Hållbarhetsredovisning till nytta för finansiella intressenter? : en fallstudie

Sammanfattning: Companies today are facing more and different kinds of demands from the society and their stakeholders. It is no longer enough to just deliver the products, and not just the quality of the products that matter. The consumers are getting more conscious about the many ways in which companies affect the society and the environment in which we live. The financial sector, that among others includes stakeholders such as insurance companies, banks and fund companies are starting to realise the importance of the non- financial issues that companies are encountering. Analysing the companies sustainability when it comes to social and environmental issues, has become an increasingly important factor when for example choosing companies to invest in. The development in the field of accounting has resulted in an increasing number of companies choosing to complete their financial accounting with a sustainability report, also referred to as CSR reports, on how they see the company's role in society. The company's aim with this report is to show their stakeholders how they deal with the non financial issues such as, human rights, business ethics and environmental issues. The aim of this study was to investigate whether the sustainability reports produced by companies today meet the demands of the financial stakeholders, particularly investors, and also to investigate the motives to why food retailers choose to publicise sustainability reports. This case study was undertaken through a literature study, a more detailed study of the case company Axfood Ltd and interviews with two financial stakeholders of the company. Among other things, the findings in this study indicate that, even though sustainability reports often are lacking in information when it comes to fulfilling the demands of the financial stakeholders, investors find the reports important and useful when analysing companies from a sustainable perspective. The study also showed, that a company that produce a CSR-report because they "have to" is less likely to produce adequate information, and puts less resources into the sustainability report than those who are motivated to really try to have a positive influence on society and the environment. Thus companies, who are positively motivated, will produce CSR-reports that are more useful to the financial stakeholders.