**3. Corporate entities and public health**

One of the ways through which corporations carry out CSR is by engagement in public health initiatives. Corporate practices play a substantial role in shaping health and health behavior; these practices are one of the determinants of health [32]. According to Green [33], corporate interests in public health are diverse. One of the interests is for companies to invest in corporate well-being programmes, including workplace health insurance. It is in the interest of the public that everyone in a community and country is healthy. However, nothing of value including public health is cheap to maintain. Green [33] notes that the general consensus is that public health is funded by tax collected by government. Beyond tax revenue, other sources of revenue may be available to fund public health programmes, services and initiatives in a community and country. Some of the public health programmes and services are vaccinatons, environmental health officials, sexual health service providers, health promotion, emergency planning [33].

Research on the engagement of corporate entities to improve health are namely: corporate practices as a determinant of public health, occupational and environmental health consequences of corporate policies, consumer exposures to corporate policies, implications of a single product of a corporate entity on public health, patterns of behavior by corporate entities across different industries [32]. Another body of research is on perception of CSR in public health provision by community members [34]. The research on CSR and public health provisions is yet to assess how corporations can account for the impact of public health issues on business operations and vice versa. It is important to account for how business operations affect public health for the following reasons emanating from their operations, namely: (1) carbon pollution, (2) climate change (3) waste disposal, (4) water quality (5) water usage (6) power generated and (7) recycled products. The implications of business operations on public health have been acknowledged in the literature [35, 36].

#### *Corporate Social Responsibility and the Public Health Imperative: Accounting and Reporting… DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.94356*

Public health has become one of the most critical issues in developed and developing countries due to the diseases in communities. Corporations do business in communities and diseases may exist there. Thus, limiting business operations on one hand, and affecting communities on the other. With the existence of diseases such as HIV/AIDS, Hepatitis, Herpes, cancer, malaria, among others, it has become critical to manage them for the public interest to avoid their escalation, and a situation where business activities become hampered by them. Hence, there is a need for corporations to account for how their operations affect public health.

Diseases have cost implications to the community. The cost of diseases includes not only the total cost but also includes the direct and indirect costs [37]. According to Jo [38], diseases can impose economic burden on the society. In addition to direct and indirect costs of diseases, there are intangible costs. Direct costs are those associated with healthcare (such as diagnosis, treatment, and rehabilitation) and non-healthcare (such as transportation, household expenditures, relocating, property losses, and informal cares). Indirect costs are those associated with productivity losses due to morbidity and mortality, which are borne by the individual, family, society, or the employer. Therefore, the involvement of corporations in public health initiatives is not uncommon. Studies [34, 39, 40] show how public health engagements are carried out in social responsibility programs of corporations. According to Simon and Fielding [41], public health agencies and private businesses share an interest in ensuring that the population is healthy. Private businesses exist to maximize profit. Therefore, they have financial interest when supporting public health initiatives. Public health agencies benefit from partnerships with private businesses by the increased reach and effectiveness of the former's programs.

## **3.1 Accounting and reporting on how public health issues affect corporate entities**

The impact of the sudden outbreak of diseases is felt by both businesses and public health agencies [41]. This is why it is important for corporations to account and report on how public health issues affect their operations. Even when there is no disease outbreak, it is imperative that a corporation should account and report on how public health issues affect their operations. The manner in which corporations account for the impact of public health on corporate operations can generate information for performance measurement and overall assessment of the risks inherent in the external and internal environments of corporations.

It is essential to account for how public health issues affect corporate entities in the following areas, namely: (1) budgeting for public health, (2) soliciting shared resources to ensure public health, (3) risks posed by the sudden outbreak of diseases, (4) opportunities posed by the sudden outbreak of diseases, (5) financial implications of the risk and opportunity posed by sudden outbreak of diseases, (6) costs of actions taken to manage the risks and opportunities posed by sudden outbreak of diseases, (7) cost of changes in corporate operations due to sudden outbreak of diseases, (8) risks posed by different categories of diseases, (9) opportunities posed by different categories of diseases, (10) financial implications of the risk and opportunity posed by different categories of diseases, (11) costs of actions taken to manage the risks and opportunities posed by different categories of diseases, (12) costs of changes in corporate operations due to different categories of diseases. The categories of diseases could be based on those that are most prevalent in the community or society where the business operates. For sudden outbreak of diseases, it is also important for a business to take cognizance of how public health threats due to interaction with outsiders that the business interacts with on a regular basis influence its operations. Accounting for the impact of public health on

the corporate entities will create performance metrics that can be used in corporate reporting. Disclosures can follow in corporate reports that could be labeled 'Corporate health report'. This aspect of accountability focuses on how corporations ensure quality health care and health insurance for their employees, and improving workplace conditions. Quality health care is one of the incentives corporations use to attract and retain employees. Employees may also feel valued when they can extend quality health services to their family members. Health insurance for employees is another means through which corporations protect employees. The approach used in improving workplace conditions can also be part of the disclosures in corporate health reports.

### **3.2 Accounting and reporting on how business operations affect public health**

According to Rochford et al. [42], the main focus of analysis on how businesses affect public health is on the external products or services rendered by private companies. This analysis is without recourse to how the internal processes, namely: (1) employee relations, (2) workplace design, and (3) physical infrastructure, and external processes, namely: (1) sales, (2) marketing, and (3) lobbying, affect the operations between stakeholders and ultimately influence health. Therefore, studies on how business operations affect public health are limited. Perhaps, with frameworks to account and report on how business operations affect public health, it could be easier for researchers to assess the relationship between business operations and public health.

For the sake of maximizing profit, it is important for a business entity to account and report on how its operations affect public health. This is important because an upsurge in diseases within the community where that business operates can result in temporary stoppage of operations. This could ultimately affect the ability of the business to generate revenue to meet its expenses, while providing returns on investments by shareholders. It is important for a corporation to account for water withdrawn for operations, water recycled and reused, gross direct greenhouse gas emissions, organic pollutants, water discharged and the quality of water discharged, waste and method of disposal, number and volume of spills, recycled materials used in the production process. These performance indicators are as provided by the Global Reporting Initiative [43]. The Global Reporting Initiative standards include health disclosures. These disclosures offer opportunities for corporate entities to accrue, track and report environmental, social and governance (otherwise referred to ESG issues) including employment, occupational health and safety, air emissions, waste generation, waste disposal, marketing and labeling practices.

In accounting for how public health issues affect corporate entities, there is a need for standards that can assist entities understand how to isolate public health issues at the host community and country level, and account for how each public health issue affects business operations. This accountability is crucial because it may be difficult for the workforce to work in the presence of public health crises when an organization has not declared where it stands. Accounting for how public health issues affect corporate entities is critical because it is a reversal of what the GRI standards assist entities to disclose. The board of directors has crucial roles to play in ensuring that corporate entities which they lead account and report on how business operations affect public health. Hence, the presence of the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) committee on the board of directors cannot be over-emphasized [44]. The presence of the CSR committee should translate to meaningful understanding of public health issues and how the corporation affects them. For example, a company or enterprise that operates in the confectionery and restaurant sector could expose customers to the health hazards of some diseases

*Corporate Social Responsibility and the Public Health Imperative: Accounting and Reporting… DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.94356*

such as hepatitis, diahorrea and diabetes. Hence, a company in that sector could report on how their business operations affect public health and how these operations are conducted in a way that significantly reduces the negative impact on public health. The board committee on CSR is expected to set the tone on the 'new normal' in reporting how business operations affect public health. However, the board of directors could collaborate with the management team to evolve a model that suits the reporting organization and reduces reporting costs borne by the organization. The cost of accounting and reporting public health to an organization could also be reduced if digital platforms are utilized. Esposito De Falco et al. [45], find that transaction costs reduce with the use of digital platforms for collaborative innovations.

Eventually, it is not only the core profit-oriented businesses that could embrace the 'new normal'. Businesses at all levels could embrace the 'new normal'. In the entrepreneurship type of business, there is a need to embrace not only financial and managerial accounting but also how their business operations are influenced by public health issues and in turn how public health issues affect their business. This change towards more sustainable modes of corporate behavior is needed in management and accounting education across college and tertiary levels. According to Scuotto et al. [46], entrepreneurship positions the university at national and international contexts. Therefore, management and accounting educators are agents of change to improve the mode of acceptance of the 'new normal' of accounting and reporting on public health. Social enterprises help local communities and solve community problems while making profits [47]. The objectives of social enterprises could be modified to also embrace the 'new normal' bothering on accounting and reporting on public health issues. Overall, beyond the company or firm-level initiatives to foster the acceptance of the 'new normal' of accounting and reporting on public health issues, there is the influence of country culture on the acceptance of the 'new normal'. Orlando et al. [48] find country's cultural indulgence to have a positive effect on the eco-innovation index. As an institutional influence, country culture, or the way things are done in a country which includes accounting and reporting on public health is a crucial factor to consider. Beyond the corporate board that represents the shareholders, the country's cultural acceptance of this 'new normal' could predict how organizations in the private-sector embrace accounting and reporting on public health.
