sustainability reporting and reputation risk management an australian case study

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International Journal of Accounting & Information Management

ISSN : 1834-7649

Article publication date: 20 September 2011

The purpose of this paper is to explore the ways in which a leading Australian public company uses sustainability reporting to respond to reputation risk arising from proposed regulation.

Design/methodology/approach

The paper uses a case study approach and both qualitative and quantitative methods of content analysis. The qualitative component is based on a framework of reputation conceptualisations and image restoration strategies adopted from existing literature.

The key findings of this paper are that the concept of reputation risk management (RRM) could assist in understanding what motivates sustainability reporting, and how proposed regulation could lead to a decrease in the quantity but increase in the quality of sustainability reporting. In addition, “honesty” is revealed as a potential RRM strategy.

Originality/value

The paper extends existing research on the RRM thesis by studying an Australian case of a reputation‐damaging event over a number of reporting years, examining a range of sustainability reporting media, and adding a quantitative aspect to an otherwise qualitative research framework.

• Public companies
• Sustainability
• Sustainability reporting
• Risk management
• Corporate image

Hogan, J. and Lodhia, S. (2011), "Sustainability reporting and reputation risk management: an Australian case study", International Journal of Accounting & Information Management , Vol. 19 No. 3, pp. 267-287. https://doi.org/10.1108/18347641111169269

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Copyright © 2011, Emerald Group Publishing Limited

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Sustainability reporting and reputation risk management: an Australian case study

Hogan, Janine, (2011)

The practice turn in environmental reporting: A study into current practices in two Australian commonwealth departments

Lodhia, Sumit, (2013)

A Systematic Literature Review of Theories Underpinning Sustainability Reporting in Non-financial Disclosure

• First Online: 18 February 2022

Cite this chapter

• Francesca Bartolacci 6 ,
• Marco Bellucci 7 ,
• Katia Corsi 8 &
• Michela Soverchia 6  

Part of the book series: SIDREA Series in Accounting and Business Administration ((SSABA))

2616 Accesses

7 Citations

Many theoretical frameworks can inform the study of sustainability reporting in non-financial disclosure. This research intends to contribute to the accounting literature through a systematic literature review of 205 research articles published from 1989 to 2019. These articles involve the application of different theories to the study of social, environmental, and sustainability reporting. This study is the first systematic literature review focusing on the various theoretical approaches—and their interconnections—that showed a successful capacity to explain firms’ commitment toward SES reporting. Besides the main theories—specifically legitimacy, stakeholder, and institutional—this study will discuss the emerging application of other ideas to the field of sustainability reporting, with particular reference to agency, signaling, discourse, attribution, social movement, structuration theories, and multi-theory frameworks. This study can help scholars in need of a systematization of the last 30 years of literature concerning theoretical frameworks able to support the study of non-financial disclosure. Moreover, this contribution can help policymakers and practitioners to better understand the rationales behind firms’ commitment to voluntary non-financial disclosure and the arguments advocating mandatory disclosure frameworks concerning sustainability issues.

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Boolean operators.

In our sample, in fact, aside from 1 article, impression management is always used together with legitimacy theory.

In our sample, 6 articles use voluntary disclosure theory, and 5 of them do it in association with legitimacy theory.

Voluntary disclosure theory, in fact, predicts that better social/environmental performers make more extensive non-financial disclosures to distinguish themselves from poorer social/environmental performers. This seems to be in contrast with legitimacy theory, assuming that management’s voluntary disclosures represent an attempt to manipulate and manage the impression conveyed to users of accounting information: thus, concerning environmental disclosure, legitimacy theory implies poorer environmental performers provide more environmental disclosures than better performers to create the impression of environmental concern.

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Bartolacci, F., Bellucci, M., Corsi, K., Soverchia, M. (2022). A Systematic Literature Review of Theories Underpinning Sustainability Reporting in Non-financial Disclosure. In: Cinquini, L., De Luca, F. (eds) Non-financial Disclosure and Integrated Reporting. SIDREA Series in Accounting and Business Administration. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-90355-8_4

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