En studie om skillnader i statliga och privata bolags hållbarhetsredovisningar
This study examines differences between private and state-owned companies' sustainability reports for the year 2010. Three state-owned companies and three private companies in three different industries have been examined. An effort has been put to explaining if differences are related to the owner or to the industry. The basis for this is that the state owned companies are required to present a sustainability report according to shareholder demands, while the private owned aren?t obligated to present their sustainability efforts.The study has a qualitative basis, and empirical data have been collected by the authors. This data have later been used to examine publicly published sustainability reports and have partly been narrated in the text. To be able to do a comparison, three state owned and three private owned companies were selected by that they are in three similar industries, and operate in three similar economic areas. The collected data was analyzed by theories of legitimacy. Theories of isomorphism as DiMaggio and Powell discuss, companies tends to become more equal, and theories of brand management of Nikolaeva and Bicho, which describes that companies who voluntarily choose to present sustainability reports do it as a form of marketing standpoint were used in this study.The authors came to the conclusion that differences between public and private companies exist, but they also exist in between industries. Some differences could be explained by theories concerning legitimacy and isomorphism.