Stakeholder Engagement and Sustainability Reporting

In a context of growing social and environmental concerns, the role of large enterprises and corporations in encouraging sustainability has drawn increasing attention in recent years. Both academic debates and public-opinion research have called into question the extended responsibilities of firms in our increasingly inter-connected world. By studying issues associated with the greatest challenges mankind is currently facing — from climate change to social exclusion — the scientific community is aware of the need to account for the actions and agendas of companies, especially large ones. They are becoming important global political actors with great power, but also unprecedented responsibilities. With this in mind, the authors believe that it is more important than ever that large enterprises, on the one hand, take into account the opinion of their stakeholder while defining their strategies and, on the other hand, disclose material and relevant information on their ability to contribute to sustainability while delivering value for all of their stakeholders. A consensus is being reached on the responsibility of large enterprises to report in a triple bottom perspective — not only on their financial performances, but also on their social and environmental outcomes. Consequently, it is important to understand what elements organisations need to report on in order to provide stakeholders with relevant and comprehensive sustainability reports. Against this background, this book presents a significant and original contribution, both empirically and theoretically, to the social and environmental accounting literature by studying the various features of stakeholder engagement in sustainability reporting.

Marco Bellucci is a postdoctoral research fellow in accounting at the University of Florence. He holds a PhD with distinction in business administration and management from the University of Pisa. His research interests include corporate social responsibility, sustainability reporting, social enterprises and third sector organizations. He is social economy unit coordinator at ARCO Action Research for CO-development and project manager of the Yunus Social Business Centre of the University of Florence under the patronage of Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus. Additionally, he was a visiting scholar at the Schulich School of Business at York University in Toronto and is the author of many articles in various respected scholarly journals.

Giacomo Manetti is associate professor of accounting at the Department of Economics and Management of the University of Florence. He holds a PhD in planning and control from the University of Florence. He teaches financial accounting and business administration at the School of Economics and Management. His research interests include stakeholder theory, corporate social responsibility, sustainability reporting and assurance, the third sector, and accounting history. Additionally, he is the author of many scholarly articles and four books and was a visiting scholar at the Schulich School of Business at York University in Toronto in 2012.