Sustainability Assurance on the Biggest Cooperatives of the World: An Analysis of Their Adoption and Quality

Seguí‐Mas, Elies; Bollas-Araya, Helena María; Garrido, Fernando Polo

doi:10.1111/apce.12073

Cited by 32 publications

(26 citation statements)

References 36 publications

(60 reference statements)

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“…However, the results of prior studies show that many companies do not choose to assure their sustainability activities (KPMG, 2013;Casey and Grenier, 2015;Seguí-Mas et al, 2015).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Voluntary assurance of sustainability reporting: evidence from an emerging economy

Hassan

Elamer

Sobhan³

et al. 2020

ARJ

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Purpose This paper aims to investigate the supply and demand side of sustainability assurance in Bangladesh. Design/methodology/approach Drawing on signalling theory, a logistic regression model is used for a sample of 100 of the largest Bangladeshi companies to study the relationships between assurance, sustainability disclosure, industry membership and reporting format. Findings Authors’ results show that companies which produce more sustainability information are more likely to get their sustainability assured, to be from non-carbon intensive industries, and are more likely to integrate their sustainability information with the financial annual reports. Authors’ results support the argument that organisations based in weaker legal environments are more likely to secure assurance as this adds to the credibility and reliability of sustainability reports. Research limitations/implications This paper has limitations which raise some issues for future research. First, the authors have covered only large companies; therefore, future research could examine the differences between small and large companies in relation to assurance. Secondly, the authors’ data consist of company sustainability disclosure information in the fiscal year 2015. Longitudinal studies are recommended to extend this research. Finally, future research could examine the moderating effects of geographical location on the relationship between assurance (and its providers) and other variables. Practical implications The findings of this paper will prove valuable to practitioners and researchers. Practitioners, including assurance providers and sustainability reporting managers will benefit from authors’ study as it covers both the demand and supply side characteristics of assurance. Researchers will benefit from the study as it investigates assurance practices in the developing country of Bangladesh. Originality/value To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study to examine both the supply and demand sides of sustainability assurance in Bangladesh. Authors also introduce reporting format when measuring the relationship between assurance and its determinant factors at micro level. The study also links assurance to signalling theory.

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“…However, the results of prior studies show that many companies do not choose to assure their sustainability activities (KPMG, 2013;Casey and Grenier, 2015;Seguí-Mas et al, 2015).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Voluntary assurance of sustainability reporting: evidence from an emerging economy

Hassan

Elamer

Sobhan³

et al. 2020

ARJ

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

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“…It encourages, therefore, the involvement of cooperatives in the paradigm of CSR (Heras and Arana, 2013), because, cooperatives have a road traveled in this area, which puts them in a better strategic position (Collado, 2006). Seguí-Mas et al (2015) analysed assurance from the point of view of large cooperative and mutual organisations. Their results show that neither the country nor the sector have significant differences in terms of the decision to assure a sustainability report.…”

Section: Csr and Cooperativesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In general, most studies have analysed sustainability reporting and assurance in corporations, showing little effort to study these practices from the perspective of cooperative organisations, which identifies an interesting gap in this research area (Bollas-Araya and Seguí-Mas, 2014;Seguí-Mas et al, 2015). From an empirical perspective, Cornelius et al (2008) argued that CSR is a key consideration for all social enterprises (e.g.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Why do cooperatives assure their CSR reports? An analysis of the motivations and benefits in a big retail cooperative

Seguí‐Mas¹,

Bollas-Araya²,

Peiró³

2018

Ciriec-España

Self Cite

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CSR reporting is increasing worldwide and cooperatives are highly susceptible to it. However, there is an interesting research gap in CSR reporting and assurance in cooperatives. Through an in-depth case study, we investigated motivations, benefits and singularities to adopt assurance practices in one of the biggest cooperatives in the Spanish retail sector, which is listed among the world’s top 300 cooperatives. Our results showed that the cooperative ideology and values (transparency, trust) were the main motivation to assure a CSR report in a company. This study underlines the improvement of stakeholders’ engagement and greater reliability among stakeholders as benefits of these policies. Finally, the relevant barriers to assure a CSR report are difficulties that stakeholders have understanding it and its cost.

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“…The engagement of the members and stakeholders in co-operative decisionmaking differentiates co-operatives from other companies (Battaglia et al, 2015). Co-operatives should be accountable through the publication of external reports (Salani, 2004) in order to inform stakeholders regarding the actions that have been carried out for the development and evaluation of their core principles (Seguí-Mas et al, 2015). Also governance mechanisms and decision making should involve the participation of the members and other stakeholders (Zamagni and Zamagni, 2008).…”

Section: Main Traits Of Co-operativesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Managing for integration: a longitudinal analysis of management control for sustainability

Battaglia

Passetti

Bianchi

et al. 2016

Journal of Cleaner Production

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Based on a longitudinal eight-year study (2006-2014) in a large Italian food cooperative , this paper analysis whether and how the development and the use of sustainability control systems have been able to promote the integration of sustainability within organisational strategy. The cooperative has implemented three main managerial instruments (sustainability reports, sustainability annual plans and participatory social plans), which have been able to promote sustainability integration by inducing technical integration and reinforcing the cognitive enablers. However, strong cognitive (and organisational) barriers have gradually stifled the cognitive enablers and have not enabled sustainability to be fixed into the organisational strategy. As such, the integration process was marginalised, also due to the negative economic performance of the cooperative. The paper shows that sustainability integration remains a fragile concept even in a cooperative , despite the similarities between cooperative values and the principles of corporate social responsibility. Theoretically, the paper offers empirical evidences concerning management control literature for sustainability.

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Sustainability Assurance on the Biggest Cooperatives of the World: An Analysis of Their Adoption and Quality

Cited by 32 publications

References 36 publications

Voluntary assurance of sustainability reporting: evidence from an emerging economy

Voluntary assurance of sustainability reporting: evidence from an emerging economy

Why do cooperatives assure their CSR reports? An analysis of the motivations and benefits in a big retail cooperative

Managing for integration: a longitudinal analysis of management control for sustainability

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