Experiences of and views on third-party assurance of corporate environmental and sustainability reports

Park, Jonathan; Brorson, Torbjörn

doi:10.1016/j.jclepro.2004.12.006

Cited by 170 publications

(223 citation statements)

References 5 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

203

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…professional background or personality traits that denote an inclination towards sustainability issues) act as significant drivers of sustainability assurance engagement (Crawford, 2007). As suggested by Park and Brorson (2005), field research on the interaction among report preparers, assurance providers and stakeholders is also warranted to better understand how the process of assurance engagement takes place and eventually affects the credibility of third-party assurance.…”

Section: Conclusion and Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Moreover, there are no generally accepted approaches to how a company should collect, evaluate and report its nonfinancial performance data. As documented by Park and Brorson (2005) in a sample of 28 Swedish companies, the assurance process is often company-specific and the time span of the actual steps varies depending on the objective and the scope of the assurance engagement.…”

Section: Overview Of Prior Researchmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Determinants of the adoption of sustainability assurance statements: an international investigation

2008

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

This paper explores the factors associated with the voluntary decisions to assure social, environmental and sustainability reports. Since the market for assurance services in this area is in its formative stages, there is a limited understanding of the demand for this emergent non-financial auditing practice, which is evolving rapidly across different countries. Drawing from extant literature in international auditing and environmental accounting, we focus on a set of country-level institutional factors to explain the adoption of sustainability assurances statements among an international panel of 212 Fortune Global 250 companies for the years 1999, 2002 and 2005. Consistently with our expectations, our results provide evidence that companies operating in countries that are more stakeholder-oriented and have a weaker governance enforcement regime are more likely to adopt a sustainability assurance statement. Further, the demand for assurance is higher in countries where sustainable corporate practices are better enabled by market and institutional mechanisms. Our exploratory findings also indicate that the likelihood to choose a large accounting firm as assurance provider increases for companies domiciled in countries that are shareholder-oriented and have a lower level of litigation. We conclude the paper suggesting three directions of research in the area of sustainability assurance that have relevant academic and practical implications.

show abstract

Section: Conclusion and Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Overview Of Prior Researchmentioning

confidence: 99%

Determinants of the adoption of sustainability assurance statements: an international investigation

2008

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Whether you examine the quantity of information and, more so, if you consider its quality, the information is only valuable with reference to its credibility and fairness. The assurance of SRs is related to verifying reliability and compliance with the standards of information disclosed, with the aim to increase the credibility of that report [47,48]. We therefore consider that it could be useful to test whether the presence of an external assurance of SRs can also affect the sustainability indicators disclosed.…”

Section: Gri Performance Indicators and Their Determinantsmentioning

confidence: 99%

An Investigation of Global Reporting Initiative Performance Indicators in Corporate Sustainability Reports: Greek, Italian and Spanish Evidence

2018

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Abstract:This study has two main purposes. First, it explores the performance indicators disclosed in the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI)-based Sustainability Reports (SRs) produced by the companies of three different countries: Italy, Spain and Greece. Second, it verifies how some corporate variables, country of origin variables and "attributes" of the SRs can explain the disclosure of GRI indicators. To verify the quantity and type of the indicators disclosed, we performed a content analysis of the SRs. We use a regression trees technique to describe how the companies' variables explain a different use of the indicators. The findings show that Spanish companies, on average, disclose the greatest number of indicators. The social indicators related to Labour are those more frequently reported in the SRs of the three countries. The least reported are social indicators related to Human Rights. The results show the central role that assurance, ROA and sector may have in classifying the disclosure level of indicators. The study contributes both theoretical and empirical literature on sustainability indicators. It also sheds further light on the determinants of the disclosure of indicators.

show abstract

“…Whereas Adams and McNicholas (2007); Lamberton (2005) and Park and Brorson (2005) suggest that availability of time and resources; increased knowledge and expertise enhance SAR process; they also argue that lack of support by management through sound leadership, ineffective cooperation and communication between all parties involved in the process and the absence of continuous training and development may inhibit the SAR process. Professional accountants by their training are exposed to SAR and may be willing to engage in it.…”

Section: Perceived Behavioural Control and Intention To Engage In Sarmentioning

confidence: 99%

Determinants of intention to engage in Sustainability Accounting & Reporting (SAR): the perspective of professional accountants

Kwakye

Welbeck

Owusu

et al. 2018

Int J Corporate Soc Responsibility

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

This study examines the perception of professional accountants and the intention to engage in Sustainability Accounting & Reporting (SAR). By relying on the Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB), the study investigates whether attitudes, subjective norms and perceived behavioural control have any impact on a firm's intention to engage in SAR. A survey method of research was adopted, and a set of questionnaires was developed (based on existing studies) and administered to professional accountants-the respondent group. A total of 86 professional accountants in Ghana voluntarily participated in the study. The partial least square-SEM (PLS-SEM) technique was used to analyse the data obtained. The results from the structural analysis demonstrate that only subjective norm and perceived behavioural control significantly influence a firm's intention to engage in SAR. By implication, the attitude of an accountant towards SAR does not affect the intention to engage in the practice and that the willingness to engage in SAR is primarily determined by resources availability and pressure from major stakeholders.

show abstract

Experiences of and views on third-party assurance of corporate environmental and sustainability reports

Cited by 170 publications

References 5 publications

Determinants of the adoption of sustainability assurance statements: an international investigation

Determinants of the adoption of sustainability assurance statements: an international investigation

An Investigation of Global Reporting Initiative Performance Indicators in Corporate Sustainability Reports: Greek, Italian and Spanish Evidence

Determinants of intention to engage in Sustainability Accounting & Reporting (SAR): the perspective of professional accountants

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About