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Disclosure responses to mining accidents: South African evidence

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  • Charmaine M. Coetzee
  • Chris J. van Staden

Abstract

Mining activities generate significant social concerns in terms of employee safety and stakeholder scrutiny has increased considerably in recent years. Social and environmental accounting research is largely dedicated to environmental issues and the study of other components of social accounting is limited. This study examines safety disclosures in the annual reports, sustainability reports, and reactive corporate press releases of South African mining organisations following two major mining accidents occurring at Harmony Gold and Gold Fields’ mines. Results show that organisations react to perceived legitimacy threats through increased safety disclosures. The entire mining industry evidences an increase in disclosure levels after the incidents, suggesting that organisations do respond to increased stakeholder scrutiny threatening their legitimacy. Furthermore, our results provide evidence of an association between safety disclosure levels and firm size, social performance, risk, and number of fatalities, while the media attention devoted to mining accidents appears to be unrelated to safety disclosure levels. It is possible that stakeholder pressure, which motivates corporate social disclosures according to legitimacy and stakeholder theories, consists of various factors, which combined form the motivation to report. Media attention, therefore, cannot be considered in isolation as a driver of disclosure. Rather, a combination of variables such as size, social responsibility performance, number of fatalities, risk, and media attention could serve as a proxy for social pressure.

Suggested Citation

  • Charmaine M. Coetzee & Chris J. van Staden, 2011. "Disclosure responses to mining accidents: South African evidence," Accounting Forum, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 35(4), pages 232-246, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:accfor:v:35:y:2011:i:4:p:232-246
    DOI: 10.1016/j.accfor.2011.06.001
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    Cited by:

    1. Cyrlene Claasen & Julia Roloff, 2012. "The Link Between Responsibility and Legitimacy: The Case of De Beers in Namibia," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 107(3), pages 379-398, May.
    2. Uche, Chinyere & Khalid, Sharif, 2022. "Corporate reporting on conflict: A struggle over land," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 89(C).
    3. Renata Blanc & Manuel Castelo Branco & Charles H. Cho & Joanne Sopt, 2013. "In Search Of Disclosure Effects Of The Siemens Ag’S Corruption Scandal," OBEGEF Working Papers 015, OBEGEF - Observatório de Economia e Gestão de Fraude;OBEGEF Working Papers on Fraud and Corruption.
    4. Islam, Muhammad Azizul & van Staden, Chris J., 2018. "Social movement NGOs and the comprehensiveness of conflict mineral disclosures: evidence from global companies," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 65(C), pages 1-19.
    5. Sidney J. Gray & Niclas Hellman & Mariya N. Ivanova, 2019. "Extractive Industries Reporting: A Review of Accounting Challenges and the Research Literature," Abacus, Accounting Foundation, University of Sydney, vol. 55(1), pages 42-91, March.
    6. Laura Broccardo & Francesca Culasso & Amandeep Dhir & Elisa Truant, 2023. "Corporate social responsibility: Does it really matter in the luxury context?," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 30(1), pages 105-118, January.
    7. Arcangelo Marrone & Lara Oliva, 2021. "Is ESG Disclosure a Means to Respond to Catastrophic Events? A Case Study Analysis," International Journal of Business and Management, Canadian Center of Science and Education, vol. 15(11), pages 1-53, July.
    8. 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.
    9. Xuan Wu & Yueting Li & Yangxin Yu, 2023. "CEO Inside Debt and Employee Workplace Safety," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 182(1), pages 159-175, January.
    10. Renata Blanc & Charles H. Cho & Joanne Sopt & Manuel Castelo Branco, 2019. "Disclosure Responses to a Corruption Scandal: The Case of Siemens AG," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 156(2), pages 545-561, May.
    11. Alvaro Plinio Pureza & Ki‐Hoon Lee, 2020. "Corporate social responsibility leadership for sustainable development: An institutional logics perspective in Brazil," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 27(3), pages 1410-1424, May.
    12. Cornelie Crous & John R. Owen & Lochner Marais & Samkelisiwe Khanyile & Deanna Kemp, 2021. "Public disclosure of mine closures by listed South African mining companies," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 28(3), pages 1032-1042, May.
    13. Chongwu Xia & Chong Guan & Ding Ding & Yun Teng, 2024. "Navigating Success in Carbon Offset Projects: A Deep Dive into the Determinants Using Topic Modeling," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(4), pages 1-19, February.
    14. Olsen, Brett C. & Awuah-Offei, Kwame & Bumblauskas, Daniel, 2021. "Setting materiality thresholds for ESG disclosures: A case study of U. S. mine safety disclosures," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 70(C).
    15. Tiffany Cheng-Han Leung & Robin Stanley Snell, 2021. "Strategies for Social and Environmental Disclosure: The Case of Multinational Gambling Companies," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 168(3), pages 447-467, January.
    16. Petra F. A. Dilling, 2016. "Reporting on Long-Term Value Creation—The Example of Public Canadian Energy and Mining Companies," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 8(9), pages 1-26, September.
    17. Monday Nweke Igwe & Saleh F. A. Khatib & Ayman Hassan Bazhair, 2023. "Sustainability reporting in Africa: A systematic review and agenda for future research," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 30(5), pages 2081-2100, September.

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