External Social Accounting Developments: Analysis and Discussion of Academic Critiques

Abstract

This paper aims to analyse and discuss the development of external social accounting (ESA). In this paper, the ESA is defined as the firm’s representation of its operations and their effects on society. The initial development of this concept began in the 1920s and it went through remarkable developments and achievements to arrive at its current stage at this time. This paper have reviewed the literature in development of this concept and it found that there are great developments in the area of ESA reporting, but that also a number of critical issues have been identified including reporting-performance gaps regarding deficiencies from the disclosure practice and social auditing practice. There are also evidences that a number of firms portray their contribution in ways that makes them appear generous, whereas, in the majority of cases, this can be established as untrue. This paper contributes to the existing literature by gathering many concepts (i.e. CSR, social accounting reporting) under the name of external social accounting, which mainly focus in the reporting of social activities. Also it contributes to the literature by providing an overview of the development and its critiques.