The quality of sustainability reports and impression management

Dominique Diouf and Olivier Boiral

Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, 2017, vol. 30, issue 3, 643-667

Abstract: Purpose - The purpose of this research is to analyze the perceptions of stakeholders – more specifically, socially responsible investment (SRI) practitioners – of the quality of sustainability reports using the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) framework. Design/methodology/approach - This paper is based on 33 semi-structured interviews carried out with different stakeholders and experts (e.g. consultants, fund managers, analysts, consultants) in the field of SRI in Canada. Findings - The perceptions of SRI practitioners shed more light on the elastic and uncertain application of the GRI principles in determining the quality of sustainability reports. Their perceptions tend to support the argument that sustainability reports reflect the impression management strategies used by companies to highlight the positive aspects of their sustainability performance and to obfuscate negative outcomes. Originality/value - First, undertake empirical research on stakeholders’ perceptions – which have been largely overlooked – of the quality of sustainability reports. Second, shed new light on the impression management strategies used in sustainability reporting. Third, show the reflexivity and the degree of skepticism of practitioners with regard to the reliability of information on sustainability performance.

Keywords: Stakeholders; Impression management; Global reporting initiative; Corporate sustainability reporting; Socially responsible investment (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (58)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.110 ... d&utm_campaign=repec (text/html)
https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.110 ... d&utm_campaign=repec (application/pdf)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eme:aaajpp:aaaj-04-2015-2044

DOI: 10.1108/AAAJ-04-2015-2044

Access Statistics for this article

Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal is currently edited by Prof James Guthrie and Prof Lee Parker

More articles in Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal from Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Emerald Support ().