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Accounting is a business modeling tool and its evolution presents numerous variations from a global perspective. We often find in the literature numerous interpretations on the conflicts between the unitary shape ofthe U.S. accounting system and the dual nature of the French one. The former is certainly fascinating through its simplicity and functionality, and a convergence trend is observable between North American accounting and itsEuropean Continental counterpart. This convergence is fuelled by contemporary elements such as economic liberalism, stock market financing, the separation of accounting and tax issues, and the rebuttal of the nationalcharts of accounts. Nowadays, information is in the center of finance and accounting systems. Financialinformation is the cornerstone of business relations between the company, on the one hand, and capitalproviders – the banking and market system – on the other. Historically, to ensure an effective wealth creation process, the beginning of the 20th century was characterized by the necessity to separate ownership – assumedby the investors – from control, which lies in the hands of the management. Clearly, this optimization process isamong the corporate governance mechanism, through which the OECD countries are influencing the countriesthat implement models of transition from centrally-planned economy to market economy. The concept ofgovernance is defined as the set of the principles, rules and regulations which govern the duties of the managersin the interest of current and potential investors of those entities. In the larger context of the evolution ofEuropean economies, which are in the middle of a deep financial crisis, the companies in these countries havestarted a search for new models of corporate governance. In this respect, the most viable models haveacknowledged the existence of a network of stakeholders as contributors to the development and success of the enterprise. The evolution of corporate governance is the consequence of major changes at the beginning of the 21st century, in the context of stronger efforts to improve quality of life. Sustainability promotes action on threelevels: economic growth, the conservation of natural resources and social equity. In this context, it is necessary toreformulate the corporate governance principles in a pragmatic manner, given that the success of largeenterprises is significantly influenced by the economic, social and environmental responsibilities of thesecompanies. The present research aims to identify the progress of the reform of corporate governance, in thecontext of the convergence of international accounting standards and the integration of accountability principles.The paper will be based on a mixed research method with critical and qualitative elements.Accounting is a business modeling tool and its evolution presents numerous variations from a global perspective. We often find in the literature numerous interpretations on the conflicts between the unitary shape of the U.S. accounting system and the dual nature of the French one. The former is certainly fascinating through its simplicity and functionality, and a convergence trend is observable between North American accounting and its European Continental counterpart. This convergence is fuelled by contemporary elements such as economic liberalism, stock market financing, the separation of accounting and tax issues, and the rebuttal of the national charts of accounts. Nowadays, information is in the center of finance and accounting systems. Financial information is the cornerstone of business relations between the company, on the one hand, and capital providers – the banking and market system – on the other. Historically, to ensure an effective wealth creation process, the beginning of the 20th century was characterized by the necessity to separate ownership – assumed by the investors – from control, which lies in the hands of the management. Clearly, this optimization process is among the corporate governance mechanism, through which the OECD countries are influencing the countries that implement models of transition from centrally-planned economy to market economy. The concept of governance is defined as the set of the principles, rules and regulations which govern the duties of the managers in the interest of current and potential investors of those entities. In the larger context of the evolution of European economies, which are in the middle of a deep financial crisis, the companies in these countries have started a search for new models of corporate governance. In this respect, the most viable models have acknowledged the existence of a network of stakeholders as contributors to the development and success of the enterprise. The evolution of corporate governance is the consequence of major changes at the beginning of the 21st century, in the context of stronger efforts to improve quality of life. Sustainability promotes action on three levels: economic growth, the conservation of natural resources and social equity. In this context, it is necessary to reformulate the corporate governance principles in a pragmatic manner, given that the success of large enterprises is significantly influenced by the economic, social and environmental responsibilities of these companies. The present research aims to identify the progress of the reform of corporate governance, in the context of the convergence of international accounting standards and the integration of accountability principles. The paper will be based on a mixed research method with critical and qualitative elements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Corporate environmental reporting is one of the major themes in scientific research on business transparency regarding matters of social and environmental responsibility. Environmental reporting serves to provide answers to the following crucial question: what do companies actually disclose when they commit to protecting the natural environment in front of their employees, customers, the communities, or in a global perspective? In terms of qualitative characteristics of environmental information, specific disclosure is equated with financial reporting, since the users generally demand reliability, comparability, relevance and completeness of information. It is obvious that in a context far less formalized than financial reporting, environmental reporting has acute weaknesses in terms of such qualitative features as mentioned above. For at least four decades, the literature has tried to establish a reliable methodology for measuring the quantity and quality of environmental reporting. This type of reporting is not formalized, and the companies have full freedom to choose the quantity of information, indicators, format, and time horizon. Therefore, researchers and external users of information have attempted to classify and evaluate the elements of environmental reporting, in order to identify those firms that are truly transparent in this area, and to provide a diagnosis on the quality of corporate environmental reporting. In addition, researchers have tried to correlate the quantity and quality of environmental reporting with other company-specific variables to seek common elements and explanatory variables for the amplitude of the firms' reporting efforts. In most cases, the contributions were inspired by qualitative methodologies (e.g. critical, comparative, semiotic interpretation) or by diverse statistical approaches encompassing content analysis, scoring methods, or interviews. These endeavors sought to answer several questions: (a) who reports environmental information? (b) What amount of environmental information is provided to external users? (c) How relevant and reliable is this information? (d) What is the internal process of collecting, aggregating and compiling this information? (e) Which is the economic context in which this information is provided? Finally, one of the major questions of research in this area is related to external auditing of environmental data and the impact of report credibility on the level of public confidence in corporate disclosure. This paper aims to review the literature on environmental reporting, including the most representative titles in three decades. The most significant aspect of these studies is how researchers have adapted and used conventional or innovative methodologies to assess the quantity and quality of environmental reporting. These methodologies and their degree of complexity are directly linked to obtaining relevant data on environmental reporting in various firm-specific contexts or industries. Nevertheless, they also have a wider purpose: they can be used by any group of external users to assess the quality and quantity of corporate environmental reporting. Various methodologies of this kind, some more or less reliable, have been used by sustainability rating agencies, but it is the role of scientists to provide sound and widely accessible solutions to this issue. These methodologies should become a part of the current practice of evaluating the level of companies' involvement in environment protection measures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]