IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/hal/journl/halshs-00150591.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Corporate social disclosure and legitimation strategy : a longitudinal study of Pechiney

Author

Listed:
  • Bruno Oxibar

    (DRM - Dauphine Recherches en Management - Université Paris Dauphine-PSL - PSL - Université Paris sciences et lettres - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique)

  • Frédérique Déjean

    (DRM - Dauphine Recherches en Management - Université Paris Dauphine-PSL - PSL - Université Paris sciences et lettres - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique)

Abstract

This paper deals with corporate social disclosure (CSD). It consists in a longitudinal study of Pechiney CSD practices. Our research aims at identifying the determinants of such practices. Particularly, we document the link between CSD practices and public's concern.Theoretical framework is derived from legitimacy theory. Based on seminal work of Lindblom (1994), Deegan, Rankin & Tobin, (2002), we argue that CSD can be considered as a legitimation strategy. Indeed, CSD is a means used by firms to inform its stakeholders and also to manage public impressions as demonstrated by Neu, Warsame & Pedwell (1998).Regarding methodology, a content analysis of newspapers and annual reports allows the measurement of respectively public impression and CSD, on a period covering the second half of the 20th century.According to our questioning, the results confirm a strong link between on the one hand public opinion and on the other hand environmental and social disclosure. So, our theoretical framework seems relevant in explaining the use of CSD as a legitimation strategy. Beyond this finding, our analysis of verbatim shows that, contrary to a widespread belief, CSD is not a new phenomenon.Considering the number of studies dealing with CSD, our main contribution consists in offering a deep investigation based on a case study of a French company. Some perspectives proceed from this work. For instance, we suggest to extend the scope of determinants including events related to firm's story.

Suggested Citation

  • Bruno Oxibar & Frédérique Déjean, 2007. "Corporate social disclosure and legitimation strategy : a longitudinal study of Pechiney," Post-Print halshs-00150591, HAL.
  • Handle: RePEc:hal:journl:halshs-00150591
    Note: View the original document on HAL open archive server: https://shs.hal.science/halshs-00150591
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://shs.hal.science/halshs-00150591/document
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Trotman, Ken T. & Bradley, Graham W., 1981. "Associations between social responsibility disclosure and characteristics of companies," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 6(4), pages 355-362, October.
    2. Neu, D. & Warsame, H. & Pedwell, K., 1998. "Managing public impressions: environmental disclosures in annual reports," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 23(3), pages 265-282, April.
    3. Patten, Dennis M., 1991. "Exposure, legitimacy, and social disclosure," Journal of Accounting and Public Policy, Elsevier, vol. 10(4), pages 297-308.
    4. Cowen, Scott S. & Ferreri, Linda B. & Parker, Lee D., 1987. "The impact of corporate characteristics on social responsibility disclosure: A typology and frequency-based analysis," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 12(2), pages 111-122, March.
    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. repec:dau:papers:123456789/4205 is not listed on IDEAS
    2. Essegbe Kokoue Amaglo & Tsotso Kouevi, 2021. "Diffusion d'informations sociétales dans les rapports annuels des banques au Togo," Post-Print hal-03361523, HAL.
    3. Frédérique Dejean & Isabelle Martinez, 2008. "Communication environnementale et coût des fonds propres : Le cas des entreprises du SBF120," Post-Print halshs-00525815, HAL.

    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. Branco, Manuel Castelo & Rodrigues, Lúcia Lima, 2008. "Social responsibility disclosure: A study of proxies for the public visibility of Portuguese banks," The British Accounting Review, Elsevier, vol. 40(2), pages 161-181.
    2. Jose‐Manuel Prado‐Lorenzo & Isabel Gallego‐Alvarez & Isabel M. Garcia‐Sanchez, 2009. "Stakeholder engagement and corporate social responsibility reporting: the ownership structure effect," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 16(2), pages 94-107, March.
    3. Torbjörn Tagesson & Veronica Blank & Pernilla Broberg & Sven‐Olof Collin, 2009. "What explains the extent and content of social and environmental disclosures on corporate websites: a study of social and environmental reporting in Swedish listed corporations," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 16(6), pages 352-364, November.
    4. Maria Baldini & Lorenzo Dal Maso & Giovanni Liberatore & Francesco Mazzi & Simone Terzani, 2018. "Role of Country- and Firm-Level Determinants in Environmental, Social, and Governance Disclosure," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 150(1), pages 79-98, June.
    5. Frédérique Déjean & Bruno Oxibar, 2006. "Diffusion d'information sociétale et stratégie de légitimation : une étude longitudinale appliquée au cas Péchiney," Post-Print halshs-00548110, HAL.
    6. Giovanna Michelon & Antonio Parbonetti, 2012. "The effect of corporate governance on sustainability disclosure," Journal of Management & Governance, Springer;Accademia Italiana di Economia Aziendale (AIDEA), vol. 16(3), pages 477-509, August.
    7. Stewart Jones & Geoff Frost & Janice Loftus & Sandra Laan, 2007. "An Empirical Examination of the Market Returns and Financial Performance of Entities Engaged in Sustainability Reporting," Australian Accounting Review, CPA Australia, vol. 17(41), pages 78-87, March.
    8. Rodríguez-Ariza, Lázaro & Frías Aceituno, José V. & García Rubio, Raquel, 2014. "El consejo de administración y las memorias de sostenibilidad," Revista de Contabilidad - Spanish Accounting Review, Elsevier, vol. 17(1), pages 5-16.
    9. Guthrie, James & Cuganesan, Suresh & Ward, Leanne, 2008. "Industry specific social and environmental reporting: The Australian Food and Beverage Industry," Accounting forum, Elsevier, vol. 32(1), pages 1-15.
    10. 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.
    11. Toms, Steven, 2008. "Asymmetric Response: Explaining Corporate Social Disclosure by Multi-National Firms in Environmentally Sensitive Industries," The York Management School Working Papers 42, The York Management School, University of York.
    12. Torbjörn Tagesson & Michelle Klugman & Maria Ekström, 2013. "What explains the extent and content of social disclosures in Swedish municipalities’ annual reports," Journal of Management & Governance, Springer;Accademia Italiana di Economia Aziendale (AIDEA), vol. 17(2), pages 217-235, May.
    13. Patten, Dennis M., 2005. "The accuracy of financial report projections of future environmental capital expenditures: a research note," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 30(5), pages 457-468, July.
    14. Neu, D. & Warsame, H. & Pedwell, K., 1998. "Managing public impressions: environmental disclosures in annual reports," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 23(3), pages 265-282, April.
    15. Moazzem Hossain & Angela Hecimovic & Aklema Choudhury Lema, 2015. "Corporate Social and Environmental Responsibility Reporting Practices from an Emerging Mobile Telecommunications Market," Australian Accounting Review, CPA Australia, vol. 25(4), pages 389-404, December.
    16. Aerts, Walter & Cormier, Denis & Magnan, Michel, 2008. "Corporate environmental disclosure, financial markets and the media: An international perspective," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 64(3), pages 643-659, January.
    17. Comincioli, Nicola & Poddi, Laura & Vergalli, Sergio, 2012. "Corporate Social Responsibility and Firms’ Performance: A Stratigraphical Analysis," Economy and Society 139488, Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei (FEEM).
    18. Breeda Comyns, 2016. "Determinants of GHG Reporting: An Analysis of Global Oil and Gas Companies," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 136(2), pages 349-369, June.
    19. Grueso Gala, Melanie & Camisón Zornoza, César, 2022. "A bibliometric analysis of the literature on non-financial information reporting: Review of the research and network visualization," Cuadernos de Gestión, Universidad del País Vasco - Instituto de Economía Aplicada a la Empresa (IEAE).
    20. MuiChing Chan & John Watson & David Woodliff, 2014. "Corporate Governance Quality and CSR Disclosures," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 125(1), pages 59-73, November.

    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:hal:journl:halshs-00150591. 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: CCSD (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/ .

    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.