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Hard and soft sustainability disclosures: Australia’s resources industry

Author

Listed:
  • Tricia Ong
  • Terri Trireksani
  • Hadrian Geri Djajadikerta

Abstract

Purpose - Although studies in corporate sustainability have been vastly growing, there has been an increasing demand for more industry-specific sustainability reporting studies to develop a greater understanding of industry differences in sustainability reporting practice. This study aims to measure the quality of sustainability disclosures in the current leading environmentally sensitive industry in Australia – the resources industry. Design/methodology/approach - A scoring index was developed to measure economic, social and environmental aspects of sustainability by integrating the fundamental principles of the hard and soft disclosure items from Clarksonet al.’s (2008) environmental index into the social and economic aspects of the Global Reporting Initiative framework. Subsequently, the index was used to assess sustainability disclosures in the annual and sustainability reports of resources companies in Australia. Findings - The main findings show that companies report more of soft disclosure items than the hard ones. It is also found that companies report most sustainability information in the economic aspect rather than the social and the environmental aspects of sustainability. Most companies disclose sustainability information in their annual reports with few companies producing stand-alone sustainability reports. Originality/value - This study addresses the need for more industry-specific sustainability studies by focusing on Australia’s resources industry. It also contributes to the lack of an existing tool to measure disclosures based on companies’ true contributions to sustainability by developing a new scoring index for hard and soft sustainability disclosures, which includes all three aspects of sustainability (i.e. economic, environmental and social).

Suggested Citation

  • Tricia Ong & Terri Trireksani & Hadrian Geri Djajadikerta, 2016. "Hard and soft sustainability disclosures: Australia’s resources industry," Accounting Research Journal, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 29(2), pages 198-217, July.
  • Handle: RePEc:eme:arjpps:v:29:y:2016:i:2:p:198-217
    DOI: 10.1108/ARJ-03-2015-0030
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    Citations

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    Cited by:

    1. Kim Beasy & Fred Gale, 2020. "Disrupting the Status-Quo of Organisational Board Composition to Improve Sustainability Outcomes: Reviewing the Evidence," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(4), pages 1-18, February.
    2. Augustine Donkor & Terri Trireksani & Hadrian Geri Djajadikerta, 2023. "Board Diversity and Corporate Sustainability Performance: Do CEO Power and Firm Environmental Sensitivity Matter?," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(23), pages 1-24, November.
    3. Assadej Vanichchinchai, 2023. "The relationships between soft and hard factors of the Toyota way: a socio-technical perspective," Operations Management Research, Springer, vol. 16(2), pages 768-779, June.
    4. Aries Sutantoputra, 2022. "Do stakeholders’ demands matter in environmental disclosure practices? Evidence from Australia," Journal of Management & Governance, Springer;Accademia Italiana di Economia Aziendale (AIDEA), vol. 26(2), pages 449-478, June.
    5. Obiamaka Adaeze Nwobu & Collins Ngwakwe & Akintola Owolabi & Kingsley Adeyemo, 2021. "An Assessment of Sustainability Disclosures in Oil and Gas Listed Companies in Nigeria," International Journal of Energy Economics and Policy, Econjournals, vol. 11(4), pages 352-361.

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