4. CSR training and activities in the Rimini region

We chose the Rimini case, because the influence on the environment especially of tourist entities (17,000) is great, as there is the main concentration of the hospitality industry in Europe.

In 2004, Rimini began a process to spread CSR (corporate social responsibility) in the territory and to create a new culture using networks (PERCORSI Project). In the

Table 1. Parters of network percoRSI 2015.

He remarks that the observed studies of sustainability management and social reporting deliver some evidence for the institutionalisation of such practices. SR is the consequence of a combination of the mechanisms/structures that we described above. Larrinaga-González [16] hints that SDR (sustainability development

Accounting and Finance - New Perspectives on Banking, Financial Statements and Reporting

reporting) is not yet entirely institutionalised and may be the outcome of additional general social/environmental awareness being institutionalised in some situations. Lastly, Larrinaga-González [16] faces the matter of modification and institutionalisation of SR and recognises some investigation designs. The former is about the initiating event that may change the institutional engagements and what elements play a role in changes to coercive/normative/cognitive mechanisms/structures. The latter is about the analysis of what interactions occur between competitive forces and institutional constructions in the progression of institutionalisation [19]. In the

In Italy, there are some important factors that sustain the need for social and environmental accounting and reporting to emancipate economic, social relation-

In the 1980s, there was a lot of publications concerning this subject [17, 22–25], but organisation culture was not yet ready to accept these issues, as we can read: "This was partly, at least, a result of mutual distrust between corporations, public

Despite difficulties, there are some important factors in favour of SEAR; among them firstly, there is a common platform of "Economia Aziendale" [20] where financial accountants and social and environmental accountant scholars can dialogue quite easily. The concept of an organisation following institutional theory [9] opens a holistic

Secondly, involvement in the economic system of different organisations, such as the state with public organisations, for-profit organisations and private, not-forprofit ones, pushed transparency in order to face crisis and to go on globalisation challenges. So, this evolution made it more and more important to have one common platform of information for dialogue so all economic partners had been more

In the following years, SEAR developed into a theory [2, 19, 26–30], but above all in practice, due to a lot of European initiatives (Stakeholder forum and Green

We have to remember, among other things, two important projects regarding SEAR: the first one had its origins in 1988 and its name is SBG (social balance group) that stated and is stating some principles that form SEAR (http://www.gruppobila

The second important initiative for Italy was CSR-SC, 2003, which saw the progressive spreading of the debate on corporate social responsibility, both because the Italian government placed it among the five priorities of its European semester and because the European Campaign promoted by the European Commission, the

Following Contrafatto and Rusconi's idea [20], social and environmental accounting (SEAR) theory in Italy had its origins in the 1970s [21], but until the 1990s, we did not find empirical social and environmental reporting excluding the Merloni-Battelle experience. The reasons of interest in this theory are due to the fact that financial accounting and reporting law was not so exhaustive so there was a wide-open space to cover with social and environmental accounting theory.

next section, we focus on the Italian peculiarities.

authorities and trades unions" ([8], p. 4).

papers 2001 and subsequent).

nciosociale.org/).

26

ships and democracy.

3. Framework of institutional factors and SEAR in Italy

view of it and involves social and environmental subjects too.

oriented towards disclosing their behaviour as regards the stakeholder.

CSR-Europe and the Copenhagen Centre realised events and actions.

#### Mechanisms ([4], p. 164)

#### Coercive


on the section of the balance sheet, where are the financial and non-financial

The elaborations were carried out using Excel sheets, which were later represented through graphics. Five enterprises were singled out: Pesaresi Giuseppe

The companies were chosen on the basis of the attendance of CSR courses activated within the PERCORSI project, as per above. Besides, they all belong to

This allows checking the different methods of impact upon the environment and society. Of these companies, only SGR draws, from 2011, the sustainability report, whereas the others throughout the period examined by the research project do not draw up any independent document where social, environmental or sustainability

For this reason, the case of SGR will be the last to be treated, in which we have included the sustainability report into the research as well. The choice does not make the data homogeneous but allows us to highlight the varying frequency due to a precise strategic choice of the company. Such a different approach allows us to

The keywords have been chosen on the basis of relevance to the themes of work and are: social responsibility, sustainability, environment, development, safety, territory, stakeholder and innovation. An analysis of each financial statement from every company in the period 2008–2017 was carried out, since 2008 represents the beginning of the PERCORSI project and 2017 represents the year of change due to the quoted legislation. The consolidated financial statements come from the AIDA

Below are the outcomes of the analyses, which are preceded by a brief outline

The SCM Group S.p.A. was established in 1958 for the production of machine

The parent-company is headquartered in Rimini, and has sister companies in: Europe, Asia, Australia and South America. At its overseas companies, employees

Companies in the group operate within the following sectors: construction, furniture-making, aerospace, shipping, automotive, and plastic material-making. Graph 1 shows the summarised results of the conducted analyses whose values, on the vertical line, represent the frequency with which keywords are included in the

From the graph, the words 'development' and 'safety' emerge in the main. The

The European classification considers a SME a company with up to 250 employees. Above this quota, a company is considered a large-scale enterprise. There is also a size relating to turnover, that is a turnover above €10 million for a small-scale company and above €50 million for a medium-scale one. Legislative

This certainly means that the SCM Group S.p.A. in its activities surely pays particular attention to the development of new technologies for constructing industrial machines which are ever more advanced, but also to the training

It is a world leader in technologies for the working of wood and advanced

materials. At the end of 2016, employees numbered 1512; turnover was

€331,006,785 and gross total invested capital was €356,554,493.

numbered 3600 with turnover greater than € 700 million.

reference is recommendation 003/361/EC of the European Commission.

.

Ltd. (Limited), Petroltecnica Ltd., SCM Group Ltd., Focchi Ltd. and SGR

CSR Training and Financial Statement "Disclosure": The Case of Italy

highlight certain interesting considerations which we will later show.

information.

Group Ltd [34].

Database.

information is described.

which introduces each company.

financial statements.

2

29

tools and is included in large-scale enterprises<sup>2</sup>

former is repeated 30 times and the latter 62.

different sectors and are of different size.

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.86688


#### Normative


#### Mimetic:


Source: our elaboration.

#### Table 2.

Institutionalist in the Rimini area.

meantime, at the beginning, we carefully followed the whole "PERCORSI" project process. We had been impressed by the final objective: not only to realise SEAR but to modify entity culture into one of emancipation and social equality [10, 16].

In the case of Rimini, in a positive perspective of research, for-profit, non-profit entities, public administrations (municipality, Chamber of Commerce, and province), trade associations; Chartered Accountant Associations and other associations together with the University of Bologna formed narrowly joined networks to create a more socially responsible area [31], as you may see in the following Table 1.

The situation of the Rimini region using neo-institutional theory is represented in Table 2.

After the context presentation, we wonder if training activities have an impact on companies financial statements. In the following section, we will analyse the data of the empirical research, which help to provide an answer to such a question.
