Environmental and Social Disclosure: Analysis of Scientific Research Publish on English Language Journals Between

Abstract

The demands related to the social and environmental concerns of companies have been prompting an increase in research in the area of social and environmental accounting, specifically into questions involving disclosure. In this respect, this article seeks to identify and describe recent research into social and environmental disclosure. To do this, we carried out a review of the relevant English language literature covering the period from 1997 to 2007. The paper is descriptive in nature, with the use of content analysis. The procedures consisted of (i) a bibliometric review; and (ii) analysis of social networks. The main results indicate: (i) the most studied theme is the environment; (ii) the main periodicals are Accounting, Auditing and Accountability Journal, Critical Perspective on Accounting, Accounting, Organisations and Society and British Accounting Review; (iii) the main methodology is analysis of documents; (iv) the main research centers are located in the United Kingdom, Australia, United State, Canada and New Zealand; and (v) the most prolific authors are Dennis Patten, Carol Adams, Nola Buhr and Rob Gray. In the analysis of social networks, we found that the authors with the greatest centrality are Rob Gray, David Power and Clare Roberts, and those with greatest intermediation were David Owen, Brendan O´Dwyer and Jeffrey Unerman