RESEARCH ARTICLE
Environmental disclosure and stakeholder engagement via social media: State of the art and potential in public utilities
Davide Giacomini PhD,
Paola Zola PhD,
Diego Paredi,
Mario Mazzoleni,
Corresponding Author
Davide Giacomini PhD
Department of Economics and Management, University of Brescia, Brescia, Italy
Correspondence
Davide Giacomini, Department of Economics and Management, University of Brescia, Contrada S. Chiara 50, 25122 Brescia, Italy.
Email: davide.giacomini@unibs.it
Search for more papers by this authorPaola Zola PhD
Institute of Informatic and Telematics, National Research Council, Pisa, Italy
Search for more papers by this authorDiego Paredi
Department of Economics and Management, University of Brescia, Brescia, Italy
Search for more papers by this authorMario Mazzoleni
Department of Economics and Management, University of Brescia, Brescia, Italy
Search for more papers by this authorDavide Giacomini PhD,
Paola Zola PhD,
Diego Paredi,
Mario Mazzoleni,
Corresponding Author
Davide Giacomini PhD
Department of Economics and Management, University of Brescia, Brescia, Italy
Correspondence
Davide Giacomini, Department of Economics and Management, University of Brescia, Contrada S. Chiara 50, 25122 Brescia, Italy.
Email: davide.giacomini@unibs.it
Search for more papers by this authorPaola Zola PhD
Institute of Informatic and Telematics, National Research Council, Pisa, Italy
Search for more papers by this authorDiego Paredi
Department of Economics and Management, University of Brescia, Brescia, Italy
Search for more papers by this authorMario Mazzoleni
Department of Economics and Management, University of Brescia, Brescia, Italy
Search for more papers by this authorFunding information: Acque Bresciane S.r.l.
Abstract
The concept of sustainable development has become dominant in the current socio-economic debate at the global level. In particular, environmental issues have become increasingly central in the action of all organisations: private, public, and hybrid. Analysing a sample of Italian public utilities, we studied the level of disclosure regarding environmental topics via public Facebook pages. The aim of this study is to evaluate the impact of Web 2.0 on municipally owned public utilities' voluntary disclosure of environmental issues and stakeholder interest in this field. The findings show that the use of Facebook by public utilities to disclose environmental issues is still at an early stage. However, it is constantly growing, especially in the larger companies and in those with mixed public/private ownership.
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