The Durable Corporation

Contents......Page 6
List of Figures......Page 12
List of Tables......Page 14
Foreword......Page 16
Introduction......Page 20
Global Warming......Page 23
Footprinting......Page 24
Resource Depletion......Page 29
The Gaia Hypothesis......Page 30
Population......Page 33
The Global Compact......Page 35
The Advent of Utilitarianism......Page 37
Sustainability......Page 38
Profitability......Page 39
Conclusions......Page 40
Introduction......Page 42
Defining Sustainability......Page 43
The Brundtland Report......Page 45
The Brundtland Legacy......Page 48
Being Green......Page 51
Redefining Sustainability......Page 52
The Conflation of Financial, Social and Environmental Performance......Page 57
Operationalising Sustainability......Page 59
Conclusions......Page 61
Introduction......Page 62
A Typology of Risk......Page 63
Environmental Issues and their Effects......Page 65
Attitudes to Risk......Page 69
Agency Theory and Asymmetric Power......Page 70
The Cost of Capital......Page 72
The Firm as a Going Concern......Page 74
The Efficiency of Accounting......Page 75
Corporate Sustainability......Page 79
Conclusions......Page 81
Introduction......Page 82
Corporate Governance......Page 84
The Purpose of Corporate Reporting......Page 85
Good Governance and Corporate Behaviour......Page 89
Corporate Reputation......Page 91
The Relationship Between Financial, Social and Environmental Performance......Page 93
Good Governance and Sustainability......Page 95
Relating Sustainability with Governance: the Evidence......Page 97
Conclusions......Page 99
Country and Sectoral Analysis......Page 102
Sustainability and Financial Performance......Page 106
Methodology Used in the Analysis......Page 108
Control Variables......Page 110
Analysis......Page 111
Our Findings......Page 113
Implications of the Analysis......Page 119
Conclusion......Page 120
Social Issues and their Effects and Implications......Page 122
Managing Managers – Agency Theory......Page 125
Distributional Problems......Page 130
The Social Contract......Page 131
Stakeholder Perspectives on the Contract......Page 135
Satisfying the Stakeholder Community......Page 138
Accounting and Stewardship......Page 139
Distributional Conflicts......Page 141
The Transformational Process......Page 143
Conclusions......Page 146
Introduction......Page 148
Stakeholder Influences on Accounting......Page 149
Environmental Issues and their Implications......Page 151
Regulation and its Implications......Page 153
The Development of Social Accounting......Page 154
The Measurement and Reporting of Performance......Page 157
Accountability and Social Activity......Page 158
The Measurement of Environmental Impact......Page 159
The Environmental Audit......Page 161
The Framework of Sustainability Accounting......Page 163
Accountability......Page 164
Transparency......Page 165
The Implementation of Sustainability Accounting......Page 166
Financial Reporting and Management Accounting......Page 168
Sustainability Reporting......Page 169
The Advent of Rating Systems......Page 171
Conclusions......Page 172
Globalisation and Accounting......Page 174
The Identification of Costs......Page 176
The Evolution of Accounting Standards......Page 178
Competing Standards......Page 182
Introducing Corporate Social Responsibility......Page 183
The Regulation of Standards......Page 187
Developing Standards of Sustainability......Page 189
Conclusions......Page 190
Globalisation......Page 192
Financial Markets and Globalisation......Page 194
Globalisation, Market Misbehaviour and Financial Crises......Page 196
The Philosophical Foundations of Capitalism......Page 197
The Effects of Technological Development......Page 200
Globalisation and Sustainability......Page 201
Implications for Corporate Activity......Page 203
Globalisation, Homogenisation and Convergence......Page 207
Is Success Sustainable?......Page 209
Conclusions......Page 210
Introduction......Page 212
From Social Responsibility to Social Obligation......Page 213
CSR and Business Behaviour......Page 215
A Typology of CSR......Page 217
Classical Liberal Theory......Page 222
The Organisational Failure Framework......Page 224
The Agency Problem......Page 226
Transaction Cost Theory......Page 228
The Problems of Transaction Cost Theory......Page 230
Conclusions......Page 233
The Causes of Change......Page 234
The Dominant Paradigm......Page 237
A Critique of the Dominant Paradigm......Page 238
Expressing the Organisation through Social Networks......Page 240
Dynamism and the Emergence of Social Networks within Organisations......Page 241
Pluralism and Dissonance in Goals......Page 242
Pluralism and the Fragmentation of Power......Page 244
Changing the Existing Paradigm......Page 245
Planning Change......Page 246
The Learning Organisation......Page 248
What is a Change Agent?......Page 249
Approaches to Organisational Change......Page 252
Conclusions......Page 254
Introduction......Page 256
Sustainable Corporate Activity......Page 257
Conditions for Growth......Page 258
Introducing Equitable Sustainability......Page 261
A Traditional View of Organisational Accounting......Page 263
The Transformational Process Revisited......Page 265
Square Theory......Page 271
Strategies for Sustainable Development......Page 272
References......Page 274
Index......Page 296