Quality and Diffusion of Social and Sustainability Reporting in Italian Public Utility Companies

Abstract

In recent decades, non-financial reporting has been widely debated in the literature relating to both public and private sectors. Non-financial reporting is used to increase accountability and transparency, and to adapt to external pressures and stakeholder expectations. The focus on external factors, i.e., transparency and stakeholders, has largely precluded research into the quality of non-financial reporting. Nevertheless, the quality and reliability of sustainability reports have been widely questioned in the literature. Non-financial reporting may provide purely symbolic actions to manage expectations. This paper analyzes the level of diffusion and quality of non-financial reporting tools in the public utility sector. We use the principles of the GRI (Global Reporting Initiative) framework to measure quality, i.e., clarity and accuracy, timeliness and stakeholder engagement, comparability, and reliability. We use a qualitative exploratory approach with a mix of primary and secondary sources. The results show that despite the increasing use of non-financial reporting in organizational life, it is not diffused within public utilities. We address the issue of quality, and find that, overall, the accuracy/clarity and comparability of non-financial reporting is satisfactory; timeliness and stakeholder engagement appear to be acceptable, while reliability does not appear to be acceptable.

Cultural organizations, digital Corporate Social Responsibility and stakeholder engagement in virtual museums: a multiple case study. How digitization is influencing the attitude toward CSR

“…From a methodological point of view, the development of a case study represents a “strategy of research that is concentrated on the comprehension of the dynamics that characterizes specific contexts” (Eisenhardt, 1989, p. 532). The case study analysis presented here was carried out by examining the content of non‐financial reporting from a sample of Italian virtual museums through the adoption of a qualitative exploratory approach (Badia et al, 2020: 5). A qualitative approach focusing on research in action (Fayolle, 2004) allows the researcher to better describe and understand situations in a given context.…”

“…Interviews to managers engaged in CSR and accountability practices were semi‐structured. The elaboration and the interpretation of the data collected integrate and adapt the procedures adopted by Santos, Pereira, and Silva (2006), Kotler, Kotler, and Kotler (2008), Ferreira and Gabriel (2019), and Badia et al (2020). Some scholars took part in the processes of coding and interpreting data.…”

“…Corporate Social Responsibility has been examined in literature from different points of view. Here we will mainly focus on non‐financial CSR disclosure (Sannino, Lucchese, Zampone, & Lombardi, 2020), whose quality is in general quite poor due to lack of stakeholder engagement on the one hand, and to a certain vagueness of the relevant regulations on the other (Badia et al, 2020: 2). This paper intends to analyze the quality of non‐financial reporting in virtual museums, by assessing the quality of their reporting tools (Badia et al, 2020: 2) through the adoption of a GRI‐based operational model within the context of a multiple case study.…”

Sustainability, Sociocultural Challenges, and New Power of Capitalism for Renewable Energy Megaprojects in an Indigenous Mayan Community of Mexico

“…Currently, there is talk of a new dimension of sustainable development that incorporates elements of a political and institutional nature, which are considered to be favorable elements due to the role played by the state and institutions as guarantors of harmonization scenarios in the economic [12], social [13], and environmental [14] spheres. The integration of these different aspects is presented graphically in Figure 1.…”

“…The integration of these different aspects is presented graphically in Figure 1. [12], social [13], and environmental [14] spheres. The integration of these different aspects is presented graphically in Figure 1.…”