Sustainability Disclosure in Social Media - Substitutionary or Complementary to Traditional Reporting?

• Autorzy: Łukasz Bryl , Enrico Supino
• Języki publikacji: EN

Abstrakty

EN

Objective: This study examines sustainability disclosure by 50 British companies from FTSE 100 and compares reporting via traditional sources and on Twitter by indicating whether the content in two various disclosure channels is of substitutionary or complementary nature.
Methodology: A content analysis on more than 20,000 tweets was performed to examine sustainability disclosure practices which were compared with Bloomberg ESG scores for each studied company.
Findings: On the general level of sustainability division into three pillars (Environment, Social and Governance), it can be observed that social media reporting provides complementary information. Whereas, the disclosure of environmental issues via traditional sources was relatively poor, the reporting of environmental information in social media performed best. However, with the division on ESG sub-pillars, the picture is not that clear. Most of the poorly performed ESG sub-pillars in traditional reporting, were also poorly reported in social media.
Value Added: This article is a response to the call for studies on non-financial disclosure via social media, which is strongly highlighted in the recent literature concerning future research. Additionally, a comparative analysis with the reporting by traditional, well-studied channels was performed.
Recommendations: This study offers an understanding of the British companies' corporate practices that refer to sustainability disclosure by traditional channels and via social media. Hence, it has implications for organizations in the creation and use of communication channels when developing a dialogue with stakeholders on topics regarding sustainability. (original abstract)

Słowa kluczowe

PL

Rozwój zrównoważony; Media społecznościowe; Raportowanie

EN

Sustainable development; Social media; Reporting

• Czasopismo: Journal of Intercultural Management
• Rocznik: 2022
• Tom: 14
• Numer: nr 3
• Strony: 41-62

Twórcy

autor

Łukasz Bryl

• Poznań University of Economics and Business, Poland

autor

Enrico Supino

• University of Bologna, Italy

Bibliografia

• Bauer, R., & Hann, D. (2010). Corporate Environmental Management and Credit Risk. SSRN working paper.
• Blankespoor, E., Miller, G. S., & White, H. D. (2014). The role of dissemination in market liquidity: Evidence from firms' use of Twitter. The Accounting Review, 89(1), 79-112.
• Brito, M. (2011). Smart Business, Social Business: A Playbook for Social Media in Your Organisation. Pearson Education, Indianapolis, IN.
• Bryl, Ł., & Fijałkowska, J. (2020). How does intellectual capital disclosure affect the cost of capital? Conclusions from two decades of research. Electronic Journal of Knowledge Management, 18(1), 29-55.
• Bryl, Ł. (2021). Intellectual Capital Disclosure in the Digital Era: Challenges and Opportunities for MNEs. In S. H. Park, M. A. Gonzalez-Perez, & D. E. Floriani (Eds.), The Palgrave Handbook of Corporate Sustainability in the Digital Era (pp. 595-612). Cham: Palgrave Macmillan.
• Bryl, Ł., Fijałkowska, J., & Hadro, D. (2022a). Does the level of Intellectual Capital Affect Meeting the Information Needs of Social Media Users in the Field of Sustainability? The case of the World's Largest Energy Industry Companies. In 23rd European Conference on Knowledge Management Vol 1. Academic Conferences and publishing limited, September.
• Bryl, Ł., Fijałkowska, J., & Hadro, D. (2022b). Intellectual capital disclosure on Twitter - empirical evidence from the world's largest companies. Meditari Accountancy Research, 30(4), 964-988. https://doi.org/10.1108/MEDAR-02-2021-1211.
• Cade, N. L. (2018). Corporate social media: How two-way disclosure channels influence investors. Accounting Organizations and Society, 68-69(July), 63-79.
• Castelló, I., Etter, M., & Årup, N. F. (2016). Strategies of legitimacy through social media: The networked strategy. Journal of Management Studies, 53(3), 402-432.
• Cho, C. H., Phillips, J. R., Hageman, A. M., & Patten, D. M. (2009). Media Richness, User Trust and Perceptions of Corporate Social Responsibility: An Experimental Investigation of Visual Web Site Disclosures. Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, 22(6), 953-972.
• Cho, C. H., Laine, M., Roberts, R. W., & Rodrigue, M. (2015). Organised hypocrisy, organisational façades, and sustainability reporting. Accounting, Organisations and Society, 40, 78-94.
• Chow, C. W., & Wong-Boren, A. (1987). Voluntary financial disclosure by Mexican corporations. The Accounting Review, 62(3), 533-541.
• Cuozzo, B., Dumay, J., Palmaccio, M., & Lombardi, R. (2017). Intellectual capital disclosure: a structured literature review. Journal of Intellectual Capital, 18(1), 9-28.
• Colleoni, E. (2013). CSR communication strategies for organisational legitimacy in social media. Corporate Communications: An International Journal, 18(2), 228-248.
• Crowley, R., Huang, W., & Lu, H. (2018). Discretionary disclosure on Twitter. Working PaperUniversity of Toronto.
• Daft, R. L., & Lengel, R. H. (1986). Organisational information requirements, media richness and structural design. Management Science, 32(5), 554-571.
• Deegan, C. (2006). Legitimacy theory. In Z Hogue (Ed.), Methodological issues in accounting research: Theories and methods (pp. 161-182). London: Spiramus Press.
• De Villiers, C., & Van Staden, C. J. (2011). Where firms choose to disclose voluntary environmental information. Journal of Accounting and Public Policy, 30, 504-525.
• Diouf, D., & Boiral, O. (2017). The quality of sustainability reports and impression management: A stakeholder perspective. Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, 30(3), 643-667.
• Dumay, J. (2016). A critical reflection on the future of intellectual capital: From reporting to disclosure. Journal of Intellectual Capital, 17(1), 168-184.
• Dumay, J., & Guthrie, J. (2017). Involuntary disclosure of intellectual capital: is it relevant? Journal of Intellectual Capital, 18(1), pp. 29-44.
• Etter, M., Ravasi, D., & Colleoni, E. (2019). Social media and the formation of organisational reputation. Academy of Management Review, 44(1), 28-52.
• Fijałkowska, J., Krasodomska, J., Macuda, M., & Mućko, P. (2019). Sprawozdawczość niefinansowa: regulacja i standaryzacja raportowania niefinansowego przedsiębiorstw. Szczecin: Wydawnictwo Naukowe Uniwersytetu Szczecińskiego.
• Firth, M. (1980). Raising finance and firms corporate reporting policies. ABACUS, 16(2), 100-115.
• Fukukawa, K. (2019). Response-ability: Practicing integrity through intimacy in the marketplace. Journal of Business Ethics, 160(1), 251-262.
• Freeman, R. E. (1984). Strategic management: A stakeholder approach. Boston, MA: Harper Collins.
• Glosten, R. and Milgrom, P. (1985). Bid, ask and transaction prices in a specialist market with heterogeneously informed traders. Journal of Financial Economics, 14(1), 71-100.
• Hadro, D., Fijałkowska, J., Daszyńska-Żygadło, K., Zumente, I., & Mjakuškina, S. (2021). What do stakeholders in the construction industry look for in non-financial disclosure and what do they get? Meditari Accountancy Research, 29(6), 1-15.
• Jung, M. J., Naughton, J. P., Tahoun, A., & Wang, C. (2018). Do firms strategically disseminate? Evidence from corporate use of social media. The Accounting Review, 93(4), 225-252.
• Lardo, A., Dumay, J., Trequattrini, R., & Russo, G. (2017). Social media networks as drivers for intellectual capital disclosure: Evidence from professional football clubs. Journal of Intellectual Capital, 18(1), 18(1), 63-80.
• Lazarides, H. N., & Goula, A. M. (2018). Sustainability and ethics along the food supply chain. In P. P. R. Costa (Ed.), Food Ethics Education. Integrating Food Science and Engineering Knowledge Into the Food Chain (pp. 41-61). Cham: Springer.
• La Torre, M., Botes, V. L., Dumay, J., Rea, M. A., & Odendaal, E. (2018). The fall and rise of intellectual capital accounting: new prospects from the big data revolution. Meditari Accountancy Research, 26(3), 381-399.
• Lee, K., Oh, W. Y., & Kim, N. (2013). Social media for socially responsible firms: analysis of fortune 500's twitter profiles and their CSR/CSIR ratings. Journal of Business Ethics, 118(4), 791-806.
• Lijun, L., Yutao L., Yan, L. (2019). Production and dissemination of corporate information in social media: A review. Journal of Accounting Literature, 42, 29-43.
• Lodhia, S., Kaur, A., & Stone, G. (2020). The use of social media as a legitimation tool for sustainability reporting. Meditari Accountancy Research, 28(4), 613-632.
• Mangold, W. G., & Faulds, D. J. (2009). Social Media: The New Hybrid Element of the Promotion Mix. Business Horizons, 52(4), 357-365.
• Ndou, V., Secundo, G., Dumay, J., & Gjevori, E. (2018). Understanding intellectual capital disclosure in online media Big Data. Meditari Accountancy Research, 26(3), 499-530.
• Neu, D., Saxton, G. D., Everett, J., & Shiraz, A. R. (2020). Speaking truth to power: Twitter reactions to the Panama Papers. Journal of Business Ethics, 162, 473-485.
• Nirino, N., Miglietta, N., & Salvi, A. (2019). The impact of corporate social responsibility on firms' financial performance, evidence from the food and beverage industry. British Food Journal, 122(1), 1-13.
• Perrini, F., Russo, A., Tancati, A., & Vurro, C. (2011). Deconstructing the relationship between corporate social and financial performance. Journal of Business Ethics, 102(1), 59-76.
• Piber, M., Demartini, P., & Biondi, L. (2019). The management of participatory cultural initiatives: learning from the discourse on intellectual capital. Journal of Management and Governance, 23(2), 435-458.
• Prokofieva, M. (2015). Twitter-based dissemination of corporate disclosure and the intervening effects of firms' visibility: Evidence from Australian-listed companies. Journal of Information Systems, 29(2), 107-136.
• Raimo, N., Zito, M., & Caragnano, A. (2019). Does national culture affect integrated reporting quality? A focus on GLOBE dimensions. In 9th International Symposium on Natural Resources Management (pp. 382-392). Zajecar, Serbia.
• Rodrigue, M., Cho, C. H., & Laine, M. (2015). Volume and tone of environmental disclosure: A comparative analysis of a corporation and its stakeholders. Social and Environmental Accountability Journal, 35(1), 1-16.
• Saffer, A. J., Sommerfeldt, E. J., & Taylor, M. (2013). The effects of organisational Twitter interactivity on organisation - public relationships. Public Relations Review, 39(3), 213-215.
• Saxton, G. D., Gomez, L. M., Ngoh, Z., Lin, C., & Dietrich, S. (2019). Do CSR messages resonate? Examining public reactions to firms' CSR efforts on social media. Journal of Business Ethics, 155, 359-377.
• Saxton, G. D., Ren, C., & Guo, C. (2020). Responding to Diffused Stakeholders on Social Media: Connective Power and Firm Reactions to CSR-Related Twitter Messages. Journal of Bussines Ethics, 172(2), 229-252.
• Scaltrito, D. (2016). Voluntary disclosure in Italy: Firm-specific determinants an empirical analysis of Italian listed companies. EuroMed Journal of Business, 11(2), 272-303.
• Secundo, G., Del Vecchio, P., Dumay, J., & Passiante, G. (2017). Intellectual capital in the age of big data: establishing a research agenda. Journal of Intellectual Capital, 18(2), 242-261.
• Solomon, J. F., Solomon, A., Joseph, N., & Norton, S. D. (2013). Impression management, myth creation and fabrication in private social and environmental reporting: Insights from Erving Goffman. Accounting, Organizations and Society, 38(3), 195-213.
• Tao, W., & Wilson, C. (2015). Fortune 1000 communication strategies on Facebook and Twitter. Journal of Communication Management, 19(3), 208-223.
• Vitolla, F., Raimo, N., Rubino, M., & Garzoni, A. (2019). Broadening the horizons of intellectual capital disclosure to the sports industry: evidence from top UEFA clubs. Meditari Accountancy Research, 30(1), 142-162.
• Vogler, D. (2020). Analysing reputation of Swiss universities on Twitter-The role of stakeholders, content and sources. Corporate Communications, 25(3), 429-445.
• Watson, A., Shrives, P., & Marston, C. (2002). Voluntary disclosure of accounting ratios in the UK. British Accounting Review, 34(4), 289-313.
• Whelan, G., Moon, J., & Grant, B. (2013). Corporations and citizenship arenas in the age of social media. Journal of Business Ethics, 118, 777-790.
• Yang, J., Basile, K., & Letourneau, O. (2020). The impact of social media platform selection on effectively communicating about corporate social responsibility. Journal of Marketing Communications, 26(1), 65-87.

Identyfikatory

DOI

10.2478/joim-2022-0011