Research Essay: Corporate sustainability reporting Word limit: 2500 words (excluding abstracts and references) Required: 1. Provide a summary of the purpose of Corporate Sustainability Reporting by referring to the Global Reporting Initiative’s Sustai

 Research Essay: Corporate sustainability reporting

Word limit: 2500 words (excluding abstracts and references)

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) available at https://www.globalreporting.org/resourcelibrary/G3.1-Guidelines-Incl-Technical-Protocol.pdf

2. Critique Stakeholder Theory and Legitimacy Theory that you have learnt in this subject (See Deegan, 2009, Financial Accounting Theory, pp. 318-378) and the literature about the empirical application of the two theories published in academic journals (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 500 in 2012 (available at http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/global500/2012/full_list/index.html) and compare their reporting on economic, environmental and social aspects in their annual reports and standalone sustainability reports for the reporting year 2011

4. Discuss how legitimacy is managed through reporting by the two companies (in Item 3 above) from the perspectives of Stakeholder Theory and Legitimacy Theory

References

1. Global Reporting Initiative website

https://www.globalreporting.org/resourcelibrary/G3.1-Guidelines-Incl-Technical-Protocol.pdf

2. Global 500 companies in 2012

http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/global500/2012/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/

reference in Harvard style..