarhetsrapporter inom den valda branschen har granskats, där meningar har tolkats och där val av nyckeltal har undersökts. Slutsatser: Likheterna är större än skillnaderna i vad företagen väljer att ta upp i sina hållbarhetsredovisningar. Informationen finns oftast där, men redovisas på olika sätt och i varierande omfattning. Kunskapsbidrag: Bolagen har uppvisat snarlika ämnen i hållbarhetsredovisningarna, trots att någon reglering inte funnits vid upprättandet. Detta visar på att företagen inom branschen efterliknar varandra. Studien har belyst likheter och skillnader i hållbarhetsredovisningar för företag som verkar inom samma bransch.
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Andersson, Therese, and Agnes Joelsson. "Finansanalytikers syn på hållbarhetrapporter : En studie över vilka kvalitetskriterier som efterfrågas på hållbarhetsinformation." Thesis, Högskolan i Gävle, Företagsekonomi, 2017. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:hig:diva-23516.
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Syfte: Tidigare forskning har visat på en bristande användning av hållbarhetsrapporter i analysprocessen vilket kan hänföras till en misstro för hållbarhetsinformation och avsaknad av kvalitetskriterier för informationsvärdering. Därför är syftet med studien att skapa förståelse för vilka kvalitetskriterier finansanalytiker efterfrågar i hållbarhetsrapporter. I syftet ingår även att belysa huruvida en reglering kan tänkas möta finansanalytikernas behov. Metod: Vår studie anammar ett hermeneutiskt perspektiv därav präglas forskningsgapet som studeras av socialkonstruktivismen. Genom att ta fasta på en abduktiv forskningsansats samlas teori och empiri genom en iterativ process. Studien tillämpar en kvalitativ undersökningsmetod där den empiriska datainsamlingen sker genom intervjuer. Den teoretiska referensramen är uppbyggd av tidigare forskning och där samma teman och rubriker även går igen i både empiri- och analysdelen. Resultat & slutsats: Resultatet av studien tyder på att det inte går att tillämpa samma värderingsmetoder som för den finansiella redovisningen. Finansanalytiker efterfrågar andra typer av kvalitetskriterier för att säkerhetsställa och värdera hållbarhetsinformation. Det viktigaste kriteriet för hållbarhetsinformation visar sig vara relevans, vilket ligger i grund för efterfrågan på branschspecifika information. Förslag till fortsatt forskning: Hållbarhetsrapportering fortfarande är ett relativt nytt fenomen inom finansvärlden och flera av respondenterna tror på en snabb utveckling av området samt möjligheten att utveckla nyckeltal inom området. Det gör att det skulle vara intressant om en liknande studie gjordes i ett senare skede om cirka fem år för att se om det utvecklats några branschspecifika standarder för och nyckeltal inom hållbarhet. Uppsatsens bidrag: Vår studies bidrag som kan hänföras till praktiken är förståelsen att hållbarhetsinformation och finansiell information inte kan avläsas på samma sätt, utan andra värderingsmetoder bör användas för hållbarhetsinformation. Den här studien bereder väg i hur hållbarhetsinformation ska värderas och hänvisar till att olika intressegrupper tillsammans med företag, gemensamt ska komma fram till olika branschspecifika standarder och värderingssystem för information. Det anser vi skulle underlätta utförandet av hållbarhetsrapporteringen men även hur den ska avläsas för bästa tillämpning.Aim: Previous research has shown a lack of use of sustainability reports in the analysis process, which can be assigned to distrust in the information and a lack of criteria for the evaluation of information. Therefore, the aim of this study is to understand which criteria financial analysts demand in sustainability reports. The aim is also to illustrate whether a regulation can meet the needs of financial analysts. Method: The study adopts a hermeneutic perspective and the research gap that’s being studied is considered to be characterized by social constructivism. By taking part in an abductive research our theory and empiricism approach together through an iterative process. The study applies a qualitative research where empirical data are collected through interviews. The theoretical framework is constructed of previous research and the same themes and headlines runs throughout both empirical and analytical sections. Result & Conclusions: The results of the study suggest that it isn’t possible to apply the same kind of reporting and key performance indicators in sustainability reports as used in the financial statements. A sustainability report is aimed more towards qualitative key indicators, which isn’t always possible to measure and compare. The main criteria for sustainability information prove to be relevance, which we can see is one of the causes for the demand of industry-specific key indicators. Suggestions for future research: Sustainability reporting is still a relatively new phenomenon in the world of finance, and several of the respondents believe in the rapid development in sustainable thinking and the possibility of developing key indicators in the field. This means that it would be interesting to do a similar study at a later time to see the development of industry-specific standards and indicators of sustainability. Contribution of the thesis: The study's contributions relate to the practice, understanding that sustainability information and financial information can’t be read in the same way, that other methods should be used for sustainability information. This study shows how sustainable information should be valued and refer to various interest groups together with the companies to jointly come up with various industry-specific standards. These we believe would facilitate the execution of sustainability reporting, but also how it should be read for the best application.
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Ahlström, Emma, and Martina Myrén. "Obligatoriskt krav på hållbarhetsredovisning : Faktorer till utmaningar som kan uppstå i företags praktiska arbete." Thesis, Högskolan i Skövde, Institutionen för handel och företagande, 2018. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:his:diva-15292.
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I årsredovisningslagen (1995:1554) tillkom en ändring (2016:947) som medför att större svenska företag blir tvingade till att upprätta en hållbarhetsredovisning. I en tidigare undersökning framkommer det att nio av tio företag upplever det nya lagkravet som utmanande. Denna studie bidrar därför med kunskap om vilka dessa utmaningar kan vara och vad de kan bero på. Syftet med studien är att uppmärksamma vilka faktorer som ligger till grund för att företag uppfattar implementering av lag (2016:947) som utmanande. Genom detta kan studien bidra med förståelse för det praktiska arbetet vid upprättandet av hållbarhetsredovisningar. Det kan vara användbart för företag som går över från frivillig till lagstadgad hållbarhetsredovisning eller företag som upprättar en hållbarhetsredovisning för första gången i samband med ett lagkrav.För att uppnå syftet har studien utgått ifrån en kvalitativ forskningsmetod i form av intervjuer. Det har utförts åtta intervjuer med hållbarhetsansvariga på företag inom modebranschen samt sport- och fritidsbranschen. För att erhålla empiri kring det praktiska arbetet ansågs en kvalitativ metod vara bäst lämpad då det önskades praktiska exempel från informanterna.Studiens resultat kan förklaras med hjälp av implementeringsteorin där egenskaperna förstå, kan och vill presenteras. För att uppmärksamma svårigheter vid implementeringen kommer studien att undersöka om företagen besitter dessa tre egenskaper. Vid implementering av ett beslut är det väsentligt att veta vilka egenskaper företagen har för att förstå styrningenseffekter. Inom implementeringsteorin framgår det att det är mest problematiskt ifall viljan inte finns vid en implementering. Resultatet från studien visar att det finns utmaningar hos företagen som kan kopplas till egenskaperna förstå och kan. Egenskapen vill visar sig i denna studie inte kunna kopplas till företagens utmaningar.The Annual Account Act (1995:1554) introduced a change (2016:947) which implies that larger Swedish companies are forced to establish a sustainability report. In a previous survey it appears that nine out of ten companies experience the new legal requirement as challenging. This study therefore contributes with knowledge of which these challenges could be and what they may depend on. The purpose of the study is to observe what factors that are the reasons why companies perceive implementation of law (2016:947) as challenging. By this, the study can contribute to understand the practical work in the preparation of sustainability reports. It can be useful for companies that switch from voluntary to statutory sustainability reporting or companies that establish a sustainability report for the first time in a connection with a legal requirement. To achieve the aim, the study has been based on a qualitative research method in the form of interviews. There have been eight interviews with sustainability managers in companies within the fashion industry as well as the sports-and leisure industry. In order to gain empirical knowledge about the practical work, a qualitative method was considered most appropriate because it was desired that the informants provided practical examples. The result of the study can be explained by using the implementation theory where the properties understand, can and will are presented. In order to pay attention to difficulties with implementation, the study will investigate whether the companies process these three properties. When implementing a decision, it is essential to know what properties companies have in order to understand the effects of the control. In implementation theory, it appears that it is most problematic if there is no willingness to implement. The result from the study shows that there is challenges within the companies that can be linked to the properties understandand can. The property will appear in this study unable to connect to the challenges in the companies.
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Mai, Qiuyue. "The Corporate Interest in Climate Change Issues: Analyzing Annual Reports in Asian Public Listed Companies Covering the Period 2000 - 2009." Thesis, Uppsala universitet, Institutionen för geovetenskaper, 2011. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-160447.
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Unlimited demands of development and non-stopped destruction of surrounding environments cause many environmental problems. In this paper, Climate Change as one important issue has been studied against an Asian background. For the purpose of showing a clear trend of communicated corporate awareness in global Climate Change issues, in this report, seventy Asian companies have been studied. The results show a relatively low-level growth curve of communicated corporate Climate Change awareness by dissecting companies’ CEO Letters during years 2000 to 2009, followed by a comparison study with European results and five possible explanations in the discussion part. As the conclusion of this paper, an increased interest among Asian governments and companies during year 2000-2009 has been observed. However, there is still lack of knowledge on a general level compared with the European results. According to the five possible explanations, several possible future studies have also been recommended in the paper: 1) Comparison study under the same scope within Asia or other continents; 2) Case-study on specific interested companies; 3) On-going study on the future curve trend with the same target group.
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Åqvist, Christina. "Redovisning av korruptionsrisker i statligt ägda bolag : En analys av EU:s hållbarhetsredovisningsdirektiv mot bakgrund av svenska statligt ägda bolags hållbarhetsredovisningar år 2016." Thesis, Linköpings universitet, Affärsrätt, 2018. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:liu:diva-147876.
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CSR och hållbart företagande är traditionellt sett flexibelt hållna begrepp som företag uppmuntras att arbeta med på eget initiativ. Med vägledning av internationella standarder uppmuntras företag minimera negativa konsekvenser som deras verksamheter kan generera. Mot bakgrund av ett ökat behov av transparens och enhetlighet mellan företag som är verksamma på EU:s inre marknad har hållbarhetsredovisningsdirektivet antagits. Direktivet, vilket har genomförts i svensk rätt genom införande av bland annat 6 kap 12 § årsredovisningslagen, föreskriver en skyldighet för företag av viss storlek att identifiera väsentliga risker i verksamheten och redovisa dessa i en hållbarhetsredovisning som del av företagets förvaltningsberättelse. Riskidentifieringen ska göras mot bakgrund av vad som är nödvändigt för förståelse av företagets verksamhet, och innefatta risker i affärsförbindelser när det är relevant. En av de aspekterna som företag ska identifiera och redovisa risken för är korruption. Hållbarhetsredovisningskravet gäller från och med redovisningen av verksamhetsåret 2017. Svenska staten är en stor bolagsägare i Sverige och ställer krav på de statligt ägda bolagen att agera föredömligt på området för hållbart företagande, bland annat genom krav på efterlevnad av en framtagen ägarpolicy. Inom ramen för en empirisk studie har 47 statligt ägda bolags hållbarhetsredovisningar för verksamhetsåret 2016 granskats. Syftet var att fastställa hur de statligt ägda bolagen arbetar med identifiering och redovisning av risker för korruption, mot bakgrund av att redovisningskravet hittills inte har varit rättsligt bindande. Mot bakgrund av det varierande resultatet som studien visar kan ifrågasättas om samtliga av de statligt ägda bolagen agerar med en sådan föredömlighet som föreskrivs i ägarpolicyn. Genom en analys av huruvida hållbarhetsredovisningsdirektivet och 6 kap. 12 § årsredovisningslagen kan förhindra den underlåtenhet att redovisa risker för korruption som idag torde vara möjlig, konstateras att direktivet i teorin uppfyller sitt ändamål. Efter att redovisningskravet har börjat gälla kan korruption presumeras utgöra en väsentlig fråga för företag, vilket ställer höga krav för utelämnande av identifiering av korruptionsrisker i redovisningen. Ur praktisk synpunkt kan däremot anföras att direktivets språkliga utformning erbjuder en sådan flexibilitet vad gäller bedömningen av riskernas väsentlighet, att överträdelser av direktivet torde bli svåra att tillskriva företag eller dess företrädare ansvar för. Som slutsats anförs att direktivets föreskrifter borde ha utformats med mindre flexibilitet, i syfte att uppnå den enhetlighet mellan företags redovisningar som eftersträvas.
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Allert, Alexander, and Emil Richloow. "Att följa ett hållbarhetsarbete : en longditudinell studie av SJs hållbarhetsrapporter." Thesis, Högskolan i Halmstad, Akademin för ekonomi, teknik och naturvetenskap, 2018. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:hh:diva-36922.
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Title: To follow sustainability - through a longitudinal study of the sustainability reports of SJ. Introduction: Sustainability Reporting is a way for companies to show how they work with sustainability, where the companies ambitions, strategies and visions of sustainability are also presented. GRI (Global reporting initiative) is the largest framework in the world that companies use when designing the sustainability report. One way of looking at the sustainability report is that it is for communicating with stakeholders, society and within the management team. In this way, the sustainability report is a way of making sustainability challenges more visible and by creating perspectives and achievements that make changes. Problem: One of the main purposes of the sustainability reporting framework GRI is to provide greater transparency for stakeholders, thus providing the opportunity for comparison over time. When there is a lack of clear national provisions for the preparation of sustainability work, evaluations and comparisons are difficult for the rest of the world. The lack of accounting principles and common practice means that it is often not clear what has been measured, how it has been measured and what tasks are covered. Therefore, it is interesting to study what can complicate a comparison over several years, by studying the sustainability work over time in the company SJ, which has been actively working with the framework of GRI since 2007. Purpose: Analyze what in sustainability reports that can complicate the comparability of the results. Method: It is important that companies sustainability issues are linked to performance measures, just to measure sustainability performance. Therefore, we have chosen to look at the sustainability areas of SJ and the indicators that are linked to these areas. We wanted to see how well it was possible to compare the results of the sustainability areas of SJ over time? This is carried out through a longitudinal case study with inductive approach to the sustainability reports of SJ. Results: In this study, it has been found that there is a lack of information about several parts, where the reader of the report does not get enough insight. Information deficiency in definitions and measurement methods leads to a comparison being uncertain and less credible. In the examination of deviating outcomes, the complexity was shown to interpret what influenced an outcome and strongly suggested that there was a lack of transparency. It also emerged that there is a big room for companies to choose which performance indicators and measurement methods they want.
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Zametica, Asim, and Julia Johansson. "GRI-quality and financial performance : A quantitative study on the impact of sustainability reports’ quality on firm performance and firm value in the Swedish manufacturing industry." Thesis, Karlstads universitet, 2019. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:kau:diva-74199.
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Prata, Vanessa Domingues. "Uma análise da linguagem da tradução presente em relatórios de sustentabilidade à luz dos estudos da tradução baseados em Corpus." Universidade de São Paulo, 2017. http://www.teses.usp.br/teses/disponiveis/8/8160/tde-07022018-131526/.
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Milhares de empresas ao redor do mundo publicam anualmente relatórios de sustentabilidade, documentos que divulgam o desempenho econômico, ambiental, social e de governança da organização. Segundo dados de 2014, do relatório Spotlight on corporate transparency: Insights from GLOBE 2014, da empresa de auditoria KPMG, mais de 5.000 empresas em 88 países elaboram esses relatórios seguindo as diretrizes GRI Global Reporting Initiative (KPMG, 2014, p. 4). Frequentemente, tais relatórios são elaborados na língua oficial do país em que as empresas estão instaladas (língua de partida) e traduzidos para o inglês (língua de chegada). O objetivo desta pesquisa é analisar a linguagem da tradução presente em relatórios de sustentabilidade que seguem o padrão GRI para identificar os principais traços típicos da tradução, tais como explicitação, simplificação e normalização, seguindo o arcabouço teórico de Baker (1993, 1995, 1996). Como objetivo secundário visamos identificar os principais termos e expressões desse modelo de relatório em português e seus equivalentes em inglês, para a compilação de uma proposta de glossário bilíngue na direção português-inglês. O estudo foi feito principalmente por meio dos Estudos da Tradução Baseados em Corpus e da Linguística de Corpus, utilizando um corpus paralelo, com 10 documentos coletados da internet em português com as respectivas traduções para o inglês, e dois corpora comparáveis bilíngues, com um total de 30 documentos em português e outros 30 escritos em inglês. Em relação ao objetivo principal, notamos que, embora os documentos originais e as traduções do corpus de estudo sejam bastante semelhantes, isto é, apresentem o mesmo número de páginas, o mesmo layout e, aparentemente, o mesmo conteúdo em cada página, foi possível notar traços de explicitação, simplificação e normalização na linguagem traduzida.Thousands of companies around the world annually publish sustainability reports, documents that disclose the organization\'s economic, environmental, social and governance performance. According to data from 2014 report Spotlight on Corporate Transparency: Insights from GLOBE 2014, published by auditing company KPMG, more than 5,000 companies in 88 countries compile these reports following the GRI Global Reporting Initiative guidelines (KPMG, 2014, p.4). Such reports are often produced in the official language of the country where the companies are established (the source language) and translated into English (the target language). The aim of this research is to analyze the translation language present in sustainability reports that follow the GRI standard to identify the main typical features of translation, such as explicitation, simplification and normalization, following the theoretical framework of Baker (1993, 1995, 1996). As a secondary goal we aim to identify the main terms and expressions of this model of report in Portuguese and their English equivalents, for the compilation of a proposal of a bilingual glossary in the Portuguese-English direction. The study was carried out mainly through Corpus-Based Translation Studies and Corpus Linguistics, using a parallel corpus, with 10 documents collected from the Internet in Portuguese with the respective English translations, and two comparable bilingual corpora with a total of 30 documents in Portuguese and other 30 documents written in English. In relation to the main objective, we noticed that, although the original documents and the translations of the study corpus are very similar, that is, they present the same number of pages, the same layout and, apparently, the same content in each page, it was possible to note traces of explicitation, simplification and normalization in the translated language.
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Franzén, Rasmus, and Jens Karlsson. "CSR i tre börsnoterade företag : en komparativ innehållsanalys av hållbarhetsredovisningar." Thesis, Högskolan i Borås, Institutionen Handels- och IT-högskolan, 2013. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:hb:diva-17176.
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Marknaden ställer idag högre krav på vad företagen redovisar och intressenterna är inte längre bara uppmärksamma på hur företaget redovisar ur ett ekonomiskt perspektiv. En ökad medvetenhet hos företagen kan i många fall inbringa konkurrensfördelar om företagen väljer att tillgodose dessa krav. Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) syftar till att redovisa vad företaget har gjort, inte bara i ekonomiska resultat utan även beträffande miljö och sociala aspekter. Vi har i vår studie valt att granska med hjälp av en innehållsanalys hur tre svenska företag, H&M, Stora Enso och TeliaSonera, arbetar med CSR och vart tyngdpunkten ligger hos de olika företagen. Studiens syfte är att på ett komparativt sätt och genom en innehållsanalys ämna svara på vilka likheter och skillnader det finns i de tre företagens hållbarhetsredovisningar, samt vad som kan tolka eventuella likheter och skillnader. Vi har använt oss av ett klassificeringsschema som hjälpt oss att dela in vårt empiriska material i fem olika kategorier; Miljö, Energi, Human resources, Produkter och Community involvement. Våra resultat visar att det, till viss del, går att förklara företagens motiv till innehållet i hållbarhetsredovisningarna med utgångspunkt i legitimeringsteorin. Det är framförallt motivet till skillnaderna som kan förklaras genom legitimitetsteorin. Det går emellertid inte att utesluta att andra faktorer påverkar varför det förekommer skillnader, och särskilt likheter, i de redovisade uppgifterna för de tre företagen.Program: Civilekonomprogrammet