Tourism, gambling and sustainability: Myths and paradoxes of accountability - Economicus

by, Maria-Gabriella BADARELLI

Abstract

In the transition from weak to strong sustainability (Baldarelli and Del Baldo, 2015) an important role is played by the instruments of accountability (Matacena, 2010). Especially in the tourism system the instruments to measure and to account about corporate sustainability have a fundamental function of the enterprise legitimation (Gray, 1993) in Its own territory. In this paper we want analyze, from the accounting perspective, the myths and paradoxes that can be found in the tools of accountability (Gray, Adams, Owen, 2014) in the gambling enteprises (Cefaloni, 2014). The research design develops through a deductive and inductive approach. The deductive approach is based on the analysis of the literature contributions about the relationship between sustainability development and accountability in tourism enterprises (Ruisi, 2006, Baldarelli 2014). The inductive method is based on the analysis of one significant research case ( Naumes & Naumes, 2006) related to SISAL enterprise. Under the methodological profile, the empirical research is based on the analysis of the documentation obtained from the consultation of corporate website, social and environmental sustainability reports analysis. The research case analysis helps to understand the stakeholder’s expectations and such reflections can be drawn in the transition from weak to strong sustainability when gambling enterprises are involved in. However, the work has the main limitation that regards the empirical approach based on a one case, which hinders the generalization of results and requires a further research step aimed at considering more cases to submit to a deepened investigation.