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What Drives TBL Reporting: Good Governance or Threat to Legitimacy?
Author(s) -
Kent Pamela,
Monem Reza
Publication year - 2008
Publication title -
australian accounting review
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.551
H-Index - 36
eISSN - 1835-2561
pISSN - 1035-6908
DOI - 10.1111/j.1835-2561.2008.0036.x
Subject(s) - accounting , publicity , business , sustainability reporting , transparency (behavior) , corporate governance , legitimacy , audit , audit committee , public relations , corporate social responsibility , political science , finance , marketing , law , politics
This paper provides two complementary explanations for the adoption of triple bottom line (TBL) reporting by Australian companies. The first explanation is that companies adopt TBL reporting to legitimise their relationship with society because of adverse publicity from the media. The second explanation is that TBL reporting is adopted because of the company's desire to achieve high‐quality reporting and transparency inferred by strong corporate governance. Companies with TBL reporting had significantly more adverse media coverage before implementing TBL reporting than non‐TBL companies. TBL reporting is also significantly and positively related to the existence of an environmental or sustainable development committee and the frequency of meetings of the audit committee.