Introduction

A survey, first of its kind, was conducted to explore the role of South European academics within social and environmental accounting (SEA) research. The review specifically targeted international journals to see how much Southern European research has penetrated the international SEA academic discourse. The pressures to consider the social and environmental impact of business operations have been growing steadily over the past four decades. Companies are supposed to voluntarily integrate social and environmental concerns in their operations and interaction with stakeholders. SEA broadly means "the preparation and publication of an account about an organization's social, environmental, employee, community, customer and other stakeholder integrations and activities and, where, possible, the consequences of those interactions and activities."

So far, no empirical studies have been undertaken to assess the progress and the present status of SEA research in Southern European countries. The present study examines SEA research in Southern European countries (France, Italy, Greece, Spain and Portugal) because it is believed that as compared to the reach of research from Anglo- Saxon countries, the research in Southern Europe is still relatively unknown.

The study is based on papers published in various research journals over the period 1998 to 2008 and also on an electronic search of the on-line data bases which include journals in these areas.

Methodology

To find SEA papers, journals which are considered as outlets of SEA research were sought. Four journals, primarily committed to publishing interdisciplinary accounting research, were selected. These are:

1. Accounting, Auditing and Accountability Journal (AAAJ),
   
   
2. Accounting Forum (AF),
   
   
3. Critical Perspectives on Accounting (CPA); and
   
   
4. Accounting, Organisations and Society (AOS).

In addition to these four journals, some international journals were also referred to as these do publish SEA research. These journals were: Accounting and Business Research (ABR); Accounting Education(AE); British Accounting Review (BAR); European Accounting Review (EAR); Business Strategy and the Environment (BSE); and Journal of Business Ethics (JBE).

Based on the journals reported above, a thorough review of the literature using the Business Source Complete (EBSCO), Emerald, SCOPUS, and Wiley Inter Science online databases was done in order to track down articles on SEA authored/ co-authored by scholars from Southern European countries.

The term used for the electronic search was the country name (Spain/Portugal/Greece/Italy/France) in author affiliation in SCOPUS and Wiley InterScience databases, which allowed this type of search. In the cases in which the databases did not allow this kind of search for the entire period considered (which are the cases are of AAAJ, ABR, AE and EAR), the online versions of the journals were consulted to analyse individually the volumes and numbers of the journals which were not included in the two databases mentioned above.

The review study covers one or more of the following themes as SEA research:

• Reviews of social and environmental (and 'triple bottom line', and 'sustainability') reporting, including analysis of the motivations and determinants to report;
  
  
• Stakeholder reactions to the disclosure of social and environmental information;
  
  
• Discussions or commentaries about new systems of accounting designed to incorporate social and / or environmental performance;
  
  
• Focused discussion about the role of accounting in specifically promoting, or undermining, the environment and/or particular stakeholders within society;
  
  
• Social and environmental audits;
  
  
• Development of theories to explain or inform SEA practice; and
  
  
• Discussion of method and methodological issues associated with SEA research.

Major Findings:

1. Publications of Scholars from Southern European Countries- The volume of published research in international journals is still very low and is quite recent. Only 22 articles on SEA were published in international journals during the period 1998-2008. 55% of the articles were authored/co-authored by Spanish academics. It was also found that publication of SEA research by Southern European academics occurred chiefly in four journals. JBE accounted for 32% of all articles; AAAJ accounted for 23%; and EAR and BSE accounted for 18% each. Only 28% of the articles were published in the major outlets for SEA (five in AAAJ and one in AF). On the other hand, 50% of the articles were published in non-accounting journals.
   
   Although the study covered the period 1998-2008, the first article was found to have been published in 2000. Whereas in 2000, both Spanish and Italian academics had articles published, the first article from a French academic dates in 2005 and the first article from a Portuguese academic was published only in 2008.
   
   
2. Focus of Research- Three areas of focus for SEA research were delineated in the study: social, environmental, and social & environmental.
   
   All the papers published between 2000 and 2003 focused on environmental issues. However, there had been a change in the focus of research over time. The most popular issues in SEA research published in BMA journals between 2004 and 2008 had been social and environmental concerns. As per Parker (2005), the focus areas were employee health and safety, community relations, corporate philanthropy, minority employment, and ethical investment, indicating the trend towards SEA that focused on environmental accounting, accountability and reporting. The picture regarding Southern European countries authors was different. However, there seems to be an evolution towards the simultaneous consideration of social and environmental aspects.
   
   
3. Nature of Research- Regarding the nature of knowledge in SEA, the categories of research methodologies used were defined as content analysis, case/field/interview study, literature/ theory/commentary, experimental and combined.
   
   Out of 22 papers, 15 papers (68%) were empirical (content analysis, case/field/ interview study, survey) and 7 papers (32%) were theoretical (literature/ theory/commentary). During the period 2000-2003 all the papers were empirical but later on the importance of theoretical papers increased; as such in 2007-2008, 50% of the papers were theoretical.
   
   Study outcomes show that research by Spanish scholars is evenly split between studies using content analysis, case/field/interview studies and literature/ theory/commentary studies. 50% of the articles by French authors were literature/theory/commentary studies, whereas the same kind of studies represented only 25% of articles from Italian scholars.
   
   
   
4. Concentration in Research-Whereas in the cases of France and Italy, there were no authors associated with more than one article, the two articles published by Portuguese academics were from the same author. In the case of Spain, from the 14 authors who were associated with 12 articles, 9 of them were associated with only one paper, 3 were associated with 3 papers, one was associated with 5 papers and one with 7 papers.

Conclusions

The study reviewed journal articles published in specialized journals over the period 1998-2008 and reached the following conclusions:

1. The volume of published research is low and quite recent;
   
   
2. Research is more or less evenly split between empirical and theoretical articles;
   
   
3. Empirical research is somewhat more qualitative in orientation; and
   
   
4. Majority of the empirical papers focus on the countries of origin of the researchers.
   
   
   There is great scope for expanding the amount of research on SEA in Southern Europe, as well as improving its geographical coverage. There is opportunity for further globalization of research, particularly pertaining to the use of data from several countries. Research would improve substantially by including data from several countries and being co-authored by researchers from different countries.

This article is based on Paper titled, "Research on Social and Environmental Accounting in Southern European Countries" authored by Manuel Castelo Branco and Catarina Delgado, Faculty of Economics and Edge, University of Porto, Portugal.