Social Accounting;Corporate Social Responsibility;Vietnam

Over recent years, the role of business organizations within society has received increasing attention, and the expectations towards these organizations have increased accordingly. The term that has been coined for these expectations is corporate social responsibility (CSR) or social accounting (SA) (Schouten and Remme 2006). Nowadays, it is generally recognized that SA is of strategic importance to ensure longterm business competitiveness and success. Its potential is enormous in the areas of employee performance, cooperation among other stakeholders (business partners, investors, consumers, suppliers) and an engine of economic growth (Lamy 2002). So, the stakeholders’ views on SA performance of business are enormous, and the key responsibility in this performance goes to the managers, consumers, investors. This paper examines the perception of manager, consumer and investor on SA performance of corporations in Viet Nam. The results of the study suggest that there is strong support for SA from managers and a growing awareness among consumers and investors. Nevertheless, the difference between the way people understand and their action caused they are not eager to support for SA issues such as lack of SA system from firm, some relevant barriers (living expenses, low CSR communication tools). However, with highly positive attitude toward SA and the willingness to learn about SA of people, SA concept and practice will be popular and developed further in the future.

SOCIAL ACCOUNTING IN VIETNAM:

A STUDY OF ITS IMPORTANT

By

VU THI MAI Student ID: E0700304

Graduaration Project Submiited to the Department of Business Studies, HELP University College, in Partial Fulfilment of the Requirements for the Degree of

Bachelor of Business ( Accounting) Hons

OCTOBER 2011

DECLARATION OF ORIGINALITY AND WORD COUNT

I hereby declare that the graduation project is based on my original work except for quotations and citations which have been duly acknowledged I also declare that it has not been previously or concurrently submitted for any other course/degree at Help University College or other institutions The word count is 11136 words

Vu Thi Mai

October 2011

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

The project would not be done properly without the assistance, support and encouragement of many people I wish to take this opportunity to thank all the people who have helped me during the time of completing this project

I would like to express my deep gratitude to my supervisor Dr Phan Thu Huong,

Vietnam National University Hanoi She has kindly helped me and supported me all

the way through I also would like to express my thank to Ms Sumathi and Ms

Shenba, Help University College, who initiated the project and give so much

instruction and support

Additionally, I also would like to extend my special thanks to managers, investors,

my friends, and other people who have help me to carry out the survey I want to thank them for all their support, interest and valuable hints

Social accounting in Vietnam:

A study of its importance

By

VU THI MAI October 2011 Supervisor: Dr PHAN THU HUONG

ABSTRACT

Over recent years, the role of business organizations within society has received increasing attention, and the expectations towards these organizations have increased accordingly The term that has been coined for these expectations is corporate social responsibility (CSR) or social accounting (SA) (Schouten and Remme 2006) Nowadays, it is generally recognized that SA is of strategic importance to ensure long-term business competitiveness and success

Its potential is enormous in the areas of employee performance, cooperation among other stakeholders (business partners, investors, consumers, suppliers) and an engine

of economic growth (Lamy 2002) So, the stakeholders‘ views on SA performance of business are enormous, and the key responsibility in this performance goes to the managers, consumers, investors This paper examines the perception of manager, consumer and investor on SA performance of corporations in Viet Nam The results

of the study suggest that there is strong support for SA from managers and a growing awareness among consumers and investors Nevertheless, the difference between the way people understand and their action caused they are not eager to support for SA

issues such as lack of SA system from firm, some relevant barriers (living expenses, low CSR communication tools) However, with highly positive attitude toward SA and the willingness to learn about SA of people, SA concept and practice will be

popular and developed further in the future

CONTENTS

DECLARATION OF ORIGINALITY AND WORD COUNT 1

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT 3

ABSTRACT 4

CONTENTS 6

LIST OF FIGURES 8

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 9

1.1 Overview 10

1.2 The reason for conduct this research 12

1.3 Scope 12

1.4 Structure of theory 13

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 14

2.1 Conceptualization of Social Accounting 15

2.1.1 Social accounting thesis 18

2.1.2 Sustainability accounting 19

2.2 Legitimacy theory 20

2.3 Social Reporting 20

2.4 Assumption of the theory 22

2.4.1 Manager‘s behavior on SA conceptualization 22

2.4.2 Consumer‘s attitude on SA conceptualization 24

2.4.3 Investor‘s perception on SA conceptualization 25

CHAPTER 3: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 27

3.1 Research objective and scope 28

3.2 Sampling 28

3.2.1 Sample population 28

3.2.2 Sample frame 28

3.3.3 Sample size 28

3.3 Questionnaire 29

3.4 Data collection 29

3.4.1 Secondary data 29

3.4.2 Primary data 30

CHATER 4: ANALYSIS 31

4.1 Overview of results 32

4.2 Result analysis 36

4.2.1 Management survey 36

4.2.1.1 Result of manager‘s questionnaire survey 36

4.2.1.2 Discussion 39

4.2.2 Consumers survey 40

4.2.3 Investor survey 44

4.2.3.1 Result of questionnaire survey 44

4.2.3.2 Discussion 46

CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION 48

5.1 Conclusion 49

5.1.1 Management survey 49

5.1.2 Consumer survey 50

5.1.3 Investor survey 51

5.2 Limitation of study 53

5.3 Recommendations 53

REFERENCE 54

APPENDIX: QUESTIONNAIRE 58

CONSUMER SURVEY 60

INVESTOR SURVEY 62

LIST OF FIGURES

Figure 1: Branches of social accounting 17

Figure 4.1 Response rate 33

Figure 4.2 Distribution of manager‘s response from questionnaire survey 36

Figure 4.3 Representation of consumer‘s responses from questionnaire survey 40

Figure 4.4 Distribution of investor‘s responses from questionnaire survey 44

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION

1.1 Overview 1.2 The reason for conduct this research

1.4 Structure of the study

1.1 Overview

―Social accounting is best understood as a reaction against conventional accounting principles and practices It posits other goals as well as, or instead of, financial profitability Moreover, social accounting attempts to embrace not only economic and monetary variables but also – as its name suggests – social ones, including some which may not be amenable to quantification in monetary terms.‖ (Geddes, 1992)

In 1970s, there were a number of activities in the new accounting domain Because corporations often cause negative effects on the environment, health and safety of employees, customers and nearby neighborhoods, as well as communities, the corporations and accounting firms experimented with reporting formats and included sections in their annual reports on social performance

Social accounting is a way of representing how an organization is meeting its social

or ethical goals Social accounting may be classified and recorded business activities regarding social responsibility It may be considered as an approach toward constructing accountability The vital activities of social accountability include enhancing corporate governance, increasing the development effectiveness, and empowerment Social responsibility is key word of this concept which includes perception of businesses with environment and their treatments for employees also Social responsibility concept is also an important concept of management It is the duty of enterprise to do some social activities for completing their social responsibility Therefore, social accounting is a very important measure of the company‘s performance Company has to make social responsibility income statement and balance sheet But it is not compulsory to make these statements Moreover, businesses have some obligations to the society, as they created some problems in their revenue and these problems need addressing properly So,

stakeholders expect organizations to be engaged in some social issues such as offering reasonable price and quality living of consumer and employee, fair wage, employee safety, fair advertisement, proper fund management, etc ―Business organizations can contribute to sustainable development by managing their operations in such a way as to enhance economic growth, increase competitiveness and ensuring at the same time environmental protection and promoting social rights Thus social accounting is a concept whereby companies integrate social and environmental concerns on their business activities‖ (Julie 2002)

In Vietnam, some Vietnamese citizen and enterprise do not know the concept of social accounting although it is quite popular In additions, we have only twenty six (26) Vietnamese Accounting Standards relating to the guidance for financial accounting We have no any Vietnamese accounting standard or any documentary to guide social accounting application; whereas most multinational companies use social accounting system and reports at the same time with financial accounting system and reports However, in recent year, Vietnamese citizen as well as business managers‘ attitude and awareness toward social accounting has been changed in the positive way, since Vietnamese government has taken some significant steps like that CSR forum establishment, CSR award annually, CSR short-term courses to tailor businesses acting in sociality‘s perspective Vietnamese Government commit that both of Vietnamese firms and international firms operating in Vietnam have to follow these strictly

Moreover, Vietnam‘s authority issued some of SA awards to improve business corporations‘ responsibilities toward society However, there are some problems and challenges in developing concept of social accounting in Viet SA is only familiar with managers and accountants, and the other stakeholders still have limited

understandings Long- term plan and strategy to conduct the programs of SA in practice are not identified by concerned people On the contrary, the companies are

in shortage of management ability and professional knowledge in SA practices Now, Vietnam government and Vietnamese relevant parties need raise the SA knowledge and perception, as well as suggest some possible solutions for happened SA dilemma that contribute to strategies for sustainable development

1.2 The reason for conduct this research

After, Vietnam has joined World Trade Organization (WTO), Vietnamese economy had developed rapidly, and globally As consequently, it requires Vietnam need to pursue strategies for sustainable developments Social responsibility of business has been practiced by most of the business organizations in those countries and also in their partners But in case of Viet Nam business organizations, the experience of social responsibility resulted from application is not enough Manager‘s vision, consumer‘s perceptions, as well as investor‘s on SA performance have been considered important in this situation Thus, the paper aims to investigate the following issues: to understand contemporary SA views established in global perspective; to examine the attitude of manager, consumer, investor of the industries

on SA contemporary issues

1.3 Scope

The study is examining the managers‘ attitude on social accounting performances in

both public and private sector enterprises in Viet Nam The industries selected are

banking, consumer manufacturing goods, and construction The scope of the study was limited to participants of the industries of Ha Noi City, Ho Chi Minh City which

are two top of the biggest city of the country The study concentrated on the industries where there are a number of large well-established enterprises for data availability

1.4 Structure of theory

The theory involves five chapters Each chapter does independent and discussing about social accounting First chapter introduces overview definition of social accounting, the reason of conducting this theory, scope and structure of theory Second chapter explains more detail about conceptualization of social accounting, as well as well-done thesis relating this issue, discussing in social reporting Besides that, the main part of this chapter is to provide assumption of survey participant‘s perception toward SA Third chapter shows how the theory collects data, information, and theory‘s participant, as well as sampling, questionnaire Next chapter provides result‘s analysis basing on participants‘ choices in collected survey From this analysis, we can give conclusion for these assumptions in chapter two Last chapter provides general conclusion for this theory, limitation and recommendation

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1 Conceptualization of Social Accounting

2.1.2 Sustainability accounting

2.4.1 Manager’s behavior on SA conceptualization 2.4.2 Consumer’s attitude on SA conceptualization 2.4.3 Investor’s perception on SA conceptualization

2.1 Conceptualization of Social Accounting

Accountability represents the direct of the social system and its objective is to conceive this system to measure, analyze, form and control it It is not easy to approach the social reality without correlating it to the financial, economic and administrative reality because of clear-cut connection between the two The social accounting purposes at balancing the society and the accountability practice as the former appears as a branch of the accountability within the context of scientific knowledge which offers answers to social problems, to their causes, projections within a dynamic environment

Over a decade, the economic, political and social environment has gone through profound changes which result a higher level of globalization and a harsher rivalry The business organizations have become stronger and stronger and one the issue of taking responsibility was posted they have started to attach more and more importance to the corporate social responsibility Consumer‘ expectations in term of quality product or services and environment protection, social responsibility or ethical values are promoted by the companies The result of the stakeholders‘ pressures to encourage the large corporations to behave ethically and socially constructively was the concept of the social accountability emerged in Great Britain

in the 70‘s Mobley (1970) defined that: ―social accounting refers to the ordering, measuring and analysis of the social and economic consequences of governmental and entrepreneurial behavior So defined, social accounting is seen as encompassing and extending present accounting.‖

In recent times, medium and large, private or public firms voluntarily started to show interest in establishing their social As the result, SA is expanded in a larger scale Quarter, Mook and Richmond( 2003 ) defined social accounting as ― a systematic

analysis of the effect of an organization on its communities of interest or stakeholder, with stakeholder input as part of the data that are analyze for the accounting statement‖

The number of social and environmental questions has been increased rapidly in the community These are considered as the whistle blowing for companies to be more socially responsible and to manage their environmental impact in a better way (Wilmshurst and Frost, 2000), and to change the companies‘ ideas of benefit over cost In response, many companies have developed environmental management and accounting systems and have increased their social and environmental disclosure practices (Larrinaga et al., 2001; Gray et al., 1995a; Guthrie and Parker, 1989) The ultimate purpose of social accounting is producing accountability of the social, environmental and economic effects of an organization‘s actions and therefore improving the social impact (Quarter, Mook and Richmond 2003) In other word, sight of the primary purpose of social accounting seems as a means for community, organizations and enterprises to track for them how they are going

The traditional accounting is only concerned actions and transactions within the organization itself As a result, organizations take significant activities to record while other nonmaterial activities are seemed as irrelevant and ignored However, the traditional accounting needs to change and a consequence of these new requirements Each and every these new information helps us identify other branches of social accounting They are environmental accounting, human resources accounting, ethical accounting In which, the environmental accounting targets to quantify all natural capital resources destroyed or compromised in the production process or to assess the way good and services are utilized Human resources accounting must be includes in the financial reports due to their value, at an internal level or a management level in

making decisions by potential users such as in making management decisions regarding personnel Ethical accounting refers to ethical information, to the organization‘s ethical values, and comprises data regarding behavior in terms of consumer and community protection, monetary or service sponsorships granted to sports centers or non-profit organizations, policies and public relations

Figure 1: Branches of social accounting

Furthermore, there are some benefits of social accounting It will provide business organizations with an ongoing record of how these organizations or enterprises has developed and changed over time Secondly, they will get feedback on how things are going from the range of people involved in these organizations or enterprises Third, firm‘s managers can be able to identify which areas are well managed and not

so — and they can use this information to improve what they are doing well and make adjustments to change what are not They also will know how well they are achieving their aims and values Lastly, firm‘s managers will have a record of what their organization or enterprise is doing and the sorts of impacts it is having — information they can use when applying for grants and funding, for reporting on grants, and for promoting what they do

Environmental Accounting

Human Resource Accounting

Ethical Accounting Social Accounting

SA is perhaps most developed in the UK, where initiatives such as the Social Audit Network provide training and support in social accounting (www.socialauditnetwork.org.uk) It is based on three overall steps including scoping: ―identifying key elements of your organization or enterprise, accounting – deciding on the scope and setting up the social accounting system, reporting and auditing – reporting back to your stakeholders and responding to the findings‖ (Pearce et al 2005)

2.1.1 Social accounting thesis

In 2002, Gray presents a critical analysis of the literature published in social accounting over the last twenty-five years, with a particular focus on publications in the Accounting, Organization and Society Journal (AOS) He presents an historical retrospective of this subject, reflects on the dimensions of social accounting and identifies the most important publications in this area

Medawar (1976) claims that it is very important to the social environmental accounting area Gray (2002) said that ―it is written from (and about) the agony, frustration, success and essential necessity of one of the deepest and most influential processes of engagement in the history of social accounting It is informed, neither

by any love for capitalism nor by any subscription to terrorism or revolution but by a deep rooted sense of justice, decently, need for change, personal commitment and reasonableness outraged by unreasonableness‖

The social accounting project has been broadly described as the universe of all possible accountings (Evans and Zadek, 1997); it seeks engagement with the desire

to change current accounting practice to include a broader set of users, new technologies, and events not usually included in mainstream accounting practice

(Dillard, 2007) The motivation for change is predicated on the ―refusal to accept that

we live in the best of all possible worlds‖ (Gray, 2002)

2.1.2 Sustainability accounting

Social accounting consists of a number of sub-sets, one of which is sustainability accounting (Bebbington, 1999), and can be further considered under several broad approaches (Bebbington and Gray, 2001) First, sustainability accounting should not exist (at least in its current forms) simply because the process of accounting for sustainability is likely to be socially and environmentally damaging (for example, Maunders and Burritt, 1991) The second approach suggests sustainability can be better ‗managed‘ with the use of sustainability tools that could be adopted to increase the return on financial capital Last, sustainability accounting may exist to highlight organizational practices and to provide a catalyst for change initiated within (for example, Bebbington, 2007b) or outside the organizational boundary (for example, O‘Dwyer, 2004a)

Sustainability accounting, according to Bebbington (2007b), is based on the premise that a sustainable society requires those making decisions to be informed about the impact of their actions and of those around them, in particular those controlling vast resources, as in large organizations Bebbington‘s (2007b) internally focused description does not exclude the possibility for influencing policy or various stakeholders, but does infer that such catalysts for change congregate within the organisational boundary

2.2 Legitimacy theory

Suchman (1995) defined that ―Legitimacy is a generalized perception or assumption

that the actions of an entity are desirable, proper, or appropriate within some socially constructed system of norms, values, beliefs, and definitions‖

Legitimacy theory has been cited most frequently in the social and environmental accounting area (Islam & Deegan, 2008; Deegan et al., 2002) Legitimacy theory provides the explanation and guideline of voluntary social and environmental disclosures made by corporations Legitimacy theory is about disclosing information

in the annual reports of the firm (Gray et al 1995a)

Legitimacy theory is divided into two major categories The macro-theory of legitimation is known as Institutional Legitimacy Theory that deals with how organizational structures as a whole (such as capitalism, government) have gained acceptance from society at large The second layer is called the ―Organizational Level‖ (sometimes referred to as Strategic Legitimacy Theory) which is a process, legitimation, by which an organization seeks approval (or avoidance of sanction) from groups in society

2.3 Social Reporting

Social reporting can be analyzed with different purposes: to understand the disclosure of a specific country; to analyze the disclosure practices pertaining to a particular category of information; to analyze some of the specific aspects connected with environmental or social matters such as liabilities, as well as trying to validate some theory and comparing disclosures practices from different countries and others Reporting or disclosure is the end result, but the initial part would be getting corporations involved in social activities, social concerns and social responsibilities

The disclosure part is only in giving information but what the intention of the corporation is very important The key features of SA are the measurement and communication of information concerning the effect of business and its activity towards society and environment (Belkaoui, 2000) In essence, stakeholders will get the firm‘s social and environmental impacts information from SA activities Social Reporting is one of the branches of SA and companies will utilize communication media such as annual reports, social reports, promotional material, and web sites, to announce and publish their social activities These reports are not solely important to financial analysts and fund managers but most users such as employees, consumers, community, government and NGOs

The number of large organizations in the world such as Royal Dutch Shell, Diageo,

BP, British Telecom, The Co-operative Bank, The Body Shop, and United Utilities are practicing SA activities For example, the Body Shop undertakes an audit of its social, environmental and animal testing performance: social or ethical auditing while the Co-op is at the forefront of social corporate awareness and they regularly publish financial data relating to the various stakeholder groups as they have an impact on social activities In many instances the reports are produced in (partial or full) compliance with the sustainability reporting guidelines set by the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI)

SA reporting benefits overall operations of the firm Firstly, this report help enhance closed relationship between stakeholder and credibility Secondly, SA contributes to protect from dismissing possible negative campaign and upgrading the company image, and raise the brand image of each company The last one is SA is considered

as the most effective tool to help educate and motivate employees This is important because of growing demand for socially responsible investment

There are three different types of SA reporting known as mandatory, solicited, and voluntary reporting (argumed by Van der Laan, 2004 and Wooward et al., 1996) Mandatory reporting is issued by state (Doane, 2002) The purpose of this report is to protect citizens and make sure that all appropriate information is provided Solicited reporting is issued by a particular stakeholder group However, this type of report gains slowly social acceptance then it is still underdeveloped form (Van der Laan, 2004) Voluntary reporting is the most accepted reporting form

Nevertheless, the most relevant standard on social accounting is SA8000 developed

by CEPAA (Council of Economic Priorities Accreditation Agency – USA) currently known as Social Accountability International (SAI) The SA 8000 standard is an internationally auditable performance standard relying on International Labor Organization Conventions, on the Human Rights Declaration and the UNO Convention on child‘s rights The management system of social accounting also links

to the other related management systems like quality (ISO 9001:2000), environment (ISO 14001:2004), and health, workforce security (OHSAS 18001:1999)

2.4 Assumption of the theory

2.4.1 Manager’s behavior on SA conceptualization

Corporate manager is one type of stakeholder, but corporate manager play a unique role in business organization The binding relationship between the managers and companies is through contract Or in other words, ―Managers are the only group of stakeholders who enter into a contractual relationship with all other stakeholders Managers are also the only group of stakeholders with direct control over the decision making process of the firm‖ (Hill and Jones, 1992) Therefore, corporate managers do not play the similar role like other stake-holder

In other view, the management of firms preferred operating on the profit maximization basis realizes the positive correlation between social responsibility and financial performance They also comprehend some facts of fulfilling SA objectives

of government‘s involvement into business, and ethical customers nowadays choose

to consume the products and services soured from socially responsible enterprises All stakeholders‘ expectations are changing, and responsibility swiftly emerges on business organization

Each manager will chose the most appropriate decision and plans for SA programs However, social responsibilities are based on human actor, rather than based on some abstract organizational actor This means that all the companies have to define social activities toward the benefit of society, not only focus on company‘s benefit Wood (1991) states that: ―A company‘s social responsibilities are not met by some abstract organizational actor; they are met by human actors, who constantly make decisions and choices, some big and some small, some minor and others of great consequence‖

Besides that, behavior of managers on SA is effected by general thought and feelings toward society Perfectly, society often expect positive attitude from managers Therefore, we can confident to assume that manager‘s behavior toward SA is positive influence on SA practice of organizations The following hypothesis is developed:

Assumption 1: Managers think that social accounting effect positively on firm’s development

2.4.2 Consumer’s attitude on SA conceptualization

The growing interest in social accounting comes from both business-to-business customers and consumers There is a considerable shift by many companies, governments, universities and other institutions in purchasing decisions to the firms that care about human rights and environment Numerous studies correlate consumer-purchasing preferences with ethical and socially responsible business conduct although there is no clear-cut proves of the changes In this regard the findings of some study revealed that consumers had actually avoided the products of companies they perceived as not being socially responsible It is because consumers are being in the economic relation with members of a community They assess the consistence and compliance of the company to the society welfare There are a growing number of organizations that help consumers and businesses rate companies and products or publish lists of products based on social criteria, such as a company's environmental performance, labor practices or community-involvement record (BSR 2001) Consequently, they can be willing to offer their support for socially responsible companies (Bhattacharya, Rao and Glynn, 1995) Hence, Consumer knowledge of a firm's SA initiatives may lead to a higher evaluation of the company and a more positive evaluation of the company's product (Brown & Dacin, 1997) Moreover, consumer will support to business if they also do so (Dawkins 2003).Therefore, according to McWilliams and Siegel, (2001), Hoeffler and Keller, (2002), Bhattacharya and Sen, (2003) customer loyalty and other positive post-purchase outcomes are leaded by pro-social marketing initiatives as SA claims And consumer knowledge and commitment of a firm's SA initiatives may cause some effects for company‘s product strategies (Brown and Dacin, 1997)

Maignan (2001) dedicated that before consumers make their purchasing decisions, they must be not only aware of those initiatives, but also aware of social issues that firms is engaging in According to above discussion, there is reasonable to assume that behavior of consumer toward company‗s SA practices is confident

Assumption 2: consumer’s perception toward social accounting is positive

2.4.3 Investor’s perception on SA conceptualization

Social accounting is analyzing the limitations of financial accounting and concentrating on the shareholders and other financing providers without considering other stakeholders—employees, users or consumers, society, government, volunteers, and investors Then, social responsibilities can the firm‘s competitive advantage in attracting investors and offering excellent risk management strategies The investors‘ decisions are approved y the transparent accounting information, thus

A new INSEAD study, carried out in cooperation with the Investor Relations Society, indicate that the interest in social and environmental issues is more and more important and that investors are beginning to ask more informed and detailed questions about companies‘ corporate social responsibility performance

The research called ―Corporate social responsibility and the role of investor relations – from switchboard to catalyst‖ interviewing investor relations and corporate social responsibility experts from 20 leading European companies revealed that the awareness of social and environmental issues among investor relations professionals (IROs) is much higher than previously thought Europe‘s SRI Coordinator Adeline Hinderer said that ―these companies are actively demonstrating to investors that social responsibility makes good business sense, and the firms are already seeing the benefits it can bring them in terms of risk management and attracting investment‖

The growth of socially responsible investing has accelerated in recent years Many investors are using the shareholder resolution process to force companies to change policies and increase disclosure on a wide range of social responsibility issues, including environmental responsibility, workplace policies, community involvement, human rights practices, ethical decision-making and corporate governance Activist groups are also buying shares in targeted companies to give them access to annual meetings and the shareholder resolution process (BSR 2001) According above discussing, we can assume that social accounting have positive effects on investors

Assumption 3: Social accounting influent positively on investor’s decision

CHAPTER 3: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

3.1 Research objective and scope

3.3 Questionnaires 3.4 Data collection

3.1 Research objective and scope

This research is developed to explore how managers, consumers and investors approach SA and SA reporting It also evaluates how SA and SA reporting influence the company‘s performance More details, this research aimed to discover the attitude of managers toward SA concept, how they think, perceive, and action, their understanding about SA concept depend on level or not… For consumers, this research aimed to knowledge of consumers relating to SA, how they approach it, their evaluation and their acceptance managers acted on the social perspective, and whether SA has impact on their purchasing decisions In addition, the paper is to collect professional opinions about SA reporting and their view on the disclosure This study is a qualitative research which is conducted through the interview with managers and reviewing the annual reports of companies as well as the survey method on management, consumer and accountant perspectives

110 management questionnaire patterns, 120 consumer questionnaire patterns and

200 investor questionnaire patterns have been sent out There are also 10 requested

3.3.4 Sample techniques

The sampling was conducted based on two techniques: convenience sampling and judgment sampling For questionnaire survey, convenience sampling is used For choosing managers to interview, the judgment sampling is used

3.3 Questionnaire

The survey is segmented into three patterns for managers, for consumers, and for investors Survey pattern designed for managers include 10 questions The pattern for consumers contains 10 questions There is also one additional question for consumers to answer For investor, the pattern includes 10 questions All of three survey patterns use five-points Likert scales (1= ―strongly disagree‖; 5= ―strongly agree‖) to indicate the extent to which the respondents think about SA and SA reporting The additional opinion part is also included to get the overall assessment

3.4.2 Primary data

Primary data can be obtained from survey, observation or experiment The research

of this paper will be majorly based on primary data The survey questions for consumer are sent to customer in Shopping centers like Vincom and Trang Tien Plaza, students of International School, Vietnam National University Hanoi (IS-VNU) customers of two branches of VP bank The survey questions for investor, management and the interview requested letter for managers are sent to some companies in three sectors: banking, consumer goods, and industrial They are VP Bank, Hai Ha Company, construction company No.5, Nam A Bank, HD Bank, and other Vietnamese smaller companies

CHATER 4: ANALYSIS

4.1 Overview of result

4.2 Result Analysis

4.2.1 Management survey 4.2.2 Consumer survey 4.2.3 Investor survey