Social Reporting and New Governance Regulation: The Prospects of Achieving Corporate Accountability Through Transparency

Abstract

This paper argues that social reporting can be an important form of New Governance regulation to achieve stakeholder accountability. Current social reporting practices, however, fall short of achieving stakeholder accountability and actually may work against it. By examining the success and failures of other transparency programs in the United States, we can identify key factors for ensuring the success of social reporting over the long term. These factors include increasing the benefits-to-costs ratios of both the users of the information and the disclosers, and recognizing the importance of the involvement of third-party intermediaries.

Keywords: Social reporting, sustainability reporting, social responsibility, regulation

JEL Classification: G38, K29, M14