The group social and environmental report: its characterising informative content

Abstract

This research work stems from the observation that, more and more frequently, Italian parent companies are publishing social responsibility reports concerning their own activities, as well as those of their subsidiaries. In other words, although the reports may assume different headings, there is a steady increase in the practice of communicating group behaviour concerning social responsibility.

In order that the stakeholders of a corporate group may appreciate how a group has combined economic expectations with socially responsible behaviour, it is necessary that the group social and environmental report provides disclosures on the drawing up procedure. This aspect is of particular importance considering that there is actually a lack of standards concerning group social and environmental reporting.

Therefore, the risk that a social and environmental report may be considered a document of image and of little reliability is greater in the report of a corporate group than in the report of an entity.

Information regarding the basic steps of the drawing up procedure may be qualified the characterising disclosure of a group social and environmental report. Thus, in this paper the information concerning following steps will be analysed: the singling out of entities whose performance is covered in the group social and environmental report; the method used in recording information concerning each entity of the group; the aggregation method of performance indicators; the group stakeholder engagement practices.

The transparency concerning the basic steps of the drawing up procedure can throw light on the credibility of a group social and environmental report.