Is Sustainability Reporting Becoming Institutionalised? The Role of an Issues-Based Field

We study companies that do not produce a sustainability report in contexts where institutionalisation is assumed. Based on a careful analysis of interaction patterns between non-reporting companies, sustainability interest groups, and peer organisations, we find patterns of discursive and material i...

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Bibliographic Details
Authors: Higgins, Colin (Author) ; Stubbs, Wendy (Author) ; Milne, Markus (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
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Published: Springer Science + Business Media B. V 2018
In: Journal of business ethics
Year: 2018, Volume: 147, Issue: 2, Pages: 309-326
Further subjects:B Institutional Theory
B Issues-based fields
B Non-reporters
B Sustainability reporting
B Australia
Online Access: Volltext (lizenzpflichtig)
Description
Summary:We study companies that do not produce a sustainability report in contexts where institutionalisation is assumed. Based on a careful analysis of interaction patterns between non-reporting companies, sustainability interest groups, and peer organisations, we find patterns of discursive and material isomorphism that suggest sustainability reporting is confined to an issues-based field, rather than spreading as an institutionalised practice across the business community. We argue that the issues-based field exerts only weak pressure for sustainability reporting, and that encouraging more firms to report rests on understanding what influences companies to interact more widely to become part of this field.
ISSN:1573-0697
Contains:Enthalten in: Journal of business ethics
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1007/s10551-015-2931-7