Le reporting des entreprises sociales au regard des Objectifs de Développement Durable de l'ONU : Motivations et freins

Abstract

Supranational institutions such as the UN and the European Union, through initiatives, standards and legislation, are increasingly pushing companies to produce extra-financial reporting, prefera-bly based on the UN 17 Sustainable Development framework. Indeed, using the SDGs framework can be a way for companies to obtain legitimacy and reputation, business opportunities or even diverse and varied resources (capital, technology, talents). Social enterprises, although already enjoying a certain legitimacy due to their social impact, do not escape the major political and cul-tural upheavals that extra-financial reporting is experiencing. In fact, even if the disclosure of ex-tra-financial information based on transparency does not appear a priori as a major issue for so-cial enterprises, the fact remains that the UN is counting on them in order to achieve the goals set by the 2030 Agenda. Social enterprises therefore find it difficult to position themselves in relation to the production of extra-financial reporting, the regulations and standards of which seem rather designed for multinationals and traditional companies seeking to highlight their CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) policies. On the one hand, the motivations of social enterprises to report on the SDGs could come from a need to legitimize themselves with public authorities, to be as trans-parent as possible towards investors or to generate organizational learning within the organiza-tion. On the other hand, the potential obstacles to this repoting strategy are mistrust vis-à-vis the UN, too much complexity in implementing the SDG tools and indicators or the lack of legal coer-cion. The organizational characteristics of social enterprises likely to influence their strategies in terms of extra-financial reporting on the SDGs are, among others, the proportion of women on the board, the average age of the board, the other frameworks used by the company but also its de-pendence on the public authorities. All these hypotheses (motivations, obstacles and organiza-tional characteristics) will be tested in a quantitative study conducted by Simon Meert, doctoral student at HEC-Liège and working at the school's Center for Social Economy. The results of this study will contribute to the success of the Escap mission on the development of the social econo-my, particularly in terms of reporting aligned with the UN Sustainable Development Goals frame-work.