The Global Reporting Initiative and corporate sustainability reporting in Swedish companies

Abstract

With empirical evidence from Swedish companies, this paper analyses the phenomenon of corporate sustainability reporting (CSR) in general and the use of CSR guidelines developed by the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) in particular. The main questions at issue are why companies have chosen to use the GRI guidelines and how this has affected corporate social responsibility and environmental management. From interviews with all Swedish companies that use the guidelines, we have found that companies produce CSRs mainly to seek organizational legitimacy, and that the main reason for use of the GRI guidelines is an expectation of increasing credibility of the CSR, but also that it provides a template for how to design a report. Moreover, we have found that the CSR report and the GRI guidelines are of more help for internal than external communication at this stage of development. It could help corporations to learn about themselves and to see what has actually been done in the organization. In all, the GRI guidelines would have the potential for gaining visibility and control of the triple bottom line on a corporate level, but they are in need of further development, not least in relation to the issue of verification. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment.

Trends and determinants of corporate non-financial disclosure in Greece

“…Certain similarities in the quantity and quality of disclosures can be attributed to mimetic conditions as a function to reduce uncertainty by imitating the practices of other organizations that are perceived to be more legitimate (and/or successful). Hedberg and von Malmborg (2003) stress that 'companies interact with each other and create isomorphic patterns for the design of environmental and sustainability reports' as well as that '(they) are watching each other in order not to do anything that is considered too much' (p. 159). In addition, the weak NFD efforts can be partially attributed to the low stakeholder pressures on Greek firms to implement and refine effective non-financial accountability mechanisms.…”

“…Bakacsi et al (2002) outline the highly individualistic, low performance target-setting as well as short-range oriented culture of Greek managers. Such an attitude fails to identify that NFD disclosure can be a new, innovative tool for gaining control and visibility of the environmental and social impact on the organizational level, highlighting the importance of gathering and assessing related internal information as well as discovering latent parameters of business operation of which they were previously unaware (Hedberg and von Malmborg, 2003). Thus, non-financial discourses of accountability (demonstrated by organizational disclosure practices and communication channels) by Greek firms is implemented primarily through selective and compartmentalized actions rather than a systemic modernization of business conduct (see Hollender and Breen, 2010).…”

Integrated reporting by South African companies: a case study

“…This set of guidelines is formally known as the Global Reporting Initiative or GRI (Hussey, Kirsop & Meissen, 2001;Hedberg & von Malmborg, 2003). Over time the GRI guidelines, and its associated corporate social reports, have become more lengthy and complex.…”

The Relationship between Femininity and Sustainability Reporting

“…To compare the information of sustainability among countries we have used the GRI reports because is the generally accepted standard framework in sustainability information (Hedberg & von Malmborg, 2003).…”