Both financial and corporate social responsibility (CSR) reporting are bound by global constraints. A common trait among the reporting systems is a growing movement toward comparability and accountability. Global pressures initially motivated the push toward standalone CSR reporting and now toward integrated reporting. Integrated reports (IR) include financial, economic, governance, and social information in one report. In the United States, integrated reporting is voluntary and only a small number of companies have issued IRs to date. This report provides a history of CSR reporting and then examines whether the non-financial economic, governance and social indicators identified in prior literature as being of interest to retail investors (Cohen et al. 2011) are disclosed in the pioneering U.S. IRs. Descriptive results indicate the initial IRs cover predominately indicators of economic and social performance with little focus on governance. Further analysis indicates that the IRs examined do not, as a rule, provide the information most highly desired by investors (i.e. market share, executive compensation, and product safety). This study provides a baseline for companies preparing IRs and for regulators (i.e. SEC, FASB) in the context of determining future disclosure regulations.

This study reexamines the relationship between the quality of a firm’s voluntary environmental disclosures and firm value by exploring the relationship between the components of firm value (expected future cash flows and cost of equity) and voluntary environmental disclosure quality. We measure voluntary environmental disclosure quality using a disclosure index consistent with the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI, 2006) disclosure framework for a sample of US firms across five industries. In addition to overall disclosure quality, we consider the type (i.e., hard/soft) and the nature (i.e., positive/neutral/negative) of the disclosure in our analysis. Our analyses provide evidence that voluntary environmental quality is associated with firm value through both the cash flow and the cost of equity components, consistent with our expectations. More importantly, however, we demonstrate that both the type and nature of the environmental disclosures is informative in establishing the predicted relations. Thus, in addition to providing evidence on the association between voluntary disclosure quality and firm value, our results highlight the benefit of parsing broader measures (e.g. voluntary environmental disclosure quality) when examining complex relationships.

Copyright © 2013 by the Authors. All rights reserved. This case was prepared by Scott Marshall, Darrell Brown, Bex Sakarias and Min Cai as a basis for class discussion rather than to illustrate the effective or ineffective handling of an administrative situation. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, used in a spreadsheet, or transmitted in any form by any means without permission. oikos Case Writing Competition 2013 Social Entrepreneurship Track

Jack Graves is considering buying chicken. More precisely, Jack is considering where to buy chicken. He needs to make a recommendation to the purchasing team soon, and the decision is complicated. Jack is a long-time employee of the Burgerville restaurant chain, a quick-serve restaurant chain in the Northwest USA. Burgerville prides itself in being true to its long-held values while maintaining profitability and growth. Graves’ primary job at Burgerville is to assure that the company’s values are embedded in all its actions, including its relationships to its supply chain. His current concern is the dilemma of which values to promote. Burgerville sells chicken, lots of chicken. So the purchase of chicken has significant impacts on the social and environmental impacts of Burgerville’s supply chain. Should Burgerville buy local, with the inherent social and environmental benefits, while paying attentionOr should it find a supplier with some assurance that these potential problems are eliminated, regardless of location? Jack knows that Burgerville needs to address this issue soon, as the supply of chicken that is produced to Burgerville’s high standards is small and there are sure to be competitors seeking the same products. He will have to weigh the company’s values and make a recommendation soon.

Given the rising emphasis on environmental disclosures and the expressed importance of ‘good’ governance in determining the extent of information disclosure in general, we examine the relation between specific aspects of governance and media coverage and the quality of voluntary environmental disclosure (VED). Using a sample of 127 firms over a 6-year period (2000–2005), we empirically test characteristics of governance and media in relation to VED. Our results suggest that VED quality is positively associated with environmental media coverage, negative environmental media and board attributes of independence, diversity, and expertise. Results from supplemental analysis suggest that institutional investors exert influence over managerial decisions on environmental reporting only in the face of negative environmental media. Additionally, results from longitudinal analyses indicate that the quality of environmental disclosures increases over time. Our conclusion discusses the implications of these findings.

Making trade-offs between ecological services and other contributors to human well-being is a difficult but critical process that requires valuation. This allows both better recognition of the ecological, social, and economic trade-offs and also allows us to bill those who use up or destroy ecological services and reward those that produce or enhance them. It also aids improved ecosystems policy. In this paper we clarify some of the controversies in defining the contributions to human well-being from functioning ecosystems, many of which people are not even aware of. We go on to describe the applicability of the various valuation methods that can be used in estimating the benefits of ecosystem services. Finally, we describe some recent case studies and lay out the research agenda for ecosystem services analysis, modeling, and valuation going forward.

The article analyzes the association of firm value, in terms of the cost of equity capital (CostCap) and the anticipated cash flows, with its voluntary disclosure quality. The authors explain the design of their measure of voluntary environmental disclosure (VED), which is based on the organization's annual report, 10-K filings, or Corporate Environmental Report (CER), and how the firm-specific VED scores are calculated from the disclosure index. The article suggests that firm value is positively related to VED quality and the use of the CER in the analysis. Mathematical formulas for CostCap are discussed.

Organizational management is specifi cally granted fi duciary responsibility over society’s economic resources, which consist of natural and human resources. Because of their privileged status, organizational management and the associated business professions play a central role in the long-term viability of a democratically governed society grounded in justice, equality, and trust. Acting in the public interest requires consideration of natural, social, and economic systems. Natural systems provide the context and sustenance for social systems and, therefore, must be respected, nurtured, and sustained. Social systems provide the context and purpose of economic systems. Business professionals, such as accounting and other information providers, analysts, and monitors; and regulatory agencies, such as the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC),2 Environmental Protection Agency, and Food and Drug Administration, facilitate and scrutinize organizational management in carrying out their fi duciary responsibility.

Corporate stakeholder relations are historically typified by power imbalances and mistrust, but in recent times, they are increasingly characterized by ‘dialogue’ based on mutual understanding and creative action. In this paper we consider corporate engagements with two external stakeholder groups, citizenship-focused non-governmental organizations (NGO) and institutional investors, and examine the potential association between these engagements and corporate disclosure of environmental information. Based on a sample of 183 firms over a three-year time period, we analyze the relationships between NGO engagement, investor activism and the quality of corporate voluntary environmental disclosure. Our findings suggest that engagement with skills-focused NGOs and the withdrawal of shareholder resolutions, as mechanisms for dialogue and negotiation, are strongly related to higher quality disclosure. We conclude with discussion of our findings in terms of modern governance structures influencing transparency in the corporate sector as well as comment on how corporate citizenship may, indeed, be making a difference.

Accounting information systems (AIS) should provide the information firms need to manage organizational activities. Environmental considerations are increasingly important in the business world, so firms are attending more to environmental risks and activities. AIS must respond to these emerging environmental requirements. We develop an information matrix for identifying alternative management strategies for framing and responding to environmental issues. The proposed matrix provides a tool for identifying the information collected, stored, analyzed, and reported in environmentally attuned accounting information systems.

Environmental stewardship must become a primary concern if management is to adequately fulfil its societal responsibilities. Management and accounting information systems must aggressively respond to these emerging requirements in order to support adequately the associated information needs as well as to design organizational systems that motivate and facilitate desired behavior. Our purpose here is to consider a framework useful for developing environmentally enlightening management and accounting information systems that take into account alternative environmental perspectives. The framework can be used to develop prototypes representing different levels of environmental enlightenment, and as such, can provide general guidance for moving collectives and organizations toward a more environmentally responsible posture. The framework is illustrated using an example from the salmon farming industry provided in [Geogakopoulous, G., & Thomson, I., 2004. Organic salmon farming: Risk perceptions, decision heuristics and the absence of environmental accounting. In Proceedings of the Asia Pacific Interdisciplinary Research in Accounting. Singapore, July 4–7, 2004, this paper has since been published in this edition of Accounting Forum].

Although there has been increased attention to corporate environmental reports (CERs), there has yet to be a close examination of the metrics used in these reports. Metrics do not address the content of CERs, but, perhaps more importantly, metrics provide the means for conveying the content. In this paper, we analyze metrics used in 79 corporations' recent CER reports. We define and use an 'environmental sustainability' lens, and apply two environmental metrics taxonomies to CER metrics. We also consider the implications of key internal and external firm factors on CER metrics. Our findings suggest that (i) firms' compliance with ISO 14001 increases the presence of future oriented metrics, (ii) a majority of CER content uses lagging metrics with descriptive and operational performance information, (iii) larger firms are more likely than smaller firms to use future oriented metrics and (iv) there are noticeable differences across countries/regions in terms of CER metrics. Several important issues seem evident from the study. First, the metrics most commonly used in CERs provide little information about future performance. Second, the majority of metrics describe operations performance rather than environmental impact. Third, even though the sample was chosen based on a priori indicators of corporate environmental awareness, only about half of the companies sampled had a CER available. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. and ERP Environment