Social and environmental reporting in Belgium: `Pour vivre heureux, vivons cachés'

Lies Bouten (1, 2) , Patricia Everaert (3)

1 LEM - Lille économie management - UMR 9221
2 IÉSEG School Of Management [Puteaux]
3 FEBA - Faculty of Economics and Business Administration [Sofia]

This paper investigates how different social and environmental reporting (SER) practices arise in the context of the emerging sustainability logic. Based on interview evidence gathered in 14 Belgian listed companies with various SER practices, ranging from non-disclosure to substantive reporting, we observe that the degree of development of symbolic and material insensitivity to the prevailing profit-maximizing logic determines the format of the SER practice. More specifically, we find that the presence of either symbolic or material resistance to the emerging sustainability logic can explain the complete absence of SER.

Mots clés: Accountability; Logics; Neo-institutional theory; Sustainability

Domaines: Gestion et management

Lies Bouten, Patricia Everaert. Social and environmental reporting in Belgium: `Pour vivre heureux, vivons cachés'. Critical Perspectives On Accounting, 2015, 33, pp.24--43. ⟨10.1016/j.cpa.2014.10.002⟩. ⟨hal-01563017⟩