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 Finance, Governance and Sustainability

STAKEHOLDER ENGAGEMENT
AND SUSTAINABILITY
REPORTING
Marco Bellucci and Giacomo Manetti
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 asso-
ciated 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 polit-
ical 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 sus-
tainability 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. Conse-
quently, it is important to understand what elements organizations 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 responsibil-
ity, 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 administra-
tion at the School of Economics and Management. His research interests include stake-
holder theory, corporate social responsibility, sustainability reporting and assurance, the
third sector and accounting history. Additionally, he is the author of many scholarly arti-
cles and four books and was a visiting scholar at the Schulich School of Business at York
University in Toronto in 2012.
Finance, Governance and Sustainability: Challenges to
Theory and Practice Series
Series Editor: Professor Güler Aras
Yildiz Technical University, Turkey;
Georgetown University, Washington DC, USA

Focusing on the studies of academicians, researchers, entrepreneurs, policy makers

and government officers, this international series aims to contribute to the progress in
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combine strong conceptual analysis with a wide range of empirical data and a wealth
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Strategy, Structure and Corporate Governance

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Corporate Behavior and Sustainability

Doing Well by Being Good
Edited by Güler Aras and Coral Ingley

Corporate Social Responsibility and Sustainable Development

Social Capital and Corporate Development in Developing Economies
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Towards a Global Ethos of Management
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Sustainability Accounting and Integrated Reporting

Edited by Charl de Villiers and Warren Maroun

Women on Corporate Boards

An International Perspective
Edited by Maria Aluchna and Güler Aras

Stakeholder Engagement and Sustainability Reporting

Marco Bellucci and Giacomo Manetti

For more information about this series, please visit www.routledge.com/Finance-

Governance-and-Sustainability/book-series/FINGOVSUST
Stakeholder Engagement and
Sustainability Reporting

Marco Bellucci and Giacomo Manetti

with a foreword by Linda Thorne
First published 2019
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
and by Routledge
711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
 2019 Marco Bellucci and Giacomo Manetti
The right of Marco Bellucci and Giacomo Manetti to be identified as authors
of this work has been asserted by them in accordance with sections 77 and
78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or
utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now
known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in
any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing
from the publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or
registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation
without intent to infringe.
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Bellucci, Marco, author. | Manetti, Giacomo, author.
Title: Stakeholder engagement and sustainability reporting / Marco Bellucci
and Giacomo Manetti.
Description: Abingdon, Oxon ; New York, NY : Routledge, 2018. | Series:
Finance, governance and sustainability: challenges to theory and practice
series ; 10
Identifiers: LCCN 2018009736| ISBN 9780815373155 (hardback) |
ISBN 9781351243957 (ebook) | ISBN 9781351243926 (mobipocket)
Subjects: LCSH: Sustainable development reporting. | Corporations—
Investor relations. | Sustainable development.
Classification: LCC HD60.3 .B45 2018 | DDC 338.9/27—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2018009736

ISBN: 978-0-8153-7315-5 (hbk)

ISBN: 978-1-351-24395-7 (ebk)

Typeset in Times New Roman

by Swales & Willis Ltd, Exeter, Devon, UK
To our wives
Contents

List of figures viii

List of tables ix
Foreword by Linda Thorne x
Acknowledgements xiv

1 Introduction 1

2 Business and sustainability 6

2.1 Enterprises’ extended role in society 6
2.2 The path to integrated reporting 12
2.3 The concept of sustainability 19

3 Materiality in sustainability reporting 37

3.1 Social and environmental sustainability reporting 37
3.2 The topic of materiality and its relevance for
sustainability reporting 48

4 A theory of stakeholder engagement 66

4.1 Stakeholder theory 66
4.2 The process of stakeholder engagement 76
4.3 Stakeholder engagement for sustainability reporting 88
4.4 A review of stakeholder engagement tools 100

5 An empirical overview of stakeholder engagement in

sustainability reports 121
5.1 Research context and objectives 121
5.2 Research design 123
5.3 Discussion of results 134

6 Conclusions 150

Index 156
Figures

4.1 From an input-output model to the stakeholder model 68

4.2 Three aspects of stakeholder theory 71
4.3 The components of stakeholder engagement 78
4.4 Stakeholder identification in Mitchell et al. (1997) 80
4.5 A 12-rung ladder of stakeholder management and engagement 89
5.1 Providers of external assurance 125
Tables

2.1 Guiding principles for an integrated report 17

2.2 Content elements of an integrated report 18
2.3 Strong and weak forms of sustainability 22
3.1 Main theories used to explain why organizations publish
sustainability reports 42
3.2 Motivations for the assurance of SR 57
4.1 Clarkson principles for stakeholder engagement 84
4.2 Aspects of the GRI G4 guidelines directly concerned with
stakeholder engagement 96
4.3 Process for defining reporting content using the principles
of materiality and stakeholder inclusiveness in the
GRI G4 guidelines 97
4.4 Levels of stakeholder engagement and supporting
methodologies 103
5.1 Organizations per sector 124
5.2 Organization types and stock exchange listing 124
5.3 Region and size 124
5.4 Adherence level and integrated reports 125
5.5 List and description of data collected from the GRI
sustainability database 129
5.6 List and description of data collected from the
content analysis 130
5.7 Research questions, categories and results of the
content analysis 134
Foreword
Linda Thorne

In the 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 firms’ extended responsibilities in our increasingly
inter-connected world. By studying issues associated with the greatest chal-
lenges mankind currently faces – from climate change to social exclusion – the
scientific community is aware of the need to account for companies’ actions and
agendas (Crane & Matten, 2016).
This volume examines and emphasizes the need for stakeholder engagement
in promoting corporate social responsibility (CSR). By so doing, it stands in
direct contrast to Milton Friedman’s perspective on the responsibility of business
as focusing solely on owners’ and shareholders’ economic interests (Friedman,
2007; 1970). Many agree that Friedman’s perspective is becoming progres-
sively untenable as corporations are increasingly willing, for various reasons, to
address the needs and expectations of their stakeholders (not just shareholders)
and to create shared value (not just shareholder value). For example, statements
pertaining to expanded corporate commitment – even though some may be rhe-
torical in nature – can be found in companies’ sustainability reports or integrated
annual reports, particularly in high-impact sectors and sectors with high legiti-
macy concerns. Organizations operating in these fields must deal with social and
environmental issues every day and are very sensitive to the interests of sev-
eral stakeholder groups. More specifically, the analysis presented in this volume
focuses on these sectors and includes the chemical, energy, food and beverage,
forest and paper products, mining, textile and apparel, tobacco and waste man-
agement sectors.
Friedman offers an excellent starting definition of CSR. According to
Friedman, CSR is when a company – or managers acting on its behalf – has
a “social conscience and take[s] seriously its responsibilities for providing
employment, eliminating discrimination, avoiding pollution” (1970) and vol-
untarily addresses objectives beyond shareholders’ economic interests. In other
words, CSR implies that companies adopt expanded responsibilities beyond
the narrow economic interests of shareholders, consider the interests of a wide
collection of firm stakeholders (McGuire, 1963; Carroll, 1999), and undertake
 Foreword xi
courses of action that are “desirable in terms of the values and objectives of
society” (Bowen, 1953).
Given the evolving expectations of both consumers and investors, corporations
are increasingly communicating to an expanded stakeholder audience regarding
how corporate sustainability strategies are integrated into their business models.
Over the past 40 years, companies have begun to pay greater attention to environ-
mental and social issues (Cho, 2009; De Villiers, Rinaldi, & Unerman, 2014; Buhr,
Gray, & Milne, 2014; Guthrie & Parker, 1989). At the same time, there has been
substantial growth in research that tackles social and environmental accounting top-
ics (Deegan, 2002). This growing interest has raised new questions regarding the
underlying objectives of corporations and the best ways to account for (and report
on) CSR and the extent to which the objectives of various stakeholder communities
have been addressed (Gray, 2016; Adams & McNicholas, 2007). The development
of the reporting of social and environmental information has resulted in various
narratives that articulate – with varying degrees of thoroughness and misdirection –
organizations’ relationships with their stakeholders and with the environment
(Gray, 2010; Brown & Dillard, 2014; Kolk, 2004.
Guided by the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI), stakeholder engagement has
increasingly played a key role in dictating the information to be included in sustain-
ability reports (Brown & Dillard, 2014; Manetti & Bellucci, 2016; Manetti, 2011).
Stakeholder engagement is the process by which companies interactively engage
with their stakeholders to understand their key corporate objectives and priorities.
Stakeholder engagement can act as a powerful tool for dialogic communication and
accounting (Bebbington, Brown, Frame, & Thomson, 2007; Brown & Dillard, 2014)
and a channel for interactive mutual learning while also promoting transformative
action and social change (Bebbington et al., 2007; Dillard & Brown, 2012). By
definition, stakeholder engagement is a re-iterative process that fosters an open and
evolving relationship between a corporation and its stakeholders and thus ensures that
stakeholders’ evolving expectations can be addressed (Manetti & Bellucci, 2016).
By studying the various features of stakeholder engagement in sustainability
reporting, this volume makes a significant and original contribution – both empir-
ically and theoretically – to the social and environmental accounting literature.
CSR research has evolved from a specialty area of interest and research to one that
is pervasive and crosses national boundaries and corporate cultures.
To advance our understanding of the extent to which corporations value,
engage and address the needs of various corporate stakeholders, this volume pre-
sents research that bridges the divide between traditional sociological research
and archival studies by providing insight into the properties of information on
which sustainability activities are reported, and in so doing, provides insight on
stakeholder engagement’s importance for and impact on social and environmental
accounting. This volume aims to provide insight for both experienced and emerg-
ing researchers on the complexities of the information on which CSR research is
based. As a result, I believe that this volume is an invaluable resource for graduate
students and established scholars regarding the current state of CSR research and
corporate accountability.
xii Foreword
References
Adams, C. A., & McNicholas, P. (2007). Making a difference: Sustainability reporting,
accountability and organisational change. Accounting, Auditing & Accountability
Journal, 20(3), 382–402.
Bebbington, J., Brown, J., Frame, B., & Thomson, I. (2007). Theorizing engagement:
The potential of a critical dialogic approach. Accounting, Auditing & Accountability
Journal, 20(3), 356–381.
Bowen, H. R. (1953). Social responsibilities of the businessman (No. 3). New York:
Harper.
Brown, J., & Dillard, J. (2014). Integrated reporting: On the need for broadening out and
opening up. Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, 27(7), 1120–1156. http://
doi.org/doi:10.1108/AAAJ-04-2013-1313
Buhr, N., Gray, R., & Milne, M. J. (2014). Histories, rationales, voluntary standards
and future prospects for sustainability reporting. In J. Bebbington, J. Unerman, &
B. O’Dwyer (Eds), Sustainability accounting and accountability. London: Routledge.
Carroll, A. B. (1999). Corporate social responsibility: Evolution of a definitional construct.
Business and Society, 38(3), 268–295.
Cho, C. H. (2009). Legitimation strategies used in response to environmental disaster:
A French case study of Total SA’s Erika and AZF incidents. European Accounting
Review, 18(1), 33–62.
Crane, A., & Matten, D. (2016). Engagement required: The changing role of the corpora-
tion in society. In D. Barton, D. Horvath, & M. Kipping (Eds), Re-imagining capitalism:
Building a responsible, long-term model. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Deegan, C. (2002). Introduction: The legitimising effect of social and environmental
disclosures-a theoretical foundation. Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal,
15(3), 282–311.
De Villiers, C., Rinaldi, L., & Unerman, J. (2014). Integrated reporting: Insights, gaps and
an agenda for future research. Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, 27(7),
1042–1067. http://doi.org/doi:10.1108/AAAJ-06-2014-1736
Dillard, J., & Brown, J. (2012). Agonistic pluralism and imagining CSEAR into the future.
Social and Environmental Accountability Journal, 32(1), 3–16.
Friedman, M. (2007) The social responsibility of business is to increase its profits. In W. C.
Zimmerli, M. Holzinger, and K. Richter (Eds), Corporate ethics and corporate govern-
ance. Berlin: Springer.
Friedman, M. (1970). The social responsibility of business is to increase its profits. The
New York Times Magazine, September 13, 1970. The New York Times Company.
Gray, R. (2010). Is accounting for sustainability actually accounting for sustainability
. . . and how would we know? An exploration of narratives of organisations and the
planet. Accounting Organizations and Society, 35(1), 47–62. http://doi.org/10.1016/j.
aos.2009.04.006
Gray, R. (2016). Reading for displeasure: Why bother with social accounting at all? Social
and Environmental Accountability Journal, 36(2), 153–161. http://doi.org/10.1080/09
69160X.2016.1197625
Guthrie, J., & Parker, L. D. (1989). Corporate social reporting: A rebuttal of legitimacy
theory. Accounting and Business Research, 19(76), 343–352.
Kolk, A. (2004). A decade of sustainability reporting: Developments and significance.
International Journal of Environment and Sustainable Development, 3(1), 51–64.
http://doi.org/10.1504/IJESD.2004.004688
 Foreword xiii
Lee, M. D. P. (2008). A review of the theories of corporate social responsibility: Its evolu-
tionary path and the road ahead. International Journal of Management Reviews, 10(1),
53–73.
Manetti, G. (2011). The quality of stakeholder engagement in sustainability report-
ing: Empirical evidence and critical points. Corporate Social Responsibility and
Environmental Management, 18(2), 110–122.
Manetti, G., & Bellucci, M. (2016). The use of social media for engaging stakeholders in sus-
tainability reporting. Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, 29(6), 985–1011.
http://doi.org/10.1108/AAAJ-08-2014-1797
McGuire, J. W. (1963). Business and society. New York: McGraw-Hill.
Acknowledgements

We are sincerely and deeply grateful to Linda Thorne, Luca Bagnoli, Kristina
Abbotts, Andrew Crane and all others who supported this project and provided
academic guidance and human inspiration. We also wish to thank Sofia Biagini,
Dania Cantatori, Gabriele Citrolo, Joseph Mazziotti and Vanessa Pezzetta.
Finally, we are grateful to our families for their lasting encouragement and love.
Although this monograph is the result of a team effort, Marco Bellucci can be
considered the author of sections 2.1, 3.1, 4.2, 4.3, 4.4, 5, 6 and Giacomo Manetti
the author of section 2.2, 2.3, 3.2, 4.1. Section 1 has been written by both authors.
1 Introduction

Currently, many of the largest economies in the world are corporations, not
nations. Many multinationals’ revenues surpass the budgets of entire countries.
For example, Apple’s turnover exceeds Austria’s revenues by a few billion dol-
lars, while the revenues of British Petroleum easily compete with the federal
budget of Mexico1 (CIA, 2016; Fortune, 2016). Although we acknowledge that
dollar-value company revenues are not equivalent to governments’ dollar-value
budgets, this illustrative comparison nevertheless reveals the vast power held by
corporations and raises important questions regarding large firms’ accountability
and responsibility to civil society.
Particularly in the context of growing environmental concerns, the role of large
enterprises in promoting sustainability is increasingly highlighted. Both academic
conversations and public opinion debates increasingly question firms’ extended
responsibilities in the frame of contemporary and inter-connected societies. In
studying issues associated with the greatest challenges mankind currently faces –
from climate change to social exclusion – the current scientific community is
fully aware of the need to account for companies’ actions and agendas, especially
those of large companies (Aras & Crowther, 2008; Crane & Matten, 2016). Large
firms are becoming global political actors – but with great power comes greater
responsibility.
As shown later in this volume, many authors agree that the historically prevailing
thesis that a firm’s first and only responsibility is to maximize value for sharehold-
ers (cf. Friedman, 1970) is becoming progressively untenable (cf. Freeman, 1984).
Enterprises themselves are increasingly willing – for different reasons – to show
their commitment to the needs and expectations of their stakeholders (not just those
of their shareholders), their aspiration to create shared value (not only value for
shareholders) and to make every element of their business sustainable. Although
they vary case by case from genuine to be completely rhetoric, statements on this
commitment are commonly found in the sustainability reports and integrated annual
reports of companies operating in various sectors, even and especially in the most
impactful ones, such mining and oil and gas (Bini, Bellucci, & Giunta, 2018).
Given consumers’ and investors’ evolving expectations, corporations currently
face the need to communicate to internal and external stakeholders how their
2 Introduction
business model is integrated with aspects of sustainability. In the last 40 years,
companies have exhibited increasing interest in environmental and social issues
(Aras & Crowther, 2016; Bagnoli, 2004); at the same time, the research attention
devoted to social and environmental accounting topics has grown substantially
(Bini et al., 2018; Deegan, 2002). This growing interest has raised new questions
on the real objectives of large corporations and the best ways to account for and
report on the degree to which these objectives have been achieved. The develop-
ment of social and environmental accounting and reporting in recent decades has
resulted in a wide range of actual and potential accounts of extended organiza-
tional interactions with society and with the natural environment: such accounts
can be understood as narratives of events that articulate, with varying degrees of
thoroughness and misdirection, the relationships between the organization and its
stakeholders and the environment (Gray, 2010).
With that in mind, we believe it is now more important than ever that large
enterprises take into account their stakeholders’ opinions when defining their
strategies on the one hand and, on the other, disclose material and relevant infor-
mation regarding their ability to contribute to sustainability while delivering value
to all their stakeholders. An increasing consensus is being reached on large enter-
prises’ responsibility to report not only on their financial performance but also
on their social and environmental outcomes. Consequently, in practical terms, it
is important to understand the elements on which organizations need to report to
provide stakeholders with relevant and comprehensive sustainability reports.
In the past two decades, stakeholder dialogue and engagement have played
an increasingly important role in defining the contents of integrated and sustain-
ability reporting (Fasan & Mio, 2017; Manetti, 2011) in accordance with the
principle of materiality and relevance of information disclosed (Global Reporting
Initiative, 2013; Unerman & Bennett, 2004). According to the materiality princi-
ple, material aspects are those that reflect the organization’s significant economic,
environmental and social impacts or that substantively influence stakeholders’
assessments and decisions (Global Reporting Initiative, 2013). Stakeholder engage-
ment can represent a powerful tool for dialogic communication and accounting
(Bebbington, Brown, Frame, & Thomson, 2007; Brown & Dillard, 2014) and a
channel for interactive mutual learning that is capable of promoting transforma-
tive action and social change (Bebbington et al., 2007; Bellucci & Manetti, 2017;
Passetti, Bianchi, Battaglia, & Frey, 2017). Moreover, stakeholder engagement
is a milestone policy in social and environmental accounting because it allows
an organization to interact with its stakeholders in a two-way dialogue in which
the engager and the engaged mutually learn from this cooperation and potentially
revise their expectations, strategies and behaviors (Manetti & Bellucci, 2016;
Manetti, Bellucci, & Bagnoli, 2016; Owen, Swift, & Hunt, 2001).
Against this background, this volume aims to contribute to the social and envi-
ronmental accounting literature by studying the role and features of stakeholder
engagement in sustainability reporting.
This contribution is structured as follows. The next chapter introduces and
discusses corporations’ extended responsibilities in contemporary societies and
 Introduction 3
considers the opposition between shareholder and stakeholder theories. Alongside
the evolution of enterprises’ objectives lies the evolution of reporting and the
need to account for an integrated and broader set of information. Consequently,
the concept of sustainability and the role of enterprises and accounting in sustain-
ability are framed in light of social and environmental accounting.
The third chapter provides a literature review on sustainability reporting,
materiality assessment and stakeholder engagement. Many local and global fac-
tors currently advocate for social and environmental reporting: the increasing
relevance of beneficial relations with stakeholders, the growing concern about
business ethics and CSR and the mounting importance of ethical investment have
all increased the need for new accounting methods that organizations and their
stakeholders can use to mutually address these issues. After analyzing the main
motivations underlying sustainability reporting, we discuss the topic of material-
ity and the salience of information in social and environmental reports through the
lens of the materiality principle and the main sustainability reporting guidelines.
We then discuss how the involvement of every relevant group of stakeholders can
represent the most straightforward way to produce comprehensive, relevant and
material sustainability reports.
The fourth chapter provides a theoretical framework based on stakeholder
theory and the involvement of stakeholders in decision making and sustainabil-
ity reporting. We introduce a review of the different definitions of stakeholders
and the diverse approaches to stakeholder theory. Consequently, the process of
stakeholder engagement is theoretically divided into three phases: 1) stakeholder
identification and analysis; 2) interaction with stakeholders; and 3) evaluation and
reporting. Each phase is analyzed by considering the contributions of the most
relevant authors and our own elaboration. Then, we discuss the theory underlying
the possible achievement of materiality among the information in sustainability
reports through stakeholder engagement. The last section of the fourth chapter is
dedicated to a review of stakeholder engagement tools in practice and to a focus
on social media as a tool that supports dialogic accounting.
Many theoretical tools introduced in the fourth chapter are then used to support
our empirical analysis. The fifth chapter adopts a deep empirical focus on how
sustainability reports address the topic of stakeholder engagement, the distinctive
features of this involvement process and the role of stakeholder engagement in
assessing materiality and defining the contents of such a disclosure. To pursue this
objective, we opted for a mixed methodology built on content analysis – a research
technique based on the objective, systematic and quantitative description of the
manifest content of communications (Berelson, 1952). We analyze 211 sustaina-
bility reports that were published in 2016 in compliance with the Global Reporting
Initiative (GRI) G4 guidelines from organizations operating in eight sectors with
high social and environmental impact (Chemicals, Energy, Food and Beverage
Products, Forest and Paper Products, Mining, Textiles and Apparel, Tobacco and
Waste Management). We focus on these sectors because of the legitimate concerns
they raise: organizations operating in these sectors must wrestle various societal,
organizational and environmental issues linked to sustainability and legitimacy
4 Introduction
and are very sensitive to the interests of several stakeholder groups. The results of
this content analysis are discussed in detail in the last section of the fifth chapter.
Through this empirical analysis, we aim to contribute to the stakeholder theory
literature and sustainability reporting literature original insights on the properties
of information regarding stakeholder engagement policies and practices stated in
sustainability reports.
Finally, we draw conclusions that summarize our contribution, offer supple-
mentary comments on our main results and practical implications, and provide
several ideas for further research on stakeholder engagement in social and envi-
ronmental accounting.

Note
1 Considering the 2010 spillage of the BP-operated Deepwater Horizon oil platform in the
Gulf of Mexico, this association is not completely casual.

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Building a responsible, long-term model. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Deegan, C. (2002). Introduction: The legitimising effect of social and environmental
disclosures-a theoretical foundation. Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal,
15(3), 282–311.
Fasan, M., & Mio, C. (2017). Fostering stakeholder engagement: The role of material-
ity disclosure in Integrated Reporting. Business Strategy and the Environment, 26(3),
288–305.
 Introduction 5
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