Search results

This paper aims to investigate the supply and demand side of sustainability assurance in Bangladesh.

Drawing on signalling theory, a logistic regression model is used for a sample of 100 of the largest Bangladeshi companies to study the relationships between assurance, sustainability disclosure, industry membership and reporting format.

Authors’ results show that companies which produce more sustainability information are more likely to get their sustainability assured, to be from non-carbon intensive industries, and are more likely to integrate their sustainability information with the financial annual reports. Authors’ results support the argument that organisations based in weaker legal environments are more likely to secure assurance as this adds to the credibility and reliability of sustainability reports.

This paper has limitations which raise some issues for future research. First, the authors have covered only large companies; therefore, future research could examine the differences between small and large companies in relation to assurance. Secondly, the authors’ data consist of company sustainability disclosure information in the fiscal year 2015. Longitudinal studies are recommended to extend this research. Finally, future research could examine the moderating effects of geographical location on the relationship between assurance (and its providers) and other variables.

The findings of this paper will prove valuable to practitioners and researchers. Practitioners, including assurance providers and sustainability reporting managers will benefit from authors’ study as it covers both the demand and supply side characteristics of assurance. Researchers will benefit from the study as it investigates assurance practices in the developing country of Bangladesh.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study to examine both the supply and demand sides of sustainability assurance in Bangladesh. Authors also introduce reporting format when measuring the relationship between assurance and its determinant factors at micro level. The study also links assurance to signalling theory.

The purpose of this paper is to synthesize insights from the emerging work in accounting on greenwashing and sustainability assurance and propose an agenda for future research in this area.

This article offers an original analysis of papers published on greenwashing and sustainability assurance research in the field of accounting. It adopts a systematic literature review and a narrative approach to analyse the dominant themes and key findings in this new and rapidly evolving field. From this overview, specific avenues for future research are identified.

In the past few years there has been a substantial spike in concern relating to greenwashing among academics, practitioners, regulators and society. This growing concern has only partly been reflected in the research literature. To date, research has primarily focused on: (1) the characteristics of firms adopting sustainability assurance, (2) the challenges facing sustainability auditors, (3) the development of appropriate assurance standards and regulations, and (4) capital market responses to greenwashing and sustainability auditing/assurance. Three key future research issues with respect to greenwashing are identified: (1) the future of standard-setter attempts to regulate greenwashing, (2) professional jockeying in sustainability reporting assurance, and (3) capital market opportunities and challenges relating to greenwashing and assurance.

Despite the profound economic and reputational impact of greenwashing and the rapid development of sustainability assurance services, research in accounting remains fragmented and emergent. This review identifies avenues offering considerable scope for inter-disciplinarity and bridging the divide between academia and practice.

The purpose of this study is to examine firm-specific characteristics that influence firms’ choice of assurance provider in sustainability assurance. The market for sustainability assurance consists of three types: accounting firms (particularly the Big 4 firms), non-accounting specialist consulting firms (that specialise only in sustainability issues) and non-accounting general consulting firms (that provide general advisory/consulting services).

Using a sample selected from the top 100 publicly listed companies in the UK and USA that published a sustainability report in 2010 and 2011, respectively, for which assurance was obtained, a multinomial logistic regression model is applied by regressing the three types of assurance providers on firm size, leverage, profit, liquidity, percentage of strategic shareholding and two control variables – country and year.

The results indicate that the choice of sustainability assurance provider is related to firm size, profitability, liquidity and country.

There may be relevant variables omitted from the empirical analysis; results of this study may not be able to be generalized beyond the sample selected; and the sample size is relatively small.

Sustainability assurance is a viable assurance service that the accounting profession can provide.

This study helps in identifying the types of firms that are likely to demand assurance services provided by accounting firms.

Global investors demand, regulators require, and companies disclose their sustainability performance information, and scholars have started to conduct research on sustainability performance, reporting and assurance. The goal of firm value creation can be achieved when management considers the interests of all stakeholders and integrates all five economic, governance, social, ethical, and environmental (EGSEE) dimensions of sustainability performance into managerial strategies, actions and reporting. This paper provides a synthesis of research on sustainability and presents a theoretical framework consisting of theories and standards relevant to all five EGSEE dimensions of sustainability performance and risks and their integration into corporate culture, business models and reporting in creating stakeholder value.

This study aims to review the literature on non-financial information (NFI) assurance including external assurance of sustainability reports (SRA) and integrated reports (IRA). The objectives are as follows: provide an overview of academic research; understand the nature of NFI assurance engagements by organising the literature around the five key elements of an assurance engagement; develop a framework for understanding NFI assurance; and provide directions for future research.

The study undertakes a structured literature review of 179 articles published from 1999 to 2023.

The review identified 324 researchers located in 35 different countries who published 179 articles on SRA and IRA. The researchers, their locations, journals, methods, theories and themes are examined. The literature is structured around the definition of an assurance engagement including a tripartite arrangement, subject matter, a suitable criterion, sufficient appropriate evidence and a written assurance report. A framework for understanding NFI assurance is offered. Avenues for future research, structured around the five elements of an assurance engagement, are presented.

Researchers will benefit from an overview of the literature and guidance on areas for future research. Lecturers can use the findings to develop content for their auditing courses. Reporting managers will benefit from a better understanding of this new form of assurance. Regulators can use this study’s insights to better inform the development of laws and corporate governance codes mandating NFI assurance. Standard setters can use these findings to guide the emergence of the new assurance standards. Assurance practitioners may use this research to inform practice.

The findings may prove useful in addressing capture, which deters NFI assurance from enhancing disclosure credibility and fulfilling its transparency and accountability role. This is to the detriment of the wider society.

The consolidation of the literature around the five key elements of an assurance engagement is unique. The framework devised offers useful insights into the dynamics of assurance generally and NFI assurance more specifically. The study is timely given the new European Union regulations on NFI reporting and assurance and the work of the International Audit and Assurance Standards Board in developing a specialist NFI assurance standard.

The purpose of this paper is to provide a descriptive comprehensive analysis of sustainability reporting (SR) and assurance in Portugal after the onset of the most recent economic crisis.

The authors analyze 290 sustainability reports for the years 2008, 2009, 2010 and 2011, and find those that include assurance statements and characterize them.

The authors present evidence supporting the view that the Portuguese sustainability reporting assurance (SRA) market follows the international trends and suggest that the most recent economic crisis had a negative effect in terms of publication of sustainability reports but not in terms of its quality and assurance.

The authors merely provide descriptive evidence of SR and the assurance thereof in Portugal.

The authors contribute significantly to the literature on SRA in peripheral countries and in the period of crisis.

The growth in social and environmental reports is followed by a growth in reports including an assurance statement done by an outsider to the company. The aim of this paper is to study the implementation by companies of a third party assurance provision to their sustainability reports.

The author examined the practices of French companies as far as verification of sustainability information is concerned and opted for an exploratory study. The study analyses the assurance statement of French CAC 40 listed companies publishing a sustainability report verified by a third party. It also analyses semi‐structured interviews conducted with sustainability managers and assurance providers.

The paper provides an insight of how assurance reports are stated and it seems that they lack precision and explanation. The interest for companies to engage in the assurance of their sustainability information is to manage their sustainable development policy and to progress in reporting their sustainability information. Moreover, the aim of sustainability verification is to assure users of the accountability and reliability of the disclosed information. The sustainability assurance engagement is mainly a quest for legitimacy.

The sample of semi‐structured interviews could be enlarged and other important actors such as shareholders or non‐financial rating agencies interviewed. Further research could be conducted at an international level, thus allowing embracing institutional contexts for each country.

This paper contributes to the emerging literature about sustainability assurance practices and could be of interest to managers and auditors to improve the assurance practices of social and environmental reporting.

This study aims to address the unanswered question of whether corporate sustainability has an impact on auditors’ overall judgment and to provide incremental evidence that corporate sustainability reporting has significant effect on financial auditors’ judgment.

Following prior research, the authors, respectively, apply auditors’ decisions on going-concern opinions and three discretionary accrual measures as proxies for auditor conservatism over financial risk and financial reporting risk. The authors collect corporate sustainability reporting and sustainability assurance data of U.S. firms from the global reporting initiative (GRI) database to construct and measure firms’ sustainability reporting activities.

The authors find that nonreporting firms are more likely to receive going-concern opinions than the reporting firms. In addition, reporting firms have a larger scale of discretionary accruals than their nonreporting counterparts. The authors also obtain consistent findings that sustainability assurance or accounting assurance providers strengthen the effect of sustainability reporting on auditors’ judgment.

First, using discretionary accruals as measures of auditor conservatism is controversial, as accruals are the joint product by auditors and clients. Second, binary variables as a measure of sustainability reporting activities limit the inference. Lastly, the findings based on limited samples may weaken the external validity.

The findings imply that firms engaging in sustainability activities are lower in financial or financial reporting risk. Firms can influence audit practitioners’ overall judgment through sustainability reports. Sustainability commitments and reporting have become a part of firms’ risk management.

The findings imply that sustainability reporting could become an integrated part of regulated corporate disclosure. Sustainability assurance reduces social costs by lending credibility to sustainability reports.

This paper provides incremental evidence that sustainability reports provide useful information and signals that influence auditors’ professional judgment. The findings also suggest that sustainability assurance strengthens auditors’ confidence in using sustainability information, thus amplifying the effect of sustainability reporting on auditors’ judgment.

The purpose of this study is to understand the current trends and development of corporate social responsibility (CSR) reporting in emerging and developing economies and analyze 106 Chinese central enterprises (CEs) that disclose CSR reports from 2004 to 2015.

This study analyzes all the CSR reports available to the public from CEs between 2004 and 2015 in China. This paper carefully examines the reporting patterns and standards in those CSR reports. CEs in China are focused on because state-owned companies account for a large proportion of the Chinese stock market because of their social and economic institutional characteristics.

The results in this paper confirm a growth trend in the numbers of CSR reports, as predicted. The results also suggest that the number of CSR reports from the CEs containing some assurance has dramatically increased. However, the findings indicate that the current content of the CSR reports may not fully meet the needs of users of information from different industries, regions and interests, as more than 20 CEs have formulated their own CSR framework. The lack of unified, sustainable reporting and assurance may reduce the comparability and effectiveness of CSR reporting.

This study provides evidence of the trends and development of CSR reporting in China.

The findings extend the understanding of CSR reporting by analyzing Chinese CE data. The results also provide decision-useful information for the government and other policymakers when considering CSR reporting and assurance standards.

This paper aims to examine the processes of sustainability reporting assurance (SRA) and the influence they have on shaping perception from disclosures. Given the evidence of inconsistencies and ambiguities in assurance processes, this paper examines how legitimacy is attained and maintained at different stages of SRA.

Evidence collected from 23 semi-structured interviews with assurance providers (APs), consultants, professionals and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) (non-APs) was used to conduct a thematic analysis from the perspectives of interviewees.

APs and non-APs are united in recognising the value of SRA, although, perspectives on transparency between the two groups differ. Experience and industry knowledge are essential to SRA delivery with non-APs preferring accounting APs. Nevertheless, non-APs are concerned about the role of companies in deciding assurance scope, as it can affect scrutiny. APs favour data accuracy (as opposed to data relevance) assurance due to team dynamics and internal review influences, with the latter also restricting assurance innovation. APs are interested in accessing better evidence and stakeholder engagement evaluations. Providing advisory services was not rejected by all APs. The perspectives of APs and non-APs demonstrate how progress in SRA has gained pragmatic legitimacy with noticeable gaps that serve to undermine attainment of moral legitimacy.

SRA is a developing practice that will adopt changes as it continues to mature; some of these changes could impact findings in this research. General perspectives on SRA were sought from interviewees, this affected the ability for an in-depth focus on any of the range of interesting SRA issues that arose over the course of the research. Interviews were conducted with relevant parties in the SRA space that operate in the UK. Perspectives from parties outside the UK were not solicited.

Companies make an important decision to commission SRA. Findings in this research have highlighted specific non-APs issues of concern that can be useful in structuring operations and reporting regimes to facilitate assurance procedures. The findings will also be helpful to APs as they can direct more emphasis on stakeholder concerns towards demonstrating greater stakeholder accountability. Regulatory and standard setters can enact appropriate policies that can potentially drive the practice forward for assessment of cognitive legitimacy.

The findings provide relevant account of stakeholder voices on the quality of corporate disclosures that has a direct effect on the wellbeing of communities and sustainability of societies. Collective stakeholder input on expectations can shape sustainability discourse.

This research demonstrates the applicability of financial audit quality indicators in SRA processes, extends the debate around the effectiveness of new audit fields and highlights the challenges of maintaining legitimacy with different audiences.