Social Accounting in Italy: Origins and developments

Interest in social accounting in Italy initially developed in the mid 1970s but until the early 1990s it remained a principally academic interest. Since about the mid-1990s though, interest in social accounting amongst those in academe, business and the profession has grown significantly and towards the turn of the century some large Italian companies – especially in the energy and telecommunications industries were producing stand-alone social and/or environmental reports (Vicini, 1998). These reporting innovations remained, however, voluntary despite some limited activity in the area of regulation. One important initiative in this more recent period was the formation in 1998 of GBS (Gruppo di Studio per il Bilancio Sociale, a group composed of academics, practitioners, and consultants from different fields), with the aim of formulating a series of standards for the construction and diffusion of social accounts. This article represents an overview of how social accounting has developed in Italy and, in particular, the nature, role and influence of the theoretical framework developed within, what we will define later as, Economia Aziendale. The paper will not be particularly concerned with nomenclature and the term “social accounting” will be used to include the process of collation, preparation and publication of social and environmental information in the form of different social and environmental accounts. For noting only at this stage, generally, in Italy, bilancio sociale, bilancio ambientale, environmental reporting, bilancio di sostenibilità are the more commonly used terms. Some authors, (for example, Bartolomeo 1997 and Cavilli et al 2003) tend to distinguish between bilancio ambientale (considered as an internal management controlling tool) and environmental reporting (considered as an external instrument of communication).