FACTORES DETERMINANTES EN LA EMISION Y LA VERIFICACIÓN DE INFORMES DE SOSTENIBILIDAD: UN ESTUDIO ENTRE LAS ORGANIZACIONES COOPERATIVAS Y MUTUALES MAS GRANDES DEL MUNDO"
[EN] In recent years, increasing demand for new social requirements has caused activities linked to Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). Thus, a large number of companies introduce sustainability criteria into their business strategy, and they take actions on issues related to good governance, imp...
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| Tipo de recurso: | tesis doctoral |
| Fecha de publicación: | 2016 |
| País: | España |
| Institución: | Universitat Politècnica de València (UPV) |
| Repositorio: | RiuNet. Repositorio Institucional de la Universitat Politécnica de Valéncia |
| Idioma: | español |
| OAI Identifier: | oai:riunet.upv.es:10251/67990 |
| Acceso en línea: | https://riunet.upv.es/handle/10251/67990 |
| Access Level: | acceso abierto |
| Palabra clave: | Sostenibilidad RSC Reporting Verificación Cooperativas ECONOMIA, SOCIOLOGIA Y POLITICA AGRARIA ECONOMIA FINANCIERA Y CONTABILIDAD |
| Sumario: | [EN] In recent years, increasing demand for new social requirements has caused activities linked to Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). Thus, a large number of companies introduce sustainability criteria into their business strategy, and they take actions on issues related to good governance, improving the work environment, social action, business practices and respect for the environment. The emergence of CSR has greatly influenced business communication. Recent decades have witnessed growth in sustainability reporting. This practice has quickly become the main established tool through which companies worldwide communicate their economic, social and environmental performance to stakeholders. However, as the sustainability reporting is consolidated, the need for credible information in this area is critical. As a result, companies submit their CSR reports to an assurance process carried out by independent experts to improve their credibility. Previous studies have explored how companies adopt reporting and assurance practices. Some academics have attempted to identify the factors that explain why companies issue sustainability reports and why they adopt external assurance. Moreover, prior research works have analysed assurance statements and showed that approaches in sustainability assurance differ significantly across assurance providers. Furthermore, some authors have evaluated the quality of assurance statements and they have tried to determine what factors influence the quality. Given the shortage of prior studies, this research focuses on the special case of cooperative and mutual organisations. These organisations, in view of their social character, are highly susceptible to CSR. Therefore, this is a pioneering work while analyses the sustainability reporting and assurance, from a new perspective different to stock companies. Thus, the aim of this research is the analysis of sustainability reporting and assurance practices among the 300 largest cooperatives and mutual organisations in the world. By combining both quantitative and qualitative statistical techniques, the purpose is to determine what factors have an impact on reporting and assurance, as well as to assess assurance statements and study what factors affect the quality of them. Results show that the publication of a sustainability report depends significantly on the organisation size, its origin country and the sector in which it operates. There is also evidence that country and sector significantly influence the decision to assure. Moreover, the choice of provider depends significantly on the organisation size. Furthermore, the format and content of the assurance reports differ by type of provider. Finally, it should be noted that the quality of reports depends on organisation size, country and sector. Despite having social characteristics and to be an enabling environment for CSR, reporting is scarce between cooperative and mutual organisations, though, a bet is displayed for assurance. Such organisations should use their social nature to lead these practices and to be an example of CSR. |
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