The Australian Mining Industry'S Sustainability Reporting : An Examination of Legitimation Strategies

Recently there has been increased interest in sustainable development and sustainability reporting. This study conducts content analysis to examine, ex post, whether the sample companies' voluntary sustainability reporting within their annual reports represents attempts to gain, maintain or repair legitimacy. It brings a new approach to analysing corporate disclosure and provides a strong case for employing legitimacy theory in explaining corporate disclosure. The analysis shows that the strategy of changing the perception of the "relevant publics" and the strategy of manipulating perception by deflecting attention from the issues of concern were adopted to a similar extent and more so than the other two legitimation strategies. The strategy of educating and informing its "relevant publics" about (actual) changes in an organisation's performance and activities was also adopted but not as frequently as those two strategies. The strategy of changing external expectations of an organisation's performance was adopted the least