SOCIALINĖS INFORMACIJOS KAIP LIETUVOS ĮMONIŲ ETIŠKOS ELGSENOS KRITERIJAUS ANALIZĖ

Abstract

Today's global economic scene, marked by the economic and financial crisis, requires increasing awareness about social responsibility and ethics of business. Thus changes in the economy also create new challenges for accounting and its ethics as a part of business ethics that firm should put more emphasis on. On the one side, recent accounting-related business scandals highlight the need for more attention to be given to the question of accounting ethics related to the disclosure of financial performance. In this respect creative accounting provides a challenge for the accounting profession too: accounting problem is right choice of accounting policies and handling transactions (Usurelu, 2010). On the other side, one of the greatest risks for businesses is that they are almost exclusively answerable to their investors, thereby limiting their social value. Business management cannot concern itself only with the interests of the proprietors, but must also assume responsibility for all the other stakeholders who contribute to the life of the business: the workers, the clients, the suppliers of various elements of production, the community of reference. Hence, the primary goal of any firm is not only to increase its owners’ wealth, but also to meet the need and receive the public trust by concerning ethics in going business (Prempanichnukul, 2010). In this context, traditional role of accounting shifts its focus from owners towards the environment and wider stakeholder community. According Crowther and Hosking (2009), this brings us to the concept of social accounting, which aims to provide information in a variety of different groups with different information needs. Social accounting is different from traditional accounting, taking into account the audience and its voluntary nature. A large part of the current debate about the social accounts do not focus on the diversity of views of interested parties, but these approaches to the synthesis of a single truth that can be accounted for. In this context, the question is to decide how to approach nearest to the truth of what should be accounted for, and what is not. In this context, problem of accounting is related to voluntary qualitative disclosures. Although there is done a number of social responsibility and accounting research in Lithuania (Juscius, 2007; Bernatonytre, Vilke, Keizeriene, 2009; Amstrokiene, Adamoniene, 2009; Simanskiene, Pauzoliene, 2010; Dagiliene, Bruneckiene, 2010; Simanaviciene, Kovaliov and Subonyte, 2011; Giziene, Palekiene and Simanaviciene, 2011; Kovaliov, Simanaviciene and Palekiene, 2011) , but in practice only a part of Lithuanian companies provide their environment information, and even smaller parts - social reports. The problem is why Lithuanian firms present their social information and how social information of firms reveals their ethical behaviour. Thus the object of research is social accounting. And the main objective of this article is carrying out theoretical analysis of social accounting disclosure determinants and to indentify factors of social reporting by Lithuanian firms. The research methodology involved the systematic and comparative analysis of scientific literature; and social information reflected in the sustainability report was carried out by the content analysis method. Result of the research show that that the large part of firms, which provide their social information, is characterised by ethical behaviour. And social information disclosure of Lithuanian firms can be explained by the theory of stakeholders mainly, because the information is provided to meet the needs of investors. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5755/j01.em.17.3.2091