Abstract
At present, energy transition is a crucial phenomenon that is at the very heart of governmental policies. There are a huge number of stakeholders involved in the change, but among these, the main socioeconomic actors that affect environmental and social impacts are energy companies. In this research, we analyze their institutionalized role in the Spanish wind energy sector, in the framework of the ecological movement. We consult the special views, opinions and motivations given by managers responsible for Institutional Relations in the main wind energy companies in Spain, and their perceptions of environmental reporting. We therefore tackle aspects related to the drivers of the social and environmental disclosure of environmental and social information. Research has been carried out based on documentary secondary analysis, and the use of a qualitative method with semi-structured interviews has revealed tendencies and pressures in the sector. Results suggest that the social context and public opinion pressure organizations to reveal environmental and social information. We also put forward how information is conveyed to the society through accountability practices, and the different institutionalized ways in which this is achieved.
Highlights
The so-called New Institutionalism in Sociology (NIS) theory, mainly based on the social theory of Parsons [1] and Selznick [2], is becoming one of the dominant approaches in the field of business behavior research
We specially focused on relevant matters, such as who is the recipient of the given information, and what are the benefits of the information compared with the institutional discourse, posing the research question (RQ1): Who is environmental information in the Spanish energy sector prepared for? In addition to the data obtained in our research, the leading motivations of companies in terms voluntary disclosure have been analyzed via their responses to the research question (RQ2): Are there isomorphic tendencies that show a marked homogenization in the process of revealing environmental information? In the answer to the following, some information is obtained and validated (RQ3): Are there institutional pressures that influence and condition the behavior of companies in the sector?
We have focused on two companies: the largest one in the country, and the other with more international presence
Summary
The so-called New Institutionalism in Sociology (NIS) theory, mainly based on the social theory of Parsons [1] and Selznick [2], is becoming one of the dominant approaches in the field of business behavior research This theory has a wide degree of applicability; the main reason is that all organizations go through a process of institutionalization throughout their life span [3]. The NIS considers how organizations take into account social changes, pressures and different socioeconomic and sociocultural trends if they want to survive [9] In this sense, the research performed by Fazzini and Dal Maso [10] shows that the practice of environmental voluntary disclosure represents value-relevant information, positively correlated with a firm’s market value. Other researchers have focused on how transparency has become a very important
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