The concept of sustainable development (SD) was introduced in the “Our Common Future” report, launched in 1987, which influenced the emergence of many studies related to the role played by organizations as actors supporting SD. SD is a consolidated concept; however, since 1987, many political, social, and natural events have occurred on our planet, which have impacted companies’ behaviors. However, the diversity of research from different fields has provoked, among the academic community, a lack of clarity surrounding “sustainability” (S), “corporate sustainability” (CS) and “corporate social responsibility” (CSR) concepts. This lack of clarity can also be identified in companies, which have referred to “sustainability” only in the environmental field. Recently, increased discussions related to corporate sustainability metrics have shed light on the ESG criteria (environmental, social, and governance), increasing misperceptions associated with the concept. Ambiguous definitions and constructs may prevent managers from identifying sustainability goals for their companies. Therefore, literature reviews as a research method are more relevant than ever. Thus, in this work, we aim to answer the following question: How should we integrate different perspectives on corporate sustainability, in order to broaden the understanding of the concept? In this study, we conducted a focused bibliographic review and revisited the papers that most influenced the construction of the concepts. The information in this paper is helpful to improve the understanding of CS; to provide specific insights into the studies that have investigated this field; to help managers and entrepreneurs who are improving CS actions in their companies; and to support academia by putting together a large amount of information about this theme in one paper.
This chapter aims to systematically review the literature on modernization and accountability practice in the social economy. The collection of bibliography to support this systematic review was made in several scientific databases, only considering documents written in English. The criteria for researching the documents used in the development of this chapter are explained in the section that presents the methodology. It is possible to verify that only two articles published in the 20th century, 1997 and 1999, were identified, with all other articles published in the 21st century. This leads to the conclusion that the concern about the issue of accountability, particularly in social economy organizations, is relatively recent and has been of growing interest. The research is more focused on the accountability practice and not so much on modernization, although they are two inseparable issues.
Blockchain technology, smart contracts, and asset tokenization have relevant implications for the auditing environment. This paper evaluates the current stage of blockchain application in auditing, analyzing scientific publications and identifying the impact of what is already a reality and the potential effects of its improvements in audit professionals’ activities performance. The article considers the proposals and suggestions on the leading research indexed by the Scopus and Web of Science databases. We analyzed 374 papers on the topic of blockchain and provide a summary and analysis of the current state of auditing research. The bibliometric analysis was performed using the Bibliometrix R Package and the VOSviewer software. After a systematic study of abstracts and a general review of the papers to only include those directly related to our work’s objectives, we found 78 papers. The work results in a framework of potential and effective implications of blockchain technology for auditing, pointing out several new challenges in terms of skills and knowledge needed in this new reality of audit professionals.
Given the extreme importance of improving the accountability of private social solidarity institutions (IPSS), both for reasons of legal compliance and for reasons of improving legitimacy and notoriety among their stakeholders, in order to be accountable to them and in order to maintain their sustainability, this article aims to present a framework designed under a more comprehensive research project for the assessment of IPSS accountability, as well as the preliminary results of a pilot test of Portuguese IPSS. The framework was developed from a combination of methodologies that included a literature review, field work and a focus group, resulting in six dimensions with 76 indicators. For the pilot test, the data were collected by questionnaire for the years 2018, 2019 and 2020. The results of the pilot test, despite the limited number of entities, allowed the identification of some trends and indicators where entities show lower results and where they will have to focus to improve their accountability. Some possible effects of the COVID-19 pandemic were also identified. Therefore, we believe that the framework designed answers the research question: how can we promote accountability (social, financial and economic) in the social economy sector, in particular in the case of IPSS?
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