IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/wly/buseth/v34y2025i1p260-279.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Stakeholder engagement disclosures in sustainability reports: Evidence from Italian food companies

Author

Listed:
  • Rubina Michela Galeotti
  • Mark Anthony Camilleri
  • Fabiana Roberto
  • Fabiana Sepe

Abstract

More businesses are embedding stakeholder engagement (SE) practices in their corporate disclosures. This article explores the extent to which SE practices are featured in the sustainability reports (SRs) of 48 Italian food and beverage businesses, following the latest Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) standards. The researchers analyze the content of their SRs dated 2020 and 2021. They utilize a panel regression technique to examine the relationship between stakeholder engagement disclosures (SED) and corporate financial performance (CFP), and to investigate the mediating role of SR assurance. The results show a positive and significant relationship between SED and CFP. They also confirm that there is a moderating effect from SR assurance on this causal path. However, the findings reveal that SED in SRs of Italian food companies is still moderate. This contribution builds on the logic behind the stakeholder theory. It implies that there is scope for food companies to forge relationships with stakeholders. It indicates that it is in their interest to disclose material information about their SE practices in their SR and to organize third party assurance assessments in order to improve their legitimacy with stakeholders.

Suggested Citation

  • Rubina Michela Galeotti & Mark Anthony Camilleri & Fabiana Roberto & Fabiana Sepe, 2025. "Stakeholder engagement disclosures in sustainability reports: Evidence from Italian food companies," Business Ethics, the Environment & Responsibility, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 34(1), pages 260-279, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:wly:buseth:v:34:y:2025:i:1:p:260-279
    DOI: 10.1111/beer.12642
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/beer.12642
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/beer.12642?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
    ---><---

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    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:wly:buseth:v:34:y:2025:i:1:p:260-279. 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.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using 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: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/26946424 .

    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.