A study of sustainability verification practices: the French case

Claire Gillet

Journal of Accounting & Organizational Change, 2012, vol. 8, issue 1, 62-84

Abstract: Purpose - 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. Design/methodology/approach - 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. Findings - 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. Research limitations/implications - 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. Originality/value - 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.

Keywords: France; Corporate social responsibility; Social accounting; Auditors; Environmental accounting and reporting; Social and environmental accounting; Sustainability accounting; French case; Sustainability assurance; Sustainability verification; Sustainability information (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2012
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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:jaocpp:18325911211205748

DOI: 10.1108/18325911211205748

Access Statistics for this article

Journal of Accounting & Organizational Change is currently edited by Prof Zahirul Hoque

More articles in Journal of Accounting & Organizational Change from Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Emerald Support ().