business

business

Chapter 1

Corporate Responsibility, Accounting
and Accountants
Carol A. Tilt

In terms of power and influence you can forget about the church,
forget politics. There is no more powerful institution in society
than business. . . The business of business should not be about
money, it should be about responsibility. It should be about
public good, not private greed
Anita Roddick, Business as Unusual (2000)

Abstract Accountants have an important contribution to make to the debate surrounding Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). While traditionally it has been
financial accountability that is the remit of accountants, for many years now,
accounting academics have been at the forefront of research and theory on social
and environmental accounting and, more recently, practitioners, professional associations and others have taken an interest in the topic. This chapter demonstrates
that accountants’ interest in CSR is much more wide ranging than simply an interest in the financial impacts on society. Some writers envision a role for accountants
in improving social justice and contributing to social and environmental benefits on
a global level. The chapter concentrates initially on research about how firms report
on social and environmental issues. It then provides a review of some of the research
undertaken on the extent of that reporting and on accountants’ perspectives on CSR
and sustainability more generally. Finally, it outlines the involvement of the profession of accounting in adoption and promotion of corporate social and environmental
responsibility.

1.1 Introduction
Accountants have an important contribution to make to the debate surrounding
Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). The major element of accountants’ contribution that they have the ability to provide a mechanism for holding corporations
C.A. Tilt (B)
Flinders Business School, Flinders University, Adelaide, Australia

S.O. Idowu, W.L. Filho (eds.), Professionals’...

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