MEDITARI ACCOUNTANCY RESEARCH
CONFERENCE (Online Webinar)
22 October 2021, 9:00-11:00 CET
“The evolution of sustainability reporting”
Convenors:
Alessandro Lai, University of Verona, Italy
Riccardo Stacchezzini, University of Verona, Italy
Rationale/Overview:
Corporations increasingly incorporate a sustainability mind-set within corporate governance and business strategy. In the past, many of them have treated sustainability as marginal, with only specific departments and experts involved in addressing specific social and environmental issues. A “silo thinking” has predominantly driven corporate behaviour, with the exception of a few enlightened companies that have treated sustainability as their core mission and value. Times have changed, and a number of incentives are now motivating corporations to enact sustainability practices in a more holistic manner. For example, corporate reporting is more and more required not only to disclose social and environmental performance, but also to communicate how sustainability is embedded within corporate vision, informs business strategy, and sustains financial performance. Indeed, a more holistic, integrated representation of sustainability is increasingly required from companies by both financial and nonfinancial stakeholders. However, extant literature has only cursorily explored the interrelations among these challenges, with a few exceptions (Humphrey et al., 2017; Lai and Stacchezzini, 2021; Larrinaga and Bebbington, 2021).
Given this background, and in view of the Conference scheduled in Verona in 2023, we are pleased to announce an introductory
Meditari Accountancy Research conference, in the form of an online webinar, with the general theme of new organisational and professional challenges associated with the incorporation of sustainability within corporate reporting. In particular, the webinar aims to trace the sustainability reporting evolution in terms of changes in organisation fields and the professional jurisdictions involved, highlighting how organisational spaces, actors, rules and expertise evolve alongside the incorporation of “sustainability” within corporate reporting.
Program:
9.00-9.10 – Welcome address
Prof. Charl de Villiers and Prof. Warren Maroun, Editors-in-chief: Meditari Accountancy Research
9:10-9:50 – Keynote Address
“Moving from sustainability to stewardship reporting in the Anthropocene”
Prof. Jan Bebbington
9:50-10.50 – Paper presentations
“How sustainability is institutionalised”
Dr. Muhammad Bilal Farooq, Associate Editor: Meditari Accountancy Research
“Organizational and professional challenges amid the evolution of sustainability reporting: a framework of analysis and an agenda for future research”
Prof. Alessandro Lai and Prof. Riccardo Stacchezzini, Conference Convenors and Special Issue Guest Editors: Meditari Accountancy Research
10:50-11:00 – Concluding remarks and hope to see you all at the
Meditari Accountancy Research Conference 2023, Verona, Italy
Prof. Charl de Villiers, Editor-in-chief: Meditari Accountancy Research
Registration
The Conference is free of charge. However, registration is required and can be made by sending an email to:
riccardo.stacchezzini@univr.it.
Attendance
Upon registration, the Convenor will provide all the information and the technical details needed to access the webinar.
