...Introduction (Corporate Social Responsibility and the impact it has on society at a global level is studied (discussed/investigated) as we look at whether current regulations are sufficient or mandatory regulations are required in order to sustain our environment in the future.) Since the 1990’s there has been an increasing trend for companies to provide information regarding the environmental implications of their operations (Gozali et al., 2002). This has arisen due to the increasing importance of environmental issues worldwide, and as such there is increased discussion on whether environmental reporting should become regulated internationally or continue to remain voluntary. The environment disclosures are generally through a sustainability report, which may also include the social and economic performance of an organisation. This is commonly referred to as triple bottom–line reporting, and is tied together closely with the term Corporate Social Responsibility. What is Corporate Social Responsibility? While sustainable development is most commonly defined as ‘development that meets the needs of the present world without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs’ (World Commission on Environment and Development – Brundtland Report, 1987), Corporate Social Responsibility focuses on the mission and values of an organisation and its obligations and impacts on a wider range of stakeholders. (CSR (promotes) principles are for sustainability, accountability...
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...* What is this topic? A sustainability report considers the contribution and impact that non-financial issues have on the company, it can range from Governance to Climate Change. It is a complex concept, but in summary it is “meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs”. – www.sustain.ucla.edu Recently reporting on certain sustainability issues have now become mandatory to report – “UK government announces that under the Companies Act 2006, companies are now required to report their emissions in their directors’ report”. * Why is it important Along with the recent introduction of the G4 standards and the GRI recommendations, the significance of a sustainability report has become progressively more critical as pressures on companies both publically and institutionally to provide and publish reports increases in light of recent natural disasters. It is said that we “use about 40% more resources every year compared to what we put back”, some companies make it their mission to make it known that they give back to the environment e.g. Velvet. There is a need for a measurement system to be put in place to assess industry’s impact however currently accounting is inadequate for numerous reasons. - - http://ezproxy.bcu.ac.uk:2055/science/article/pii/S0155998210000128 The increase in awareness has meant that external users e.g. customers, investors and even shareholders are making decisions based...
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...15 ECTS Spring 2014 The evolution of CSR Reporting in the Banking Sector of Greece An analysis of specific characteristics of CSR Reporting Author Papakostopoulos, Georgios Supervisors Jonnergård, Karin Loft, Anne 2014-10-20 1 2 Abstract Title The evolution of CSR Reporting in the Banking Sector of Greece An analysis of specific characteristics of CSR Reporting. Seminar Date 2014-06-02 Course BUSN69, Degree Project – Accounting and Auditing Author Georgios Papakostopoulos Supervisors Karin Jonnergård and Anne Loft Keywords Banks, CSR, Development, Reporting, Standardisation Purpose This thesis aims to examine the development of CSR reporting in the banking sector. The emphasis is set on a number of characteristics. Trends for standardization will be also examined Methodology The methodology undertaken is generally based on a qualitative research approach through a combination of content analysis with interviews. The research has a partly longitudinal, inductive and comparative character. Theoretical Perspectives The theoretical aspects that were used in the analysis were a combination of the theoretical framework of the Legitimacy, Stakeholder and Institutional theory with the reporting requirements from a number of standards, guidelines, initiatives and indices. Empirical Foundation The empirical material consists from Corporate Social Responsibilities reports that...
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...ACCA mAlAysiA sustAinAbility reporting AWArDs (masrA) 2011 2 contents Introduction The age of integration: a new dawn for corporate reporting Panel of judges Entrants Shortlisted reports ACCA MaSRA 2011 winners Judges’ feedback Supporting organisations About ACCA 4 6 11 12 14 17 25 28 31 ACKnoWleDgement ACCA would like to thank and acknowledge the contribution and support of the distinguished panel of judges, AccountAbility, Bursa Malaysia Berhad, CorporateRegister.com, The Department of Environment (DOE), The Edge Business Weekly, The Edge Financial Daily and last but not least all participating companies in the Awards. We believe that the participating companies deserve recognition for leading the way to identify and communicate their environmental and social performance. Companies such as these are contributing towards the advancement of sustainable development and performance. 3 introduction Welcome to the ACCA report of the Judges for the malaysia sustainability reporting Awards (masrA) 2011. ACCA and our supporting partners for the masrA 2011 would like to thank all the companies that participated this year. Since the last ACCA MaSRA, the world of corporate social responsibility and sustainability reporting has been undergoing tremendous change. This is reflected in the various developments on the international and local front. Nationally, Bursa Malaysia remains a key driver of sustainability reporting for corporate Malaysia. Following...
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...Accounting P58330 Financial Reporting Corporate Social Responsibility and Accounting Standards Christos Spanoudakis Student ID:13086848 Date of Submission: 3rd April 2014 Introduction Nowadays, more and more large companies publish except from their financial statements also social and environmental reports. It is broadly known that companies’ activities have as a consequence an impact in society and environment. For this reason companies should be responsible not only for financial performance but also should take into consideration the responsibility for their social and environmental performance. Governments, non-governmental organizations, press and media are the parties that keep the companies responsible for the impact of their activities on the environment and society (Porter and Kramer, 2007). That happens because some of these parties have direct influence in the company’s image. For example if media transmit news that erode company’s image, this will definitely influence negatively stakeholders’ opinion and trust for the organization (Neu et. al., 1998). The concept of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) works like a self-regulating tool, which aids the company to observe and guarantee that its operations are aligned with the law, ethical standards and international rules. Some companies, which apply CSR, achieve with their actions to benefit society beyond the primary objectives of the company and that which is mandatory by the legislation (McWilliams...
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...Essay Corporate social reporting: a tool to discharge corporate accountability or to enhance managerial capture? Introduction In the last two decades there has been an increased awareness by society in general on the societal and environmental consequences of human behavior, especially towards corporations and its effect on its surroundings. Investors these days are becoming ethically and socially aware, and are more drawn towards investing in companies that contribute positively to society and who are actively reducing any negative impacts it might have. Because of this emerging awareness by public in general and investors, companies need to actively show compliance with this trend. Also due to the damaged reputation corporations have these days due to several scandals that took place around 2001, investors want reassurance when investing in companies. A way to show compliance to these aspects is by producing sustainability reports, which are made available to the public. Sustainability reports, which can also be referred to as Corporate Social Reporting, is a report that shows how a corporation is complying to economic, environmental and societal issues in which it is active. World Business Council for Sustainability Development (WBCSD) established the current and mainly adopted definition for CSR, which states ‘CSR is the continuing commitment by business to behave ethically and contribute to economic development while improving the quality of life of the workforce...
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...2014 Introduction • The Cadbury report was once referred to as The Report of The Committee on the Financial Aspects of Corporate Governance. The report was published in December 1992, following the recommendations of the Cadbury Committee. • Address concerns about the working of the corporate governance system. • The Committee made it its purpose to address the financial aspects of corporate governance and out of this produced a Code of Best Practice. The Committee • The Cadbury Committee was established in May 1991 by the Financial Reporting Council, the London Stock Exchange, and the accountancy profession. • Reasons: Increasing lack of investor confidence in the honesty and accountability of listed companies. Financial collapses of listed corporations. Auditors who signed off a set accounts which turned out be a misrepresentation of the facts, and about losing its self-regulatory role. Lack of board accountability for such matters as directors’ pay. Corporate Governance Contemporary corporate governance started in 1992 with the Cadbury report in the UK Cadbury was the result of several high profile company collapses is concerned primarily with protecting weak and widely dispersed shareholders against self-interested Directors and managers Cadbury Report 1992 The committee on the financial aspects of corporate governance’ The Code of Best Practice’ (1992) Voluntary code ▪ But for listed companies a compliance statement was required ...
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...Literature Review Kavitha W * and Anita P ** Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is now prominent and evident more than ever due to the emphasis laid on businesses regarding environmental, social and ethical issues. The level of CSR activities of the firms is made known to public only through the disclosures. This paper reviews the literature on CSR disclosures and the effect of these disclosures. There are various factors which determine the extent of disclosures like the size of the firm, industry, high visibility, etc. Introduction Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is now prominent and evident more than ever due to the emphasis laid on businesses regarding environmental, social and ethical issues. This is because over the recent years, there have been social, political and economic pressures on corporate management to pay attention on social and environmental consequences of corporate activities. These pressures motivated the corporate management to actively participate in a wide range of social welfare activities. CSR now-a-days covers almost all issues like the use of child labor; inequality of employment; environmental impact; involvement in local community; products’ safety; company cultures; brand image and reputation. Apart from this, companies are now disclosing these activities in their annual reports, and one of the parameters to judge the performance of a company is CSR reporting. Corporate Social Responsibility CSR is defined by Naylor...
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...Corporate social responsibility and minimum legal expectation Over the last few decades, the issues of corporate social responsibility have become the focus of society. Especially after many company scandals emerged (such as Enron and Libor scandals), the public are more curious about the CSR and the its legal expectation. Some countries have already set mandatory regulation about the CSR. For example, in Australia the Corporations Act 2001 stated that companies need to disclose environmental performance and another Act[1] requires certain companies to provide the information about greenhouse gas emissions. However, in the UK, the regulations mainly govern financial disclosures[2] and there are few regulations about the CSR of company. In the aspect of law, the Companies Act 2006 s.172[3] set some duties for the directors to promote the success of company which are in relation to legal expectation of the corporate social responsibility. The notion of CSR and the relationship between CSR and its legal expectation is the main of this essay. This essay will critically discuss the notion of corporate social responsibility and giving particular attention to minimum legal expectations. The structure is as follows: in the section 1, we are focus on the discussion in relation to many kinds of the definition of corporate social responsibility. In the section 2, we will discuss the notion of CSR through different theory perspectives and the minimum legal expectation. In the section...
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...Compact and Professor John Ruggie, then Special Advisor to the Secretary-General. That process included studying networked governance models of other cutting-edge global action and solution networks and holding focus groups with participants and stakeholders, including governments, local networks, and academics. The resulting governance framework distributes governance functions among several entities so as to engage participants and stakeholders at the global and local levels in making decisions and giving advice on the matters of greatest importance to their role and participation in the UN Global Compact and to reflect the initiative’s public-private and multi-stakeholder character. The Global Compact is the world’s largest global corporate sustainability initiative, with over 8,000 companies and 4,000 non-business participants based in over 160 countries. A vanguard of companies in all key markets...
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...A Primer on Sarbanes-Oxley The Sarbanes-Oxley Act was declared a law in 2002 (Orin, 2008). The primary purpose of this new law was to convey meaning to restoring faith in corporate America’s financial endeavors (Orin, 2008). The Sarbanes-Oxley Act was meant to aid and protect investors, who suffered extreme losses because of corporations having poor financial performances, which was the case before the law was enacted (Orin, 2008). Distinctively, the Sarbanes-Oxley Act was meant to concentrate on accounting fraudulence by holding corporations accountable for disclosing accurate and reliable financial records. The Sarbanes-Oxley Act was also meant to ensure corporate executive leadership acted ethically throughout daily business (Orin, 2008). Assess the Effectiveness of SOX Legislations Key Ethical Components of the SOX To efficiently and effectively implement the Sarbanes-Oxley Act corporations need to broaden their views and focus on the greater purpose of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. Beasley and Hermanson (2009) believe to accomplish this corporate leadership need to focus on the following: • Value the purpose of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. • Comprehend the effect of fraudulence behavior. • Concentrate on ethical attitudes pertaining to rationalizing fraudulence behavior. • Making the Sarbanes Oxley Act the foundation to compliance to improve governance and control. • Investigate and implement enterprise risk management (para 5). Value...
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...truth in the following... handy as a checklist also – 3 or 4 points on each: Paper P1 Becker Paper P1 BPP • Corporate governance (CG) concepts, underlying • Public sector governance. fundamentals and arrangements. • Integrated reporting. • CG in other organisations (e.g. public sector, NGOs). • Ethical and CSR theories – applied to scenarios. • Types and forms of CG (e.g. rules based, principles based, insider, outsider systems, UK Corporate Governance Code, Paper P1 LSBF SoX). • Governance: • Agency theory, stakeholders, Mendelow. – Role of Board. – Unitary/two tier. • Board structures, CEO/chairman, directors, NEDs, – Chair role/CEO chair split. committees. – Induction/performance appraisal. – Reward systems. • Internal control and business risk, Turnbull. – Family based structure. • Ethical theories and business codes – Kohlberg, Gray, Owen – Global standards in governance. and Adams, Tucker, AAA. – Stakeholder classifications. • Professions and the public interest. • Control: • Corporate social responsibility, corporate citizen, footprints – Objectives of a sound system. and sustainability. – COSO failures. – Reasons for internal audit. • Integrated reporting, social and environmental auditing. – Internal control disclosure. • Risk management: Paper P1 Kaplan – Risk committee or risk manager. – Strategic/op/static and • Corporate governance comparison of approaches – public v dynamic risk. private sector. – Risk diversification. • Conflict...
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...is a general consensus in the scientific and environmental advocate communities as to that the worldwide climate is changing, specifically warming, and that the activities of man are the primary cause, as for the degree of change and the possible effects, there is anything but a consensus. There is a fairly new concept that is taught in many businesses, colleges, and universities called the triple bottom line. This is referring to the three things that businesses should concern themselves with and strive to achieve excellence in if they wish to be sustainable; they are “profit, people, and the planet” (Elkington, 1995). The purpose of this research is to find out and explore some different ways that businesses today are utilizing good sustainability practices, and dive into some other areas like accounting for carbon emissions, and also seeing how accounting for predicted outcomes might work in the business environment. The environment affects us all and any sort of change, contingency, or preparation has to be accounted for, so this work is designed to find out how it is being done, and things that could be done to improve business. The triple bottom line The age old practice of businesses being concerned strictly with profits and how it affects shareholders is becoming a thing of the past. The short-sightedness of executives has in large part contributed to climate change and has helped erupt the business world into scandal over the past 20 years or so. The tendency to only...
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...TermPaperWarehouse.com - Free Term Papers, Essays and Research Documents The Research Paper Factory Join Search Browse Saved Papers Home page » Business and Management Should Companies Comply With China's Terms In: Business and Management Should Companies Comply With China's Terms Should companies comply with China’s terms? As our society advances towards a global society, and companies begin to transition themselves into multinational and global organizations, the question of which rules and regulations should the company follow is likely to precipitate. I feel such is the case with China. I believe prior to answering the question of foreign nation compliance, one should examine the reasons why an organization has entered into that foreign market. The primary objective is typically profits, a secondary could be expansion, an initiative to become a globally known brand and gain international market share. Once the fundamental question of “why” is answered, the remaining issues, such as foreign government policies, can be addressed as well. So should a company comply or defy? Proponents of both sides of the fence are up in arms and ready to debate their stance. Proponents argue loss of market share if a company decides to leave a potentially new market, especially an international market. And proponents of defying the compliance terms are citing moral and ethical beliefs which make it wrong to comply with a communist government (http://hbswk...
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...Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal Corporate social reporting and reputation risk management Jan Bebbington Carlos Larrinaga Jose M. Moneva Article information: Downloaded by University of Strathclyde At 07:57 17 October 2014 (PT) To cite this document: Jan Bebbington Carlos Larrinaga Jose M. Moneva, (2008),"Corporate social reporting and reputation risk management", Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, Vol. 21 Iss 3 pp. 337 - 361 Permanent link to this document: http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/09513570810863932 Downloaded on: 17 October 2014, At: 07:57 (PT) References: this document contains references to 70 other documents. To copy this document: permissions@emeraldinsight.com The fulltext of this document has been downloaded 10839 times since 2008* Users who downloaded this article also downloaded: Jeffrey Unerman, (2008),"Strategic reputation risk management and corporate social responsibility reporting", Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, Vol. 21 Iss 3 pp. 362-364 Carol A. Adams, (2008),"A commentary on: corporate social responsibility reporting and reputation risk management", Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, Vol. 21 Iss 3 pp. 365-370 Pekka Aula, (2010),"Social media, reputation risk and ambient publicity management", Strategy & Leadership, Vol. 38 Iss 6 pp. 43-49 Access to this document was granted through an Emerald subscription provided by 117974 [] For Authors If you would like to...
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