Sustainability Assurance in Socially-Sensitive Sectors: A Worldwide Analysis of the Financial Services Industry

Elies Seguí-Mas, Fernando Polo-Garrido and Helena María Bollas-Araya
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Elies Seguí-Mas: Centre of Business Management Research (CEGEA), Universitat Politècnica de València, 46022 València, Spain
Fernando Polo-Garrido: Centre of Business Management Research (CEGEA), Universitat Politècnica de València, 46022 València, Spain
Helena María Bollas-Araya: Faculty of Business Administration and Management (FADE), Universitat Politècnica de València, 46022 València, Spain

Sustainability, 2018, vol. 10, issue 8, 1-21

Abstract: Sustainability reporting and assurance have considerably increased in the last decades. Among different sectors, ‘sensitive sectors’ attracted the attention of many academics. However, most of research works were focused only on ‘environmentally-sensitive sectors’. Therefore, after the loss of trust caused by the lack of transparency due to the crisis, ‘socially-sensitive sectors’ as financial services sector needs to strengthen users’ confidence in the credibility of their reported activities. The aim of this paper is to assess assurance practices worldwide in one of the main ‘socially-sensitive sectors’: the financial services sector. We study what factors are associated with adoption of assurance and choice of assurance provider, and whether assurance statements differ across providers. Our results reveal that, compared to the global context, companies operating in the financial services sector are more likely to adopt assurance and to choose accountants as assurance providers. Our findings show that adoption of assurance depends on company size. We also found that companies using the financial services sector supplement are more prone to adopt assurance. Our results also evidence that choice of assurance provider depends on the country and listing status Finally, our research shows a great variability in assurance statements across providers.

Keywords: sustainability reporting; CSR reporting; assurance; financial services; socially-sensitive sectors (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

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