Abstract
Since 1970 some accountants have shown an interest in new forms of corporate reporting which differ markedly from traditional practices. What characterises Corporate Social Accounting (CSA) is its concern with a widening of both the content of accounting reports and the audience at which they are aimed. The view taken by supporters of CSA is that modern business enterprises have responsibilities which are wider than their legal obligations to shareholders, and encompass social obligations to other ‘stakeholders’. The ASSC (1975) lists the stakeholders of a firm as: equity investors; loan creditors; employees; analyst-advisors; business contacts; and the government. Others have widened the list to include consumers and the community or neighbourhood (Ramanathan, 1976). These stakeholders are seen as actual or potential users of information to be provided by accountants. Following this redefinition of ‘users’ the content of accounting reports is redefined. For external reports on business to the wider society, accounts should include the ‘social contribution of an individual firm’ (Ramanathan 1976; Council for Economic Development, 1971; Estes, 1976). This form of CSA, Social Responsibility Accounting, deals with ‘externalities’ and attempts to account for the impact that a company has on society-in-general. For internal accounting, Employee Accounting is suggested as part of an overall strategy of ‘open management’, with reports to include information on job satisfaction and career opportunities as well as existing management information which could be used by trade unions (Ramanathan, 1976; Owen, 1982).
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© 1990 David J. Cooper & Trevor M. Hopper
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Jones, T.C. (1990). Corporate Social Accounting and the Capitalist Enterprise. In: Cooper, D.J., Hopper, T.M. (eds) Critical Accounts. Palgrave, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-09786-9_14
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