Contextualising sustainability reporting in host communities: An insight from a mining subsidiary in Ghana

This study was aimed at examining the motivations, elements and channels of sustainability reporting of a multinational mining company that operates a subsidiary in Ghana. Semi-structured interviews were conducted among the company's key stakeholders. These informants were drawn from the case company, a public regulatory agency, members and the opinion leaders of the company's host community. In addition to the primary data, secondary documents were relied upon to corroborate the views shared by the interviewees. We discovered that while the sustainability reporting mechanism was necessary for gaining internal legitimacy with the parent company, to a large extent, the host community did not appreciate the importance of that report. In place of that the management of the mining subsidiary employed less-formal channels of communication to engage the community representatives on matters relating to sustainability. Our findings suggest that the sustainability reporting process must be adaptable and not always communicated formally. Therefore, the process needs to be re-organised to meet the expectations of all key stakeholders within the subsidiary companies' jurisdictions. To meet the expectation of stakeholders and gain legitimacy, those charged with the governance of subsidiary companies need to contextualise their sustainability reporting strategies.