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Sustainability
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Sustainability Accounting and Reporting
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Sustainability Accounting and Reporting

A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 December 2022) | Viewed by 27034

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Dongkuk Lim

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Business Administration Division, Seaver College, Pepperdine University, Malibu, CA 90263, USA
Interests: budgetary accounting; budget ratcheting; qualitative disclosure; risk-related and forward-looking disclosure
Dr. Po-Chang Chen

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Farmer School of Business, Miami University, Oxford, OH 45056, USA
Interests: financial reporting quality; loan contracting; accounting choices; audit quality; corporate social responsibility
Dr. Che-Wei (Scott) Chiu

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Accounting, Winona State University, Winona, MN 55987, USA
Interests: earnings quality; accrual quality; information transfer; voluntary disclosure; the role of accounting information in the capital market

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Sustainability accounting, also referred to as corporate responsibility (CR) reporting, corporate social responsibility (CSR) reporting, or environmental, social, and governance (ESG) reporting, is the measurement and reporting of an entity’s sustainability-related activities to external stakeholders. Sustainability accounting, in general, focuses on reporting the activities, which have a significant impact on environmental matters, contemporary social issues, the sustainability of resources, and the performance sustainability of an entity. These activities, while inherently industry- and firm-specific, cover a broad spectrum of areas such as environment, employee/community relations, human rights, diversity and inclusion, and controversial product involvement. With the rapid growth of companies’ engagement in sustainability activities around the world, sustainability accounting now serves important roles in corporate disclosures. According to a recent survey by KPMG, ninety-three percent of the 250 largest companies in the world now report on their corporate responsibility activities (refer to KPMG International Survey of Corporate Responsibility Reporting 2017). Nevertheless, the voluntary and non-financial nature of these disclosures creates unique measurement concerns and related reporting issues and it makes sustainability accounting distinct from traditional financial reporting. This Special Issue will provide insights into this fast-growing area of accounting and help improve our understanding of the relevance and reliability of sustainability information contained in corporate disclosures.

Papers are invited to contribute to one or more of the following areas:

  • Analytical framework for sustainability-related disclosures
  • Measurement of sustainability (methods, techniques, indicators, and/or metrics)
  • Determinants of sustainability accounting (e.g., internal and external motivations, information environment, corporate governance)
  • Consequences of sustainability accounting (e.g., financial performance, firm value, cost of capital)
  • The assurance of sustainability disclosures and the profile of assurers
  • Regulations, public policies, and sustainability accounting
  • Sustainability accounting across jurisdictions
  • Interrelationships between sustainability accounting and traditional financial reporting

Dr. Dongkuk Lim
Dr. Po-Chang Chen
Dr. Che-Wei (Scott) Chiu
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Sustainability is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • sustainability accounting
  • corporate responsibility
  • corporate social responsibility
  • environment, social, and governance reporting
  • voluntary disclosures
  • non-financial disclosures
  • assurance of sustainability disclosures
  • regulations and public policies

Published Papers (6 papers)

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Research

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25 pages, 576 KiB  
Article
Social Reporting by Islamic Banks: The Role of Sharia Supervisory Board and the Effect on Firm Performance
by Rita Wijayanti and Doddy Setiawan
Sustainability 2022, 14(17), 10965; https://doi.org/10.3390/su141710965 - 2 Sep 2022
Cited by 8 | Viewed by 2696
Abstract
This study aims to explore social reporting by Islamic banks (IB) (referred to as Islamic social reporting, ISR, hereafter) through two streams, i.e., its determinants and consequences on firm performance. Using annual report data from 90 samples of the world’s IB from 2016–2020, [...] Read more.
This study aims to explore social reporting by Islamic banks (IB) (referred to as Islamic social reporting, ISR, hereafter) through two streams, i.e., its determinants and consequences on firm performance. Using annual report data from 90 samples of the world’s IB from 2016–2020, this study focuses on the sharia governance implementation through the role of the Sharia Supervisory Board (SSB). The SSB was measured by individual characteristics and IG-Score, representing a combination of dichotomous characteristics of the SSB, which have not been encountered in previous studies. Firm performance as a consequence of disclosure was determined by a more comprehensive approach based on accounting and the stock market. The study’s findings demonstrate the SSB’s beneficial influence on ISR, suggesting that the presence of an SSB can promote ISR practices. Social reporting has been found to have a negative impact on ROA, but it has a positive impact on MTBV and Tobin’s Q. The data suggest that while voluntary reporting practices may cause a short-term decline in profitability, they can have a positive impact on an enterprise’s long-term value. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainability Accounting and Reporting)
19 pages, 793 KiB  
Article
Drivers of Sustainability Accounting and Reporting in Emerging Economies: Evidence from Nigeria
by Isaac Monday Ikpor, Enrico Bracci, Clementina Iruka Kanu, Riccardo Ievoli, Benedette Okezie, Sunday Mlanga and Charles Ogbaekirigwe
Sustainability 2022, 14(7), 3780; https://doi.org/10.3390/su14073780 - 23 Mar 2022
Cited by 9 | Viewed by 4351
Abstract
Stakeholders’ demand for companies to provide social, economic and environmental reports is increasingly becoming a fundamental requirement for companies. This paper investigates the factors that drive the choice of sustainability reporting in an emerging market economy context, with reference to Nigeria. Using data [...] Read more.
Stakeholders’ demand for companies to provide social, economic and environmental reports is increasingly becoming a fundamental requirement for companies. This paper investigates the factors that drive the choice of sustainability reporting in an emerging market economy context, with reference to Nigeria. Using data sourced from 3 different reports (annual accounts, sustainability reports and websites) of the top 50 large companies listed in the Nigeria Stock Exchange for the period 2015–2020 and a fixed effect panel regression model, our study makes three important findings. First, the study provides evidence that sustainability reporting is mostly influenced by the following company internal factors: size, profitability, ownership structure, listing age, leverage and auditor type. Second, the findings indicate that that size of firms, profitability and companies audited by Big-4 audit firms has a significant positive relationship with sustainability reporting in Nigeria. In contrast, ownership structure and the leverage position of firms affect sustainability reporting negatively. Finally, our study shows that the banking and oil and gas sectors take sustainability reporting more seriously than any other sectors in Nigeria. Contextualizing the findings within accountability and transparency, we provide evidence on the drivers and the relationship between the various drivers and sustainability reporting in Nigeria. This has implications for policymakers, future researchers and contributes to the literature of sustainability reporting in Nigeria. Even though this study used Nigerian data, it will increase pressure on firms in other developing countries to assess the context-specific determinants of sustainability reporting. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainability Accounting and Reporting)
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25 pages, 1546 KiB  
Article
The Impact of Human Rights Reporting and Presentation Formats on Non-Professional Investors’ Perceptions and Intentions to Invest
by William D. Brink, Karen De Meyst and Tim V. Eaton
Sustainability 2022, 14(4), 2403; https://doi.org/10.3390/su14042403 - 19 Feb 2022
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 2183
Abstract
Compared to other types of sustainability information, it remains uncommon for companies to report human rights information, and critics argue that when companies do report, they often report opportunistically. This is problematic as non-professional investors may rely on this information when making investment [...] Read more.
Compared to other types of sustainability information, it remains uncommon for companies to report human rights information, and critics argue that when companies do report, they often report opportunistically. This is problematic as non-professional investors may rely on this information when making investment decisions. In this study, we use an experiment to examine how non-professional investors react to human rights information presented in varying formats (i.e., numerical, graphs, qualitative) compared to no reporting. Consistent with our expectations, we find that when information is positive, participants do not react to qualitative information. However, they react positively to numerical and graphical information and seem to use a less critical mindset when processing this type of information, which is associated in the literature with an “aura” of accuracy, objectivity, and neutrality. This is problematic because, similar to what is often the case in reality, participants had no certainty about the accuracy of the information. Further, when information is less positive, participants do not react to numerical or graphical information, but they do react negatively to qualitative information, which is more vague and may be perceived as companies trying to obfuscate less positive performance. We offer a critical discussion of our results. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainability Accounting and Reporting)
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20 pages, 556 KiB  
Article
The Relationship of CSR Performance and Voluntary CSR Disclosure Extent in the German DAX Indices
by Christian Danisch
Sustainability 2021, 13(9), 4904; https://doi.org/10.3390/su13094904 - 27 Apr 2021
Cited by 11 | Viewed by 4660
Abstract
Empirical studies present mixed evidence on the relationship of CSR performance and CSR disclosure extent, thus spurring academic ambiguity as legitimacy- and voluntary disclosure theory provide competing explanations. By applying content analysis to 144 voluntary GRI reports of listed firms in Germany from [...] Read more.
Empirical studies present mixed evidence on the relationship of CSR performance and CSR disclosure extent, thus spurring academic ambiguity as legitimacy- and voluntary disclosure theory provide competing explanations. By applying content analysis to 144 voluntary GRI reports of listed firms in Germany from 2015 to 2018, I construct environmental and social disclosure indices to capture the reports’ disclosure extents. The contents are extracted from the corresponding GRI content indices in order to mitigate potential coding errors. ESG scores are used as a third-party measure to proxy environmental and social performance. I propose that this approach could be more suitable to address the challenge within the literature concerning methodological heterogeneity. The results show a positive relationship of environmental performance and environmental disclosure, but no relationship of social performance and social disclosure. Hence, there is evidence for an at least partial performance driven reporting behavior as companies seem to signal their superior environmental performance via more extensive disclosure, as predicted by voluntary disclosure theory. This evidence supports the idea of tightening Directive 2014/95/EU. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainability Accounting and Reporting)
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23 pages, 854 KiB  
Article
True and Fair Override: Accounting Expert Opinions, Explanations from Behavioural Theories, and Discussions for Sustainability Accounting
by Anne Marie Garvey, Laura Parte, Bridget McNally and José Antonio Gonzalo-Angulo
Sustainability 2021, 13(4), 1928; https://doi.org/10.3390/su13041928 - 11 Feb 2021
Cited by 7 | Viewed by 4407
Abstract
This study focuses on true and fair view (TFV) and fair presentation (FP) in financial statements. It questions if attitudes towards the true and fair override (TFO) condition, included in European Union (EU) legislation and International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS), is indicative of [...] Read more.
This study focuses on true and fair view (TFV) and fair presentation (FP) in financial statements. It questions if attitudes towards the true and fair override (TFO) condition, included in European Union (EU) legislation and International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS), is indicative of a principles-based approach or lip service to a concept that is rarely applied. We address this subject because we consider that there should be a consensus and harmonisation on TFV—that TFO has a vital role within the principles-based framework, and while the accounting standard development process should limit the application of the TFO concept, in practice, it is an important reporting option. TFV/TFO harmonisation also has an important role in sustainability accounting, to reveal company actions which are influenced by more than just the objective of complying with the standards. In the empirical part, accounting experts from 24 European countries were surveyed. Their responses suggest a lack of clarity around the distinction between TFV and FP and a reluctance to consider, in practice, the application of the TFO. Drawing on behavioural theories—ostrich effect and comfort theory—we find explanations and reasoning behind attitudes to these cornerstone concepts. Specifically, we try to explain behavioural attitudes to TFV/FP and TFO positions, which defend uncompromising compliance with standards. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainability Accounting and Reporting)
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Review

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24 pages, 934 KiB  
Review
Investors’ Perceptions of Sustainability Reporting—A Review of the Experimental Literature
by Maria Misiuda and Maik Lachmann
Sustainability 2022, 14(24), 16746; https://doi.org/10.3390/su142416746 - 14 Dec 2022
Cited by 4 | Viewed by 3859
Abstract
Prior research has shown that companies’ sustainability reporting in relation to environmental, social, and governance disclosures influences investors’ investment decisions. Since the credibility of these disclosures is often questionable, it is important to understand how investors perceive sustainability reporting and include it in [...] Read more.
Prior research has shown that companies’ sustainability reporting in relation to environmental, social, and governance disclosures influences investors’ investment decisions. Since the credibility of these disclosures is often questionable, it is important to understand how investors perceive sustainability reporting and include it in their decision-making process. Although the high relevance of this topic has already been clarified in research, the extant literature is heterogeneous and poorly connected on several levels. Against this background, we conducted a systematic literature review of 27 experimental studies on this topic published in leading accounting journals between 2000 and 2021. By clustering the results according to Mercer’s credibility factors, we synthesize the research on investors’ perceptions of sustainability reporting in a novel way, and derive suggestions for future research. We find that the interest in experimental research on sustainability reporting perception has grown in recent years. Researchers so far have examined sustainability performance and external assurance as the most relevant factors determining the credibility of sustainability information. Other factors, such as disclosure precision and inherent plausibility, are sparsely explored. We provide avenues for future research to investigate the perception of sustainability disclosures more comprehensively, by focusing on understudied credibility factors and on new theories and heuristics. Additionally, we suggest considering diverse experimental settings, such as different investor groups, company characteristics, or experimental procedures in general. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainability Accounting and Reporting)
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