IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/jrpoli/v69y2020ics0301420720309016.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Understanding Indigenous Reconciliation Action Plans from a corporate social responsibility perspective

Author

Listed:
  • Schepis, Daniel

Abstract

Many local and foreign companies operating in Australia are now establishing Reconciliation Action Plans (RAPs) to commit to and report on specific activities for engaging Indigenous stakeholders. While RAPs appear to align with existing approaches of sustainability reporting, these disclosure practices are yet to be empirically investigated within the broader context of CSR, or specifically the implications for stakeholder theory perspective. This paper examines RAP reporting practices over a thirteen year period, as well as how firms disclose reconciliation activities into their sustainability reporting and whether firms with RAPs disclose more ‘reconciliation’ activities than others. A content analysis is performed based on a sample of RAPs, sustainability reports and website data from companies operating in the Australian resources sector. Results indicate that firms do integrate reconciliation activities into their general sustainability reporting, however the quality of disclosure was in most cases low. The analysis also shows that on average, firms with RAPs do disclose reconciliation activities in greater detail than similar firms without. These findings provide a new empirical understanding embedded within theoretical perspectives of CSR, to support further integration of RAPs across industry and improve community impact.

Suggested Citation

  • Schepis, Daniel, 2020. "Understanding Indigenous Reconciliation Action Plans from a corporate social responsibility perspective," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 69(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:jrpoli:v:69:y:2020:i:c:s0301420720309016
    DOI: 10.1016/j.resourpol.2020.101870
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0301420720309016
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.resourpol.2020.101870?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
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Markus Milne & Rob Gray, 2013. "W(h)ither Ecology? The Triple Bottom Line, the Global Reporting Initiative, and Corporate Sustainability Reporting," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 118(1), pages 13-29, November.
    2. Robert G. Eccles & Michael P. Krzus & Jean Rogers & George Serafeim, 2012. "The Need for Sector-Specific Materiality and Sustainability Reporting Standards," Journal of Applied Corporate Finance, Morgan Stanley, vol. 24(2), pages 65-71, June.
    3. Olivier Boiral, 2013. "Sustainability reports as simulacra? A counter-account of A and A+ GRI reports," Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 26(7), pages 1036-1071, September.
    4. Craik, Neil & Gardner, Holly & McCarthy, Daniel, 2017. "Indigenous – corporate private governance and legitimacy: Lessons learned from impact and benefit agreements," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 52(C), pages 379-388.
    5. Anne Daly & Tesfaye Gebremedhin & Muhammad Sayem, 2013. "A Case Study of Affirmative Action Australian-style for Indigenous People," Australian Journal of Labour Economics (AJLE), Bankwest Curtin Economics Centre (BCEC), Curtin Business School, vol. 16(2), pages 277-294.
    6. Michelon, Giovanna & Pilonato, Silvia & Ricceri, Federica, 2015. "CSR reporting practices and the quality of disclosure: An empirical analysis," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 33(C), pages 59-78.
    7. repec:dau:papers:123456789/12666 is not listed on IDEAS
    8. Katherine Trebeck, 2008. "Exploring the responsiveness of companies: corporate social responsibility to stakeholders," Social Responsibility Journal, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 4(3), pages 349-365, August.
    9. Jeffrey Unerman & Franco Zappettini, 2014. "Incorporating Materiality Considerations into Analyses of Absence from Sustainability Reporting," Social and Environmental Accountability Journal, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 34(3), pages 172-186, December.
    10. Gabriela Coronado & Wayne Fallon, 2011. "Using hypertext ethnography to understand corporate‐stakeholder relations in CSR," Social Responsibility Journal, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 7(1), pages 87-103, March.
    11. Hess, David, 2008. "The Three Pillars of Corporate Social Reporting as New Governance Regulation: Disclosure, Dialogue, and Development," Business Ethics Quarterly, Cambridge University Press, vol. 18(4), pages 447-482, October.
    12. Katharina Hetze, 2016. "Effects on the (CSR) Reputation: CSR Reporting Discussed in the Light of Signalling and Stakeholder Perception Theories," Corporate Reputation Review, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 19(3), pages 281-296, October.
    13. Prno, Jason & Scott Slocombe, D., 2012. "Exploring the origins of ‘social license to operate’ in the mining sector: Perspectives from governance and sustainability theories," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 37(3), pages 346-357.
    14. Fuisz-Kehrbach, Sonja-Katrin, 2015. "A three-dimensional framework to explore corporate sustainability activities in the mining industry: Current status and challenges ahead," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 46(P1), pages 101-115.
    15. Stephen Chen & Petra Bouvain, 2009. "Is Corporate Responsibility Converging? A Comparison of Corporate Responsibility Reporting in the USA, UK, Australia, and Germany," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 87(1), pages 299-317, April.
    16. Parsons, Richard & Lacey, Justine & Moffat, Kieren, 2014. "Maintaining legitimacy of a contested practice: How the minerals industry understands its ‘social licence to operate’," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 41(C), pages 83-90.
    17. S. Prakash Sethi & Terrence F. Martell & Mert Demir, 2016. "Building Corporate Reputation Through Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Reports: The Case of Extractive Industries," Corporate Reputation Review, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 19(3), pages 219-243, October.
    18. Ki‐Hoon Lee, 2017. "Does Size Matter? Evaluating Corporate Environmental Disclosure in the Australian Mining and Metal Industry: A Combined Approach of Quantity and Quality Measurement," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 26(2), pages 209-223, February.
    19. Tiziana Russo-Spena & Marco Tregua & Alessandra De Chiara, 2018. "Trends and Drivers in CSR Disclosure: A Focus on Reporting Practices in the Automotive Industry," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 151(2), pages 563-578, August.
    20. Hilson, Gavin, 2012. "Corporate Social Responsibility in the extractive industries: Experiences from developing countries," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 37(2), pages 131-137.
    21. Gabriela Coronado & Wayne Fallon, 2011. "Using hypertext ethnography to understand corporate-stakeholder relations in CSR," Social Responsibility Journal, Emerald Group Publishing, vol. 7(2), pages 87-103, February.
    22. Alberto Fonseca, 2010. "How credible are mining corporations' sustainability reports? a critical analysis of external assurance under the requirements of the international council on mining and metals," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 17(6), pages 355-370, November.
    23. Fordham, Anne Elizabeth & Robinson, Guy M. & Blackwell, Boyd Dirk, 2017. "Corporate social responsibility in resource companies – Opportunities for developing positive benefits and lasting legacies," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 52(C), pages 366-376.
    24. Beck, A. Cornelia & Campbell, David & Shrives, Philip J., 2010. "Content analysis in environmental reporting research: Enrichment and rehearsal of the method in a British–German context," The British Accounting Review, Elsevier, vol. 42(3), pages 207-222.
    25. Matthias S. Fifka, 2013. "Corporate Responsibility Reporting and its Determinants in Comparative Perspective – a Review of the Empirical Literature and a Meta‐analysis," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 22(1), pages 1-35, January.
    26. Sara Bice, 2017. "Corporate Social Responsibility as Institution: A Social Mechanisms Framework," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 143(1), pages 17-34, June.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Blesia, Jhon Urasti & Dixon, Keith & Lord, Beverley Rae, 2023. "Indigenous experiences and perspectives on a mining corporation's community relations and development activities," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 80(C).
    2. Amoako, Kwame Oduro & Lord, Beverley R. & Dixon, Keith, 2021. "Narrative accounting for mining in Ghana: An old defence against a new threat?," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 74(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Ismail N.B. & Sébastien Alcouffe & Galy N & Ceulemans K, 2020. "The impact of international sustainability initiatives on Life Cycle Assessment voluntary disclosures: The case of France’s CAC40 listed companies," Post-Print hal-03082800, HAL.
    2. Bianca Alves Almeida Machado & Lívia Cristina Pinto Dias & Alberto Fonseca, 2021. "Transparency of materiality analysis in GRI‐based sustainability reports," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 28(2), pages 570-580, March.
    3. Giorgio Mion & Cristian R. Loza Adaui, 2019. "Mandatory Nonfinancial Disclosure and Its Consequences on the Sustainability Reporting Quality of Italian and German Companies," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(17), pages 1-28, August.
    4. Mitzi Cubilla‐Montilla & Ana‐Belén Nieto‐Librero & Ma Purificación Galindo‐Villardón & Ma Purificación Vicente Galindo & Isabel‐María Garcia‐Sanchez, 2019. "Are cultural values sufficient to improve stakeholder engagement human and labour rights issues?," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 26(4), pages 938-955, July.
    5. María Luisa Pajuelo Moreno & Teresa Duarte-Atoche, 2019. "Relationship between Sustainable Disclosure and Performance—An Extension of Ullmann’s Model," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(16), pages 1-33, August.
    6. Charles H. Cho & Matias Laine & Robin W. Roberts & Michelle Rodrigue, 2018. "The Frontstage and Backstage of Corporate Sustainability Reporting: Evidence from the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge Bill," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 152(3), pages 865-886, October.
    7. Prince Amoah & Gabriel Eweje, 2021. "Impact mitigation or ecological restoration? Examining the environmental sustainability practices of multinational mining companies," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 30(1), pages 551-565, January.
    8. Silvia Romero & Silvia Ruiz & Belen Fernandez‐Feijoo, 2019. "Sustainability reporting and stakeholder engagement in Spain: Different instruments, different quality," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 28(1), pages 221-232, January.
    9. Amoako, Kwame Oduro & Lord, Beverley R. & Dixon, Keith, 2021. "Narrative accounting for mining in Ghana: An old defence against a new threat?," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 74(C).
    10. María del Mar Miras-Rodríguez & Roberto Di Pietra, 2018. "Corporate Governance mechanisms as drivers that enhance the credibility and usefulness of CSR disclosure," Journal of Management & Governance, Springer;Accademia Italiana di Economia Aziendale (AIDEA), vol. 22(3), pages 565-588, September.
    11. Ramona Zharfpeykan, 2021. "Representative account or greenwashing? Voluntary sustainability reports in Australia's mining/metals and financial services industries," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 30(4), pages 2209-2223, May.
    12. Ali Uyar & Simone Pizzi & Fabio Caputo & Cemil Kuzey & Abdullah S. Karaman, 2022. "Do shareholders reward or punish risky firms due to CSR reporting and assurance?," Managerial and Decision Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 43(5), pages 1596-1620, July.
    13. Hina Ismail & Muhammad A. Saleem & Sadaf Zahra & Muhammad S. Tufail & Rao Akmal Ali, 2021. "Application of Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) Principles for Measuring Quality of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Disclosure: Evidence from Pakistan," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(20), pages 1-19, October.
    14. Nicolas Garcia‐Torea & Belen Fernandez‐Feijoo & Marta De La Cuesta, 2020. "CSR reporting communication: Defective reporting models or misapplication?," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 27(2), pages 952-968, March.
    15. Leena Suopajärvi & Karin Beland Lindahl & Toni Eerola & Gregory Poelzer, 2023. "Social aspects of business risk in the mineral industry—political, reputational, and local acceptability risks facing mineral exploration and mining," Mineral Economics, Springer;Raw Materials Group (RMG);Luleå University of Technology, vol. 36(2), pages 321-331, June.
    16. Balluchi, Federica & Lazzini, Arianna & Torelli, Riccardo, 2020. "Credibility of Environmental Issues in Non-Financial Mandatory Disclosure: Measurement and Determinants," OSF Preprints g73w5, Center for Open Science.
    17. Renato Camodeca & Alex Almici & Umberto Sagliaschi, 2018. "Sustainability Disclosure in Integrated Reporting: Does It Matter to Investors? A Cheap Talk Approach," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(12), pages 1-34, November.
    18. Torelli, Riccardo, 2020. "Sustainability, Responsibility and Ethics: Different Concepts for a Single Path," OSF Preprints hb92c, Center for Open Science.
    19. Stefan Zeisel, 2020. "Is sustainability a moving target? A methodology for measuring CSR dynamics," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 27(1), pages 283-296, January.
    20. Alberto Diantini & Salvatore Eugenio Pappalardo & Tim Edwards Powers & Daniele Codato & Giuseppe Della Fera & Marco Heredia-R & Francesco Facchinelli & Edoardo Crescini & Massimo De Marchi, 2020. "Is this a Real Choice? Critical Exploration of the Social License to Operate in the Oil Extraction Context of the Ecuadorian Amazon," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(20), pages 1-24, October.

    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:eee:jrpoli:v:69:y:2020:i:c:s0301420720309016. 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.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with 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: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/inca/30467 .

    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.