Vulnerable and exploitable: The need for organisational accountability and transparency in emerging and less developed economies

Abstract

Vulnerable and exploitable: The need for accountability and transparency in emerging and less developed economies AbstractThe aim of this paper is to provide an overview of the papers which appear in this special issue of Accounting Forum. The paper sets out the background and rationale for this special issue, introduces the papers contained within it and discusses their contributions to the literature on social and environmental accounting and accountability in emerging and less developed economies. This discussion is informed by the notions of vulnerability and exploitability. The final section of the paper provides conclusions and directions for future research in this under-researched area.

Time-series cross-sectional environmental performance and disclosure relationship: specific evidence from a less-developed country

“…Consequently, they run the risk of sustaining adverse environmental impacts devoid of any accountability by the parties responsible for the impacts. Consistent with Belal et al (2013) we argue that the vulnerable nature of less-developed countries and the abundance of both human and natural resources make them easily exploitable. Exploitability is made possible by depraved a government, weak regulations, large poverty-stricken population and abundance of valuable resources.…”

“…Consequently, it is convenient for these companies to exhibit this reporting pattern because pressure for them to be accountable for their poor performance could easily be managed due to weaknesses in government, pressure groups and common Nigerians. These weaknesses are the products of inherent vulnerability of the country (see, Belal et al 2013). In addition, this finding also suggests that GFR environmental performance is one of the key factors responsible for the undulating trend in the volume of firms' environmental disclosures across units and over The second hypothesis (H2b), derived from legitimacy theory, was developed as a mechanism for meeting the second objective of this article.…”

“…In this context, we submit empirical evidence from the Nigerian oil and gas industry regarding the nature of the relation between GFR carbon emission performance and disclosures to provide further explanation on the vulnerable and exploitable nature of less-developed countries. Dearth of research regarding SEA accountability in less-developed countries has been variously noted (Belal et al 2013). Nonetheless, it is evident that related research on this subject in developing countries is steadily growing (Elijido-Ten 2011).…”

“…The paper aims to estimate and analyze the relation between carbon emission performances (CEP), due to gas flaring, and GFR disclosures with a view to examining the level of commitment with which dominant companies operating in the Nigerian upstream sector are making efforts to minimize wasteful flaring of this energy resource and its associated adverse environmental impacts. In a recent paper on social and environmental accountability in emerging and less-developed countries, Belal, et al (2013) have provided an interesting link between "vulnerability and exploitability" and poor discharge of social and environmental accountability by Multinational Corporations (MNCs). Thus, the authors contend that the evident vulnerable and exploitable nature of, especially less-developed countries, has left them open to being taken advantage of by MNCs.…”

Corporate reporting on corruption: An international comparison

“…Whilst the vast majority of international comparative studies on sustainability reporting tended to focus on country-level and regional-level differences in or between North America and Europe (Guthrie & Parker, 1990;Halme & Huse, 1997;Kolk, 2005), more recent studies have also focused on developing and emerging economies (Baskin, 2006;Belal, Cooper, & Roberts, 2013;Chapple & Moon, 2005). Clear differences have been identified in terms of the likelihood of reporting (Halme & Huse, 1997;Kolk, 2010), report content (Baskin, 2006;Kolk, 2005) and the likelihood of assurance as well as the choice of assurance provider (Kolk & Perego, 2010).…”