The Potential Role of Social Reporting in the Decision-Making Process of Cooperatives

Accountability And Social Report: Some Literature Contribution

Literature provides numerous contributions aimed at outlining the concept of accountability, its articulation in different components and the evolution that accountability has highlighted over time.

In extreme synthesis, the concept of accountability (Steccolini, 2004) requires the presence of an activity of transferring information from the accountor (social economy sector organization) to the accountee (stakeholder) to whom the possibility of evaluation is recognized on the basis of the information obtained.

In particular, in order to apply the accountability concept, the availability of information is necessary, but not sufficient. In effect, the information must also have the character of reliability, comprehensibility, accessibility, distribution and dissemination (Herzlinger, 1996).

The theoretical and empirical analyses contained in the international literature on accountability, are distinguished by their initial and overwhelming focus on the social reporting aspects related to the for-profit sector (Linowes, 1972; Estes, 1976; Gray et al., 1987).