A Survey of Transparency: An Intrinsic Aspect of Business Strategy

Abstract

Well‐managed organizations must handle transparency strategically, but although research about transparency constitutes a great concern in businesses, management, society, and ethics, definitions are very diverse depending on the environment. The concept of transparency is revisited in this contribution, aiming to map the territory of transparency by surveying the terms and definitions in literature. The overview of these terms identifies two approaches of analysis: according to the content and according to the context. According to the context, two perspectives have been found: collective perspective and individual perspective. According to the content of the definition, two perspectives have been found: instrumental perspective and purposeful perspective. This survey helps to determine that transparency is an intrinsic aspect of business strategy since it is interweaved with all organizational components and systems of the strategic management process. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment

Does it pay to be green? A disaggregated analysis of U.S. firms with green patents

“…Environmental information transparency is one of the key elements in the wider area of environmental governance, both at the national and firm level (Sun, Zeng, Chen, Meng, & Jin, ). It also constitutes an intrinsic aspect of business strategy, embracing all organizational processes and components at the same time (Baraibar‐Diez, Odriozola, & Fernández Sánchez, ). As a result, firms engaged in the environmental‐improving process by providing new products and technologies reducing environmental impacts (such as firms with green patents in this study) are likely to have better and more detailed disclosure practices (Eccles, Ioannou, & Serafeim, ; Yu et al, ).…”

The mediating effect of transparency in the relationship between corporate social responsibility and corporate reputation

“…The main point of attention when studying transparency is the unanimity of researchers, institutions, regulators and agents of opinion on what important and desirable transparency is for the efficient development of economic activity (Baraibar-Diez, Odriozola, & Fernández, 2017). The problem lies in how to adjust transparency with disclosure and reporting and, especially, in how to apply transparency in practice, in terms of information content, quality of information or the most effective way or channel to reach stakeholders.…”

The Role of Transparency in Humanitarian Logistics

“…Transparency is a way to achieve accountability and public trust in organizations [26,29,32,33]. It is a roadmap to enhance financial and organizational performance [34], and to drive the effectiveness of the company and extend democratic practice [35]. As an antecedent, transparency impacts positively on public trust.…”

“…Governance is an imperative part of transparency and accountability of the organization [46]. In fact, corporate governance and transparency are overlapping concepts [35]. Corporate governance gives the structure through which objectives can be defined and achieved while organizational performance is determined [47].…”

“…De Fine Licht, [38] stated that transparency is per se an empty concept which needs to be filled with decisions in practice. Decision making depends on organizational transparency [35]. It was stated first by Forrester (1961), who reported that delays in passing on information in turn lead to demand amplification in the SC [51].…”