Over the past thirty years the subject of social and environmental reporting (SER) has been widely debated in the literature by means of theoretical and empirical analysis (Gray et al., 1996, Mathews, 1997, Parker 2005; Guthrie and Abeysekera, 2006). The literature has focused on the use of SER in different settings, like local governments (Boyce, 2000; Marcuccio and Steccolini, 2005), universities, (Gibson and Guthrie, 1995) and publicly-owned corporations (Neu et al., 1998), and adopting different theoretical lenses: legitimacy theory, stakeholder theory, political economy theory and positive accounting theory. Despite the increasing number of publication in the field, there are calls for research and understanding of SER in the public sector (Lewis, 2008; Ball and Grubnik, 2007). This study is an attempt to contribute to the calls by Lewis (2008) for further research into SER in the public sector, and local government in particular. The aim of the paper is to understand the pattern of adoption and abandonment of SER by local government, in the period between 2005 (or prior) and 2010. The results show interesting patterns of adoption and abandonment of SER, and the stated reasons. In doing so, the paper attempts to answer to the research question on the diffusion of SER overtime and for what reasons (Marcuccio and Steccolini, 2005).
Socio-environmental reporting trends in the Italian local government: thrive or wither?
BRACCI, Enrico;TALLAKI, Mouhcine
2013
Abstract
Over the past thirty years the subject of social and environmental reporting (SER) has been widely debated in the literature by means of theoretical and empirical analysis (Gray et al., 1996, Mathews, 1997, Parker 2005; Guthrie and Abeysekera, 2006). The literature has focused on the use of SER in different settings, like local governments (Boyce, 2000; Marcuccio and Steccolini, 2005), universities, (Gibson and Guthrie, 1995) and publicly-owned corporations (Neu et al., 1998), and adopting different theoretical lenses: legitimacy theory, stakeholder theory, political economy theory and positive accounting theory. Despite the increasing number of publication in the field, there are calls for research and understanding of SER in the public sector (Lewis, 2008; Ball and Grubnik, 2007). This study is an attempt to contribute to the calls by Lewis (2008) for further research into SER in the public sector, and local government in particular. The aim of the paper is to understand the pattern of adoption and abandonment of SER by local government, in the period between 2005 (or prior) and 2010. The results show interesting patterns of adoption and abandonment of SER, and the stated reasons. In doing so, the paper attempts to answer to the research question on the diffusion of SER overtime and for what reasons (Marcuccio and Steccolini, 2005).I documenti in SFERA sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
