IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/accfor/v34y2010i1p20-31.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Social and environmental report assurance: Some interview evidence

Author

Listed:
  • Jones, Michael John
  • Solomon, Jill Frances

Abstract

The steady growth of social and environmental reporting (SER) is being accompanied by an increase in social and environmental reporting assurance (SERA). The existing literature on SERA suggests that it is necessary to build credibility and trust among corporate stakeholders. Prior work has also found evidence of managerial and professional capture of SERA. In this paper, we present empirical evidence from interviews with corporate social responsibility representatives from 20 UK listed companies on whether they consider SERA to be necessary. We believe this to be the first research into SERA that uses an interview method. Our interviews revealed mixed feelings. Half of the respondents believed that external SERA would enhance credibility and trust which confirmed the prior literature. However, the other half believed that external SERA was not necessary, believing that internal assurance was sufficient. This was because they saw SERA as predominantly a managerial tool, useful for checking the efficiency of internal management control systems, rather than as a mechanism for enhancing corporate accountability to stakeholders and building credibility and trust. The potential for SERA to be a mechanism whereby greater dialogue is created between companies and their stakeholders on social and environmental issues is not being harnessed. This paper thus demonstrates a fundamental difference between the external prior normative literature and the managerial motivation in the SERA area.

Suggested Citation

  • Jones, Michael John & Solomon, Jill Frances, 2010. "Social and environmental report assurance: Some interview evidence," Accounting forum, Elsevier, vol. 34(1), pages 20-31.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:accfor:v:34:y:2010:i:1:p:20-31
    DOI: 10.1016/j.accfor.2009.11.002
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0155998209000489
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.accfor.2009.11.002?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Jill F. Solomon & Lauren Darby, 2005. "Is private social, ethical and environmental reporting mythicizing or demythologizing reality?," Accounting Forum, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 29(1), pages 27-47, March.
    2. Theodore J. Mock & Christiane Strohm & Kevin M. Swartz, 2007. "An Examination of Worldwide Assured Sustainability Reporting," Australian Accounting Review, CPA Australia, vol. 17(41), pages 67-77, March.
    3. Craig Deegan & Barry J. Cooper & Marita Shelly, 2006. "An Investigation of TBL Report Assurance Statements: Australian Evidence," Australian Accounting Review, CPA Australia, vol. 16(39), pages 2-18, July.
    4. David Owen & Tracey Swift & Christopher Humphrey & Mary Bowerman, 2000. "The new social audits: accountability, managerial capture or the agenda of social champions?," European Accounting Review, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 9(1), pages 81-98.
    5. Amanda Ball & David L. Owen & Rob Gray, 2000. "External transparency or internal capture? The role of third‐party statements in adding value to corporate environmental reports1," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 9(1), pages 1-23, January.
    6. O'Dwyer, Brendan & Owen, David L., 2005. "Assurance statement practice in environmental, social and sustainability reporting: a critical evaluation," The British Accounting Review, Elsevier, vol. 37(2), pages 205-229.
    7. Kamp, A.E.M., 2002. "Towards a framework for auditing environmental reports," Other publications TiSEM bf6004d3-7669-442f-95a4-6, Tilburg University, School of Economics and Management.
    8. Power, Michael, 1996. "Making things auditable," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 21(2-3), pages 289-315.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Katrin Hummel & Christian Schlick & Matthias Fifka, 2019. "The Role of Sustainability Performance and Accounting Assurors in Sustainability Assurance Engagements," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 154(3), pages 733-757, February.
    2. Kuruppu, Sanjaya & Milne, Markus J., 2010. "Dolphin deaths, organizational legitimacy and potential employees’ reactions to assured environmental disclosures," Accounting forum, Elsevier, vol. 34(1), pages 1-19.
    3. Alberto Fonseca, 2010. "How credible are mining corporations' sustainability reports? a critical analysis of external assurance under the requirements of the international council on mining and metals," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 17(6), pages 355-370, November.
    4. Charika Channuntapipat, 2021. "Can sustainability report assurance be a collaborative process and practice beyond the ritual of verification?," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 30(2), pages 775-786, February.
    5. Patrick Velte & Martin Stawinoga, 2017. "Empirical research on corporate social responsibility assurance (CSRA): A literature review," Journal of Business Economics, Springer, vol. 87(8), pages 1017-1066, November.
    6. Carmelo Reverte, 2021. "Do investors value the voluntary assurance of sustainability information? Evidence from the Spanish stock market," Sustainable Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 29(5), pages 793-809, September.
    7. Paolo Perego & Ans Kolk, 2012. "Multinationals’ Accountability on Sustainability: The Evolution of Third-party Assurance of Sustainability Reports," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 110(2), pages 173-190, October.
    8. Warren Maroun, 2020. "A Conceptual Model for Understanding Corporate Social Responsibility Assurance Practice," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 161(1), pages 187-209, January.
    9. Elies Seguí-Mas & Fernando Polo-Garrido & Helena María Bollas-Araya, 2018. "Sustainability Assurance in Socially-Sensitive Sectors: A Worldwide Analysis of the Financial Services Industry," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(8), pages 1-21, August.
    10. Olivier Boiral & Yves Gendron, 2011. "Sustainable Development and Certification Practices: Lessons Learned and Prospects," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 20(5), pages 331-347, July.
    11. Olivier Boiral & Iñaki Heras-Saizarbitoria & Marie-Christine Brotherton & Julie Bernard, 2019. "Ethical Issues in the Assurance of Sustainability Reports: Perspectives from Assurance Providers," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 159(4), pages 1111-1125, November.
    12. Ignace De Beelde & Sanne Tuybens, 2015. "Enhancing the Credibility of Reporting on Corporate Social Responsibility in Europe," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 24(3), pages 190-216, March.
    13. Elies Seguí-Mas & Helena-María Bollas-Araya & Fernando Polo-Garrido, 2018. "Assurance on Corporate Governance Reports in Spain: Towards an Enhanced Accountability or a New Form of Public Relations?," Administrative Sciences, MDPI, vol. 8(3), pages 1-12, July.
    14. Belen Fernandez‐Feijoo & Silvia Romero & Silvia Ruiz, 2018. "Financial Auditor and Sustainability Reporting: Does it matter?," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 25(3), pages 209-224, May.
    15. Renzo Junior & Peter Best & Julie Cotter, 2014. "Sustainability Reporting and Assurance: A Historical Analysis on a World-Wide Phenomenon," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 120(1), pages 1-11, March.
    16. Giacomo Manetti & Simone Toccafondi, 2012. "The Role of Stakeholders in Sustainability Reporting Assurance," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 107(3), pages 363-377, May.
    17. Steven DeSimone & Giuseppe D’Onza & Gerrit Sarens, 2021. "Correlates of internal audit function involvement in sustainability audits," Journal of Management & Governance, Springer;Accademia Italiana di Economia Aziendale (AIDEA), vol. 25(2), pages 561-591, June.
    18. Carla Rhianon Edgley & Michael John Jones & Jill Frances Solomon, 2010. "Stakeholder inclusivity in social and environmental report assurance," Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 23(4), pages 532-557, May.
    19. repec:ehu:cuader:49757 is not listed on IDEAS
    20. Josh Wei-Jun Hsueh, 2018. "Governance Structure and the Credibility Gap: Experimental Evidence on Family Businesses’ Sustainability Reporting," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 153(2), pages 547-568, December.
    21. Rashid Zaman & Muhammad Bilal Farooq & Fahad Khalid & Zeeshan Mahmood, 2021. "Examining the extent of and determinants for sustainability assurance quality: The role of audit committees," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 30(7), pages 2887-2906, November.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:accfor:v:34:y:2010:i:1:p:20-31. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.journals.elsevier.com/accounting-forum .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.