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© 2017, Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht. Stakeholder engagement and dialogue have a central role in defining the relations between organisations and their internal and external interlocutors. Drawing upon the analysis of dialogic motifs, power–conflict dynamics and sociopolitical perspectives, and based on a set of interviews with the stakeholders of a consumer-owned cooperative, the research explores the dialogic potential of stakeholder engagement. The analysis revealed a fragmented picture where the co-design and co-implementation aspects were mainly related to the non-business areas of cooperative life, while business logic dominated the most central aspects. Stakeholder engagement was mainly related to consensus building, while dialogic engagement based on a pluralistic understanding was only partially considered and then neglected. The social capital in the local area, the growing size of the organisation and the related power structure embrace stakeholder engagement, influencing the orientation of the (un)dialogic dynamic. The analysis indicates that a dialogic exchange is a relative concept which depends on the interests involved and the topics discussed. It also reveals that the key factors in the democratisation of stakeholder engagement are a mutual understanding and long-term opportunities. Common sociopolitical aspects are also important, but they do not necessarily guarantee the creation of dialogism paths. The research contributes to the critical dialogic literature in revealing whether and how stakeholder engagement has been implemented in a specific setting. It also shows the limitations of voluntarist stakeholder engagement initiatives.

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to investigate the content, frequency and quality of intellectual capital voluntary disclosure (ICVD) and the changes that took place over two years (2005 and 2006) in a sample of 37 sustainability reports published by Italian listed companies.Design/methodology/approachThe intellectual capital framework consists of three levels: "IC categories", "IC items" and "IC indicators", while content analysis was performed using a quality multidimensional scheme composed of three disclosure profiles, namely, time orientation, nature of information and type of information.FindingsThe findings evidence a high and increasing incidence over time of ICVD, with strong emphasis on human capital disclosure, which represents the most reported category, followed by relational and organisational capital. ICVD is mainly expressed in non‐financial, quantitative and non‐time‐specific terms with a low level of forward‐looking information.Research limitations/implicationsThis study is based on a small sample of sustainability reports; the content analysis process entails some subjective judgments.Practical implicationsFrom a firm perspective, sustainability reports can be used in synergy with annual reports and other public and private documents to provide IC information. From a user perspective, sustainability reports can be used to acquire IC information over and above information acquired from other documents.Originality/valueSustainability reports and ICVD quality have thus far been investigated only to a limited extent. The paper also discusses the potential of ICVD in sustainability reports from a user perspective.

AbstractThe paper investigates (1) the influence of external pressures, internal factors, and environmental attitudes of entrepreneurs on environmental proactive strategy in small and micro firms and (2) whether environmental proactive strategy impacts environmental investment and environmental performance. The study is based on a survey conducted in Italy and tests the set of hypotheses using a structural equations model. The results underline that external pressures and entrepreneurs' attitudes are the most important predictors of environmental proactivity both for small and micro firms. The results also confirm a positive relationship between environmental proactivity and environmental investments as well as environmental performance. Yet, environmental investments show a strong influence on environmental performance. Commitment to environmental management by small and micro firms appears thus on the ground, showing that some substantive actions have started to be developed. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment