Big data and sustainability reports: The current approach to non-accounting data management

Titolo Rivista MANAGEMENT CONTROL
Autori/Curatori Michele Galeotti, Rosa Lombardi, Paola Paoloni, Fabiana Roberto
Anno di pubblicazione 2022 Fascicolo 2022/2 Suppl. Lingua Inglese
Numero pagine 22 P. 95-116 Dimensione file 380 KB
DOI 10.3280/MACO2022-002-S1005
Il DOI è il codice a barre della proprietà intellettuale: per saperne di più clicca qui

Anteprima articolo

FrancoAngeli è membro della Publishers International Linking Association, Inc (PILA)associazione indipendente e non profit per facilitare (attraverso i servizi tecnologici implementati da CrossRef.org) l’accesso degli studiosi ai contenuti digitali nelle pubblicazioni professionali e scientifiche

Smart technologies influence the accounting and reporting environment and pose several challenges to academics and practitioners. In this scenario, Big Data (BD) and BD analytics could play a crucial role in improving management control and accounting practices, as well as the accuracy of financial, non-financial and sus-tainability reporting. This paper is the first to draft the impact of BD and BD ana-lytics in the management of non-financial and sustainable information. It in-volved a review of the literature connecting BD to sustainability accounting and reporting, using document-based data covering the 2010-2022 period. The paper’s main contribution, by applying a qualitative approach, is the mapping of current research on this emerging topic. Elaborating on previous scholarly contributions, it provides a first account of this research area and recommends possible directions for future studies.

Keywords:Sustainability reporting, Big data, Sustainability accounting, Big data analytics.

  1. Abdalmuttaleb M.A., Al-Sartawi M. (eds.) (2021), The Big Data-Driven Digital Economy: Artificial and Computational Intelligence, Springer, Berlin.
  2. Al-Htaybat K., von Alberti-Alhtaybat L. (2017), Big Data and corporate reporting: impacts and paradoxes, Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, 30(4), pp. 850-873.
  3. Arnaboldi M., Busco C., Cuganesan S. (2017), Accounting, accountability, social media and big data: revolution or hype?, Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, 30(4), pp. 762-776.
  4. Asokan V.A., Yarime M., Onuki M. (2020), A review of data-intensive approaches for sustainability: methodology, epistemology, normativity, and ontology. Sustainability Science, 15(3), pp. 955-974.
  5. Balluchi F., Furlotti K., Torelli R. (2019), Il principio di materialità nella social-environmental disclosure. Il ruolo dello stakeholder engagement, Rivista Italiana di Ragioneria ed Economia Aziendale/ Italian Accounting Review, 9-10-11-12, pp. 282-295.
  6. Barbeito‐Caamaño A., Chalmeta R. (2020), Using big data to evaluate corporate social responsibility and sustainable development practices, Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, 27(6), pp. 2831-2848.
  7. Behn B.K., Rossignoli F., Corbella S. (2019), Beyond financial reporting disclosures, Financial Reporting, 2, pp. 5-8.
  8. Bellucci M., Nitti C., Chimirri C., Bagnoli L. (2019), Rendicontare l’impatto sociale. Metodologie, indicatori e tre casi di sperimentazione in Toscana, Management Control, 3, pp. 166-187. DOI: 10.3280/MACO2019-003009
  9. Bhimani A., Willcocks L. (2014), Digitisation,‘Big Data’ and the transformation of accounting information. Accounting and Business Research, 44(4), pp. 469-490.
  10. Bini L., Bellucci M., Giunta F. (2016), Put Your Money where Your Mouth is: The Difference between Real Commitment to Sustainability and Mere Rhetoric, Financial Reporting, 2, pp. 5-31.
  11. Blazquez D., Domenech J. (2018), Big Data sources and methods for social and economic analyses. Technological Forecasting and Social Change, 130, pp. 99-113.
  12. Brunelli S., Ranalli F. (2020), SDGs achievement: commitment, channels of action and the role of integrated reporting in the disclosure mechanisms, in Brunelli S., Di Carlo E. (eds.), Accountability, Ethics and Sustainability of Organizations, Springer, Berlin, pp. 45-64.
  13. Burritt R.L., Schaltegger S. (2010), Sustainability accounting and reporting: fad or trend?, Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, 23(7), pp. 829-846.
  14. Buscarini C., Cerroni F., Scarnecchia L. (2021), Il ruolo delle matrici di “Materialità” e di “Performance” per il controllo della sostenibilità, Management Control, 2, pp. 87-106. DOI: 10.3280/MACO2021-002005
  15. Cappelli A., Cavallini I. (2021), The Potential of Big Data Analysis in the Shipbuilding Industry: A Way of Increasing Competitiveness. Management Control, 1, pp. 53-74. DOI: 10.3280/MACO2021-001-S1004
  16. Capurro R., Galeotti M., Garzella S. (2018). Mondo reale-tradizionale e “mondo digitale”, strategie aziendali e web intelligence: il futuro del controllo e della gestione delle informazioni, Management Control, 2, pp. 83-111.
  17. Castellano N., Felden C. (2021), Management Control Systems for Sustainability and Sustainability of Management Control Systems. Management Control, n. 2, pp. 5-10.
  18. Cho C.H., Michelon G., Patten D.M. (2012), Impression management in sustainability reports: An empirical investigation of the use of graphs, Accounting and the Public Interest, 12(1), pp. 16-37.
  19. Cinquini L., Tenucci A., Passetti E. (2016), La sostenibilità ambientale in azienda: quale relazione tra disclosure volontaria e gestione interna?, Management Control, 2, pp. 15-32. DOI: 10.3280/MACO2016-002002
  20. Cockcroft S., Russell M. (2018), Big data opportunities for accounting and finance practice and research, Australian Accounting Review, 28(3), pp. 323-333.
  21. Coombs W.T., Holladay S.J. (2013), The pseudo‐panopticon: The illusion created by CSR‐related transparency and the internet, Corporate Communications: An International Journal, 18(2), pp. 212-227.
  22. Coyne J.G., Summers S.L., Williams B., Wood D.A. (2010), Accounting program research rankings by topical area and methodology, Issues in Accounting Education, 25(4), pp. 631-654.
  23. Cupertino S., Vitale G, Riccaboni A. (2018), L’impatto dei Big Data sulle attività di pianificazione & controllo aziendali. Il caso di studio di una PMI agricola italiana, Management Control, 3, pp. 59-86. DOI: 10.3280/MACO2018-003004
  24. da Costa Tavares M.D.C., do Carmo Azevedo G.M. (2020, October), Society 5.0 as a Contribution to the Sustainable Development Report, in International Conference on Tourism, Technology and Systems (pp. 49-63), Springer, Singapore.
  25. Demartini P., Paoloni P. (2011), Assessing Human Capital in Knowledge Intensive Business Services, Measuring Business Excellence, 15(4), pp. 16-26.
  26. Demartini P., Paoloni P. (2017), A Path Model “Why-What-How-When” to Implement an IC Reporting, International Journal of Business and Management, 12(6), pp. 11-25.
  27. De Santis F. (2018), Big Data e revisione contabile: uno studio esplorativo nel contesto italiano, Management Control, 2, pp. 129-154.
  28. De Villiers C., Rouse P., Kerr J. (2016), A new conceptual model of influences driving sustainability based on case evidence of the integration of corporate sustainability management control and reporting, Journal of Cleaner Production, 136, pp. 78-85.
  29. Dicuonzo G., Dell’Atti V., Fusco A., Donofrio F. (2021), Big data and artificial intelligence for health system sustainability: The case of Veneto Region, Management Control, 1, pp. 31-52. DOI: 10.3280/MACO2021-001-S1003
  30. Etzion D., Aragon-Correa J.A. (2016), Big data, management, and sustainability: Strategic opportunities ahead, Organization & Environment, 29(2), pp. 147-155.
  31. Fadda N., Pischedda G., Marinò L. (2021), Sustainable-oriented management come fattore di resilienza organizzativa. Un caso di studio, Management Control, 2, pp. 39-60.
  32. Fornaciari L., Pesci C. (2018), Global financial crisis and relevance of GRI disclosure in Italy. Insights from the stakeholder theory and the legitimacy theory, Financial Reporting, 1, pp. 67-102.
  33. Freeman R.E. (1984), Strategic Management: A Stakeholder Approach, Cambridge University Press.
  34. Gao S.S., Zhang J.J. (2006), Stakeholder engagement, social auditing and corporate sustainability, Business Process Management Journal, 12(6), pp. 722-740.
  35. Garzella S., Fiorentino R. (2013), How to control environmental strategy?, Management Control, 1, pp. 45-76.
  36. Gray R. (2010), Is accounting for sustainability actually accounting for sustainability and how would we know? An exploration of narratives of organizations and the planet, Accounting, Organizations and Society, 35(1), pp. 47-62.
  37. GRI (2016) GRI G4 - Sustainability reporting guidelines, Accessed: 5 September 2021. --https://www2.globalreporting.org/standards/g4/Pages/default.aspx.
  38. GRI, (2020), Information - sustainable development goals - reporting on the SDGs (2020). Accessed 08 September 2021. -- https://www.globalreporting.org/information/ SDGs/Pages/Reporting-on-the-SDGs.aspx.
  39. Griffin P.A., Wright A.M. (2015), Commentaries on Big Data's importance for accounting and auditing. Accounting Horizons, 29(2), pp. 377-379.
  40. Hämäläinen E., Inkinen T. (2017), How to generate economic and sustainability reports from Big Data? Qualifications of process industry, Processes, 5(64), pp. 1-18.
  41. Hämäläinen E., Inkinen T. (2019), Industrial applications of big data in disruptive innovations supporting environmental reporting. Journal of Industrial Information Integration, 16(100105), pp. 1-9.
  42. Herremans I.M., Nazari J.A., Mahmoudian F. (2016), Stakeholder relationships, engagement, and sustainability reporting. Journal of Business Ethics, 138(3), pp. 417-435.
  43. Huerta E., Jensen S. (2017), An accounting information systems perspective on data analytics and Big Data. Journal of Information Systems, 31(3), pp. 101-114.
  44. Janvrin D.J., Watson M.W. (2017), “Big Data”: A new twist to accounting. Journal of Accounting Education, 38, pp. 3-8.
  45. Joshi S., Li Y. (2016), What is corporate sustainability and how do firms practice it? A management accounting research perspective, Journal of Management Accounting Research, 28(2), pp. 1-11.
  46. Khan H.Z., Bose S., Mollik A.T., Harun H. (2020), “Green washing” or “authentic effort”? An empirical investigation of the quality of sustainability reporting by banks, Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, 34(2), pp. 338-369.
  47. Lock I., Seele P. (2016), The credibility of CSR (corporate social responsibility) reports in Europe. Evidence from a quantitative content analysis in 11 countries, Journal of Cleaner Production, 122, pp. 186-200.
  48. Lodhia S. (2018), Is the medium the message? Advancing the research agenda on the role of communication media in sustainability reporting, Meditari Accountancy Research, 26(1), pp. 2-12.
  49. Lombardi R., Secundo G. (2021), The digital transformation of corporate reporting – a systematic literature review and avenues for future research, Meditari Accountancy Research, 29(5), pp. 1179-1208.
  50. Lombardi R., Cosentino A., Sura A., Galeotti M. (2021a), The impact of the EU Directive on non-financial information: Novel features of the Italian case, Meditari Accountancy Research (ahead-of-print).
  51. Lombardi R., Trequattrini R., Schimperna F., Cano-Rubio M. (2021b), The Impact of Smart Technologies on the Management and Strategic Control: A Structured Literature Review. Management Control, 1, pp. 11-30.
  52. Marcello R. (2020), The use of Big data analytics and artificial intelligence tools to prevent fraud in the audit field: A conceptual frame, Rivista Italiana di Ragioneria ed Economia Aziendale/Italian Accounting Review, 3, pp. 380-389.
  53. Marchi L. (2019), Governo delle aziende e creazione di valore: da una prospettiva finanziaria ad una prospettiva economico-sociale, Management Control, 1, pp. 5-16. DOI: 10.3280/MACO2019-001001
  54. Marchi L. (2020), Dalla crisi allo sviluppo sostenibile. Il ruolo dei sistemi di misurazione e controllo, Management Control, n. 3, pp. 5-16. DOI: 10.3280/MACO2020-003001
  55. Mazzola L., Contrafatto M. (2019), Stakeholder engagement and sustainability reporting, Financial Reporting, 1, pp. 155-162.
  56. McAfee A., Brynjolfsson E., Davenport T.H., Patil D.J., Barton D. (2012), Big data: the management revolution, Harvard Business Review, 90(10), pp. 60-68.
  57. Michelon G., Pilonato S., Ricceri F. (2015), CSR reporting practices and the quality of disclosure: An empirical analysis, Critical Perspectives on Accounting, 33, pp. 59-78.
  58. Milne M.J., Gray R. (2013), W(h)ither ecology? The triple bottom line, the global reporting initiative, and corporate sustainability reporting, Journal of Business Ethics, 118(1), pp. 13-29.
  59. Moffitt K.C., Vasarhelyi M.A. (2013). AIS in an Age of Big Data. Journal of Information System, 27(2), pp. 1-19.
  60. Molinari M., Maraghini M.P., Riccaboni A. (2021). Reporting di Sostenibilità e Controllo Manageriale: l’esperienza di Edison S.p.A. Management Control, 2, pp. 61-86. DOI: 10.3280/MACO2021-002004
  61. Montemari M., Nielsen C. (2021). Big data for business modeling: Towards the next generation of performance measurement systems?. Management Control, 1, pp. 5-10. DOI: 10.3280/MACO2021-001-S1001
  62. Paoloni P., Demartini P. (2016), Women management: perspective on a decade of research (2005-2015), Palgrave Communication, 2, 16094.
  63. Paoloni P., Paoloni N., Modaffari G. (2019), Crowdfunding as a new collaborative process in the knowledge economy: A literature review, VINE Journal of Information and Knowledge, Management Systems, 49(2), pp. 241-255.
  64. Petticrew M., Roberts H. (2006), Systematic Reviews in the Social Sciences: A Practical Guide, Blackwell Publishing, Oxford.
  65. Pratt J.W., Zeckhauser R.J. (1985), Principals and agents: An overview. Principals and agents: The structure of business, Harvard Business School Press, Boston.
  66. Quattrone P. (2016), Management accounting goes digital: Will the move make it wiser?. Management Accounting Research, 31, pp. 118-122.
  67. Rakipi R., De Santis F., D’Onza G. (2021), Correlates of the internal audit function’s use of data analytics in the big data era: Global evidence, Journal of International Accounting, Auditing and Taxation, 42(1).
  68. Rezaee Z., Homayoun S., Mora M. (2017), Integration of real-time analysis of big data into sustainability attributes, in 2017 XBRL Academic Track, XBRLAT 2017, 7-8 June 2017, Frankfurt, Germany, vol. 1890, CEUR-WS.
  69. Seele, P. (2016). Envisioning the digital sustainability panopticon: a thought experiment of how big data may help advancing sustainability in the digital age. Sustainability Science, 11(5), pp. 845-854.
  70. Seele P., Gatti L. (2017), Greenwashing revisited: In search of a typology and accusation‐based definition incorporating legitimacy strategies, Business Strategy and the Environment, 26(2), pp. 239-252.
  71. Serag M.A. (2022), Enhancing Quality of Sustainability Reporting by Using Big Data Analytics: A Conceptual Framework Based on Stakeholder Engagement, in Musleh Al-Sartawi A.M.A. (eds), Artificial Intelligence for Sustainable Finance and Sustainable Technology. ICGER 2021. Lecture Notes in Networks and Systems, vol 423, Springer, Cham.
  72. Sproviero A.F. (2020), Integrated reporting and the epistemic authority of Big Data: An exploratory study from the banking industry, Financial Reporting, 2, pp. 99-124.
  73. Tiwari K., Khan M.S. (2020), Sustainability accounting and reporting in the industry 4.0. Journal of Cleaner Production, 258, 120783, pp. 1-14.
  74. Tiwari K., Khan M.S. (2021), Role of Industry 4.0 Technologies in Sustainability Accounting and Reporting-Research Opportunities in India and Other Emerging Economies. Advances in Industrial and Production Engineering: Select Proceedings of FLAME 2020, 297.
  75. Tranfield D., Denyer D., Smart P. (2003), Towards a methodology for developing evidence‐informed management knowledge by means of systematic review, British Journal of Management, 14(3), pp. 207-222.
  76. Wanner J., Janiesch C. (2019), Big data analytics in sustainability reports: an analysis based on the perceived credibility of corporate published information, Business Research, 12(1), pp. 143-173.
  77. Warren Jr J.D., Moffitt K.C., Byrnes P. (2015), How big data will change accounting, Accounting Horizons, 29(2), pp. 397-407.
  78. Wong E., Wines T., Li S. (2017), Sustainable data analytics for environmental performance monitoring in dynamic supply chain infrastructure, Management Science, 5(6), pp. 483-492.

  • The Determinants of TCFD Reporting: A Focus on the Italian Context Salvatore Principale, Simone Pizzi, in Administrative Sciences /2023 pp.61
    DOI: 10.3390/admsci13020061
  • La pianificazione della sostenibilità nelle aziende familiari: il ruolo dei key value drivers Ivo Hristov, Antonio Chirico, Francesco Ranalli, Riccardo Camilli, in MANAGEMENT CONTROL 3/2022 pp.109
    DOI: 10.3280/MACO2022-003006

Michele Galeotti, Rosa Lombardi, Paola Paoloni, Fabiana Roberto, Big data and sustainability reports: The current approach to non-accounting data management in "MANAGEMENT CONTROL" 2 Suppl./2022, pp 95-116, DOI: 10.3280/MACO2022-002-S1005