The impact of increased stakeholder pressure on the transaprency of CSR reports in Finnish listed companies
Gustafsson, Niclas (2021)
Gustafsson, Niclas
2021
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Julkaisun pysyvä osoite on
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi-fe2021051229816
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi-fe2021051229816
Tiivistelmä
This study adds to the growing number of papers in corporate social responsibility (CSR) and accounting research areas. This study aims to explore to which extent to the implementation of the accounting act 1376/2016 accounting act amendment has had an effect on the transparency of CSR reports in large Finnish listed companies affected by the legislation’s implementation. The pressure from various stakeholders such as customers, legislators, and investors on companies to appear as transparent as possible in their sustainability actions and operations’ effect has all but increased over the last decade.
The theoretical background chapter covers all of the important terminology necessary to understand the paper, such as CSR, and its different areas, the CSR reporting frameworks, the Finnish legislation on sustainability reporting, and finally, the concept of simulacrum.
The study was conducted by doing a qualitative content analysis on data consisting of both text and image material in Finnish-listed companies’ CSR reports, all reports being submitted to the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) framework for classification. Negative passages and recurring rhetoric have been identified in the text data and the image material has been categorized into different forms of recurring simulacrum. The categorization of the recurring reporting rhetoric methods in the text data has been adapted from Rüdiger Hahn and Regina Lülfs 2014 study “Legitimizing Negative Aspects in GRI-Oriented Sustainability Reporting: A Qualitative Analysis of Corporate Disclosure Strategies”, and the categorization of simulacrum is based upon the findings of Olivier Boiral’s 2013 paper “Sustainability reports as simulacra? A counter-account of A and A+ GRI reports.
The results of the study show that there has been no significant increase or decrease in the reporting of negative disclosure or simulacra to determine it as an effect of the new legislation. The study does contribute to the growing number of papers that critically analyze the transparency of CSR material, both in text and image material.
The theoretical background chapter covers all of the important terminology necessary to understand the paper, such as CSR, and its different areas, the CSR reporting frameworks, the Finnish legislation on sustainability reporting, and finally, the concept of simulacrum.
The study was conducted by doing a qualitative content analysis on data consisting of both text and image material in Finnish-listed companies’ CSR reports, all reports being submitted to the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) framework for classification. Negative passages and recurring rhetoric have been identified in the text data and the image material has been categorized into different forms of recurring simulacrum. The categorization of the recurring reporting rhetoric methods in the text data has been adapted from Rüdiger Hahn and Regina Lülfs 2014 study “Legitimizing Negative Aspects in GRI-Oriented Sustainability Reporting: A Qualitative Analysis of Corporate Disclosure Strategies”, and the categorization of simulacrum is based upon the findings of Olivier Boiral’s 2013 paper “Sustainability reports as simulacra? A counter-account of A and A+ GRI reports.
The results of the study show that there has been no significant increase or decrease in the reporting of negative disclosure or simulacra to determine it as an effect of the new legislation. The study does contribute to the growing number of papers that critically analyze the transparency of CSR material, both in text and image material.
Kokoelmat
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