Accounting for an enterprise's wellbeing

Business enterprise today is being called upon to exercise significantly wider "social responsibility" than has traditionally been the case. As a result, individuals, communities and national governments are beginning to call for statements of "social account" which reflect a company's performance in the eyes not only of financial shareholders, but also of other stakeholders in the community at large. This paper, therefore, attempts to extend fundamental accounting principles, which have traditionally embraced only monetary stocks and flows, towards physical, social and psychological exchanges. It therefore provides a foundation both for the development of the accountant's/auditor's traditional role and for a means of communication between interest groups within and without the enter-prise. The paper does not attempt to develop thoroughgoing quantitative measures to the same degree of specificity as conventional financial accounts; rather it aims to develop a novel framework, to which both management practitioners and theorists may apply their own specific refinements.