Analysis of Social and Environmental Accounting in Commonwealth Bank

This research proposal investigates the issues surrounding mandatory corporate social and environmental accounting within the Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA). It explores the concepts of social and environmental accounting, their impact on CBA's operations, and the potential problems associated with mandatory implementation. The report outlines the project's objectives, scope, and literature review, including discussions on corporate social responsibility, sustainability reporting, and the triple bottom line. The research design and methodology include both qualitative and quantitative approaches, detailing data collection methods, sampling, and the use of questionnaires. Limitations, such as time constraints, are also addressed. The proposal aims to identify the key challenges and benefits of implementing social and environmental accounting within a mandatory framework, providing valuable insights into CBA's practices and their implications. The conclusion reiterates the importance of the research and the methodologies employed, with references to relevant academic literature.

Research Proposal

Table of Contents
TITLE..............................................................................................................................................3
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
Project Objective..............................................................................................................................3
Project Scope...................................................................................................................................3
Literature Review.............................................................................................................................4
Research Questions/ Hypothesis......................................................................................................5
Research Design and Methodology.................................................................................................6
Qualitative Research...................................................................................................................6
Quantitative research ..................................................................................................................7
Research Limitation.........................................................................................................................8
Time Schedule.................................................................................................................................8
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................10
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................11

TITLE
“To identify various issues in a mandatory corporate social and environmental accounting
within a mandatory framework in Commonwealth Bank.”
INTRODUCTION
Social and environmental accounting is an umbrella term in which the organizations are
liable. Social accounting is termed as the impact of operations of company on society (Islam, Z.,
Ahmed, S. and Hasan, I., 2012). The impact could be on the basis of Corporate Social Reporting,
non Financial Reporting or sustainability accounting. Environmental accounting is termed as the
role of green accounting on the natural environment in economy. Environmental accounting help
the corporates to identify the impact of natural resources on the economy of company. Although
both the term has wider concept but still both can impact the working of an organization. This
research is based on the Commonwealth Bank of Australia. It is a multinational bank having its
branches in many countries like UK, US and across Asia as well. This report includes the scope,
objectives, time, literature review, questionnaire, limitation of research, research methodology
etc. are mentioned.
Project Objective
 To identify the various issues in a mandatory corporate social and environmental
accounting within a mandatory framework in Commonwealth Bank.
 To identify the concept of social and environmental accounting.
 To analyse the impact of social and environmental accounting on the working of
Commonwealth Bank.
Project Scope
Social and environmental accounting is the activity done by organizations in order to
increase their influence on society and also on marketing and branding activities (Zadek, Evans
and Pruzan, 2013) . This is termed as the responsibility of organization so that they work for the
welfare of society and environment. This terminology has increase its trends among different
organization because it also help them to enhance their brand. The main aim of this project is to
identify the issues within a mandatory corporate social and environmental accounting in
Commonwealth bank. If organizations are seeking this role as mandatory than the impact of this

is discussed in this project. The scope of this project is wider in the context of operations of
Commonwealth Bank. To compete this project, the researcher requires 60 days. The cost of this
project has helped in completing the project within time. The location of project has also helped
in increasing its scope because commonwealth bank has world wide operations.
Literature Review
It refers to the investigation and evaluation of the literature of the taken subject or area
which is used in the research. The main purpose of literature review is to survey, synthesis,
critically analyse and present the information in an organized way. Social and environmental
accounting is the role of organization to perform operations on the welfare of society and
environment as well. This is a part of corporate social responsibility of company. While
implementing the social and environmental accounting in business, there are many issues faced
by the company.
The concept of social and environmental accounting.
According to Gray and al. (1987), Social and environmental accounting is refereed to as
the role of companies to assist the society and environment with their operations. The assistance
could be the welfare of society and its environment. There are mainly three main areas in which
social and environmental accounting is applicable to the company. These areas are Corporate
Social Responsibility, Sustainable reporting and Triple Bottom line.
Corporate Social Responsibility
It is the responsibility of an organization to improve the quality of life of workforce and
contribute ethically to the welfare of the society and the environment as well. In case of
Commonwealth Bank, it has the responsibility to help the employees to increase their level of
life. The bank should provide all the facilities through which the life of its employees gets
improved. Apart from that, the welfare of societal environment is also a part of CSR. The bank
can plan to use digital technology in order to help the environment by saving trees.
Sustainability Reporting
In this features it is stated that the resources should be utilized such that will not be
depleted in future. According to the Australian government, Corporate sustainability helps the
company in aiming to preserve the human and natural resources in future. The bank should also
reserve the resources like paper etc. so that the bank can sustain itself in future.
Triple Bottom Line

Sustainable reporting framework is based on three dimensions such as economic, social
and environmental that is why is known as triple bottom line. In case of Commonwealth Bank, it
should focus on these three dimensions so that they can sustain themselves in future. This will
not only improve their CSR but also their sustainability increases.
The impact of social and environmental accounting on the working of Commonwealth
Bank.
According to Epstein, (2018) the company which allows social and environmental
accounting also, has its impact on it operations. This impact help them in increasing their faith
towards the customers. The benefit of working for society allows the bank to win their hearts.
Thus a positive perception frames among themselves. In case of commonwealth bank, by
applying the social and environmental accounting the bank increases its faith towards the
customers. This helps the bank to increase their brand across the customers and different
stakeholders. Impact of increasing the brand name, the investors also shows their interest. Thus
the working efficiency of the bank also increases which help it in increasing its business.
The issues with mandatory corporate social and environmental accounting in
Commonwealth Bank.
According to Hui Situ, (2018), Organizations are liable to adopt the social and
environmental accounting. This help them to increase their faith among the society. If the social
and environmental accounting will become mandatory than organizations will take this
responsibility as a burden. They will try to find the ways so that they can escape from this
responsibility. Thus, the effect of social and environmental will not remain on society. If social
and environmental accounting will remain voluntary for the companies than its effect will be on
society. The organization will make them motivate to take the advantage of wining the faith of
customers. Apart from that, the society will get the impact of CSR in a positive way. In case of
Commonwealth Bank, social and environmental accounting allows the bank to increase its faith
among customers and other stakeholders, therefore they do this with their interest. In case of the
must use of social and environmental accounting the bank will take this as a burden therefore
they will not going to implement.
Research Questions/ Hypothesis
This is one of the important part of research. In this part there are two types of research
questions available such as primary and secondary (Epstein, 2018) . In this research, secondary

questions are available which are suitable for filling the gaps in literature. Following are the
primary and secondary questions available:
Primary Question
 What are various issues in corporate social and environmental accounting with a
mandatory framework?
Secondary Questions
 What is the concept of social and environmental accounting?
 What is the impact of social and environmental accounting on the working of
organization?
Research Design and Methodology
Qualitative Research
This is a scientific approach which collects non-numerical information with itself. An
information of underlying, opinions, reasons and motivations is gained. Different steps of
qualitative research are stated as below:
Process of qualitative research
To complete the qualitative research following are the steps stated below:
 Determine Research Questions
 Design of Study
 Collect Data
 Analyse Data
 Generate Findings
 Validate findings Report
Approaches to reliability and validity
Reliability:
This feature is used to measure the consistency. There are various approaches of
reliability like, Interrelate Reliability, Internal Consistency and Test-Retest reliability.
Validity:

In this research method, scientific approaches are applied at the time of collecting
research findings (Watson, 2015). The approaches of validity are content validity, construct
validity, criterion-related validity etc.
Sampling
In this research method a number of person has been selected from the large population
to collect the findings. There are mostly two types of sampling methods which are used in the
research i.e. non-probability and probability. In probability sampling, a random sampling is used
while on non-probability sampling convenience sampling is used.
Sample Size
The number of respondents which are required to answer the questionnaire are known as
sample size. In this method, the investigator selects the sample size therefore it is one of the
important method. The sample size selected in this research is 30.
Data collection method
To collect the information and data, there are two types of methods such as primary and
secondary (Belal, 2016). In this research, secondary data collection is used in which use of
books, magazines and journals are used. In primary data collection, a questionnaire is prepared
and answered with the help of respondents.
Variables Specifications
In this research methods there are two types of variables such as dependents and
independent. The independent variable is dependent upon the CSR in the case of
Commonwealth bank.
Quantitative research
There are various methods or process available for the quantitative type of research
which are discussed below:
Process of quantitative research design
There are several steps for the quantitative design for research which are discussed
below:
 Discuss the problem in research
 Discuss the purpose for conducting the research
 Review the associated literature
 development of variables and hypotheses

 Selection of the design of research
 Selection of sample
 Data collection Data analysis
Research Instrument
There are mainly two types of research instruments in quantitative research such as
reliability and validity (Qiu, Shaukat and Tharyan, 2016). Reliability shows the faith and belief
on the collected and information in the research while validity is the time duration through which
the research will remain valid.
Qualitative data analysis process
It is a process in which data is collected on the basis of quality of it. The gathered
information always cover the frequency of variables and variation between variables. In this
process the information is transferred with the aim of collecting the useful information and thus
assisting the decision-making.
Interviewing and questionnaire design
To gather the primary information from the market place a questionnaire is prepared. In
this method, the respondents are asked with close-ended structure. After designing the
questionnaire, respondents are asked to answer the questions. The answer of questions should be
well disciplined so that they will help the researcher in collection of primary data.
There are two types of research methods available such as qualitative and quantitative. In
this research, qualitative research analysis is suitable because it provides proper information
which is required in this case (Lanis and Richardson,2012). There are various methods which are
included in the qualitative research such as size of sample, questionnaire, random sampling
method and primary sources. To collect the data from the respondents all these tools are effective
and necessary.
Research Limitation
The limitation of research is no other than the time. The time of research allotted is not so
sufficient to conduct. In case of over timing of the research the validity of research will not
remain enough therefore the data collection and other techniques should be completed within
time.

Time Schedule

CONCLUSION
From the above research, it can be concluded that the research is an important part within
the specified organization so as to understand the topic of research. In this research project, the
issue of implementing social and environmental accounting on the working of Commonwealth
Bank is discussed. So that, it's importance also allows the researcher to identify it's value. Apart
from that, research methodology tools and techniques are also contains the major part in this
research.

REFERENCES
Books & Journals