Investigación académica sobre memorias de sostenibilidad: una revisión sistemática de la literatura en español

Abstract

In the last two decades there has been a growing contribution to environmental and social accounting from the Spanish and Latin American academic community, both in Spanish and in English - the dominant language in the production and dissemination of this type of specialised academic knowledge. In this extensive academic production, the one related to the issuing of sustainability reports has been the most abundant, due, among other aspects, to the accessibility of this type of voluntary information issued by companies. From a position that is generally peripheral to the central core of knowledge production, this research community seems to have tried to integrate itself into the main trends - conventional and alternative - of academic knowledge production and dissemination, marked by a process of homogenisation. However, there are major gaps in knowledge about the impact of this process. In an attempt to make a contribution in this respect, the aim of this paper is to carry out a systematic review of the academic literature on sustainability reporting carried out in Spanish in recent decades. The study reveals a development of academic production dominated by descriptive, positivist works, published by authors with academic affiliation in Spanish universities and in journals mostly outside the accounting field. En las dos últimas décadas se ha producido una creciente contribución a la contabilidad ambiental y social de la comunidad académica española e hispanoamericana, tanto en español, como en inglés —idioma dominante en la producción y difusión de este tipo de conocimiento académico especializado—. En esta extensa producción académica la relacionada con la emisión de memorias de sostenibilidad ha sido la más abundante, debido entre otros aspectos a la accesibilidad de este tipo de información voluntaria emitida por las empresas. Desde una posición por lo general periférica al núcleo central de producción del conocimiento, esta comunidad parece que ha tratado de integrarse en las principales corrientes —convencionales y alternativas— de producción y difusión de conocimiento académico, marcadas por un proceso de homogeneización. Con todo, existen grandes lagunas de conocimiento sobre la incidencia de este proceso. Tratando de aportar una contribución al respecto, este trabajo tiene como fin realizar una revisión sistemática de la literatura académica sobre memorias de sostenibilidad llevada a cabo en español en las últimas décadas. El estudio constata un desarrollo de la producción académica dominado por trabajos descriptivos, positivistas, publicados por autores con filiación académica en universidades españolas y en revistas mayoritariamente ajenas al ámbito contable.

Analysis of the Financial and Non-Financial Indicators of the Beer Sector: Italy and Spain

“…Regarding the sustainability of the sector, this article dialogues with the emerging studies of the Spanish academic community on social and environmental accounting [57] and with other research that studies the brewing sector and its intensive use of water and energy, with large volumes of wastewater and solid waste and significant carbon emissions. This environmental problem makes it necessary to reflect on small-scale production and the process of "greening" in the brewing industry [39,[58][59][60].…”

Bibliometric study of the link between Sustainability and Circular Economy: A contribution for current business model from the collaboration Enterprise-University

“…The stakeholder theory has been traditionally used in accounting research (Larrinaga, 2017;Alvarez-Etxeberria et al, 2023;Buhr et al, 2023). The set of relationships in NBMs is formalized in contracts defining rights, objectives, expectations, and responsibilities and thereby configuring organizations' strategies (Alvarez-Etxeberria & Garayar, 2007;Fassin et al, 2016;Kravchenko et al, 2019;Gallardo-Vázquez & Valdez-Juárez, 2022).…”

“…This theory has also been extensively used in accounting research (Larrinaga, 2017;Alvarez-Etxeberria et al, 2023). The acquisition of legitimacy by organizations is a benefit derived from the application of CSR actions (Campbell, 2007).…”

“…This type of analysis is proving to be very useful in social areas. Some studies are aimed at sustainability, social and environmental information (Alvarez-Etxeberria et al, 2023;Larrinaga et al, 2019;Blanco-Zaitegi et al, 2022) and others at social and environmental accounting as a process of social creation (Correa, 2011). Through them, an examination of scientific production is carried out and academic knowledge is generated, equally useful for business areas.…”

“…To achieve the paper's goal, a sample of 1132 papers from the Scopus database has been selected, which have been published between 2013 and 2022 and that study the topics of CSR, sustainability and CE or a combination of the three topics. This will help us evaluate the scientific production, contributing to improve the existing literature about sustainability and CE (Alvarez-Etxeberria et al, 2023;Correa, 2011;Leal et al, 2019;Blanco-Zaitegi et al, 2022), with an application oriented to new BMs that stem from the collaboration between enterprises and universities, and it also opens the path to the orientation, both of companies and of CSR research, to perform their management under the prism of CE. Moreover, the paper makes the results available to different stakeholders such as researchers, politicians, and others (Ellegaard & Wallin, 2015).…”