Social and environmental accounting research in vulnerable and exploitable less-developed countries: a theoretical extension

Research on social and environmental accountability (SEA) and transparency in less-developed countries may generate deeper insights, if theoretical underpinnings which are consistent with the social, political and economic realities found in these countries are used. This paper revisits “vulnerability and exploitability” framework introduced by [Belal, A. R., Cooper, S. M., & Roberts, R. W. (2013). Vulnerable and exploitable: The need for organisational accountability and transparency in emerging and less developed economies. Accounting Forum, 37(2), 81–91]. The paper refines, builds on and extends the theoretical context of the framework with a view to strengthening its ability to describe, explain and predict corporate SEA and transparency practices in less-developed countries. The study utilises analytical review of the relevant multidisciplinary literature from environmental economics, vulnerability and openness, and SEA in less-developed countries. In doing this, firstly, the paper derives three postulates and presents a diagram depicting the conditions which make less-developed countries vulnerable and exploitable. Secondly, as the main contribution of the study, pollution haven theory is integrated into the framework as an additional element. This leads to the derivation of five additional postulates and a modified diagram depicting the conditions for pollution haven and the outcomes of vulnerability’s causal link with exploitability and pollution haven. These outcomes take the form of poor SEA and transparency indicated by low corporate social and environmental performance, disclosure level and disclosure quality. The postulates developed are put forward for further debate and empirical tests.