Research Essay: Corporate sustainability reporting
Word limit: 2500 words
Required:
1. Provide a summary of the purpose of Corporate Sustainability Reporting by referring to the Global Reporting Initiative's Sustainability Reporting Framework (G3.1)
2. Critique systems oriented theories that you have learnt in this subject (See Deegan, 2014, Financial Accounting Theory, 4th edition, Chapter 8) and the literature about the empirical application of the these theories (see Referencing and Style Item 2.2 on page 2) in explaining the motivators for corporate voluntary sustainability reporting practice
3. Identify two multinational companies from the Global 500in 2013 (available athttp://money.cnn.com)and compare their reporting on economic, environmental and social aspects in their annual reports and standalone sustainability reports for the reporting year 2012
4. Discuss how legitimacy is managed through reporting by the two companies (in Item 3 above) from the perspectives of systems oriented theories
References
1. Global Reporting Initiative website https://www.globalreporting.org/resourcelibrary/G3.1-Guidelines-Incl-Technical-Protocol.pdf
2. Global 500 companies in 2013
http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/global500/2013/full_list/index.html)
3. Deegan, C. Financial Accounting Theory, 3rd Ed, McGraw Hill 2009 4. VU library http://w2.vu.edu.au/library/EJournalSearch/
Assignment coversheet is available at Webct.
See next page for further information
The following matters should be given particular attention:
2. Referencing and style
2.1 Assignment must be typed using Word document and double-spaced with a normal margin (i.e. 3cm)
2.2 Evidence of extensive research beyond the prescribed texts is required. Students should refer to journals such as Accounting Forum, Business Strategy & the Environment (John Wiley & Sons, Inc), The International Journal of Accounting, Journal of Business Ethics which are available on the electronic journals webpage of the VU library website at http://w2.vu.edu.au/library/EJournalSearch/
2.3 The required referencing style is Harvard (Please visit VU library for examples of Harvard Referencing Style at http://guides.library.vu.edu.au/Harvard).