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Sustainability reporting and stakeholder engagement in Spain : Different instruments, different quality
Author(s) -
Romero Silvia,
Ruiz Silvia,
FernandezFeijoo Belen
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
business strategy and the environment
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.123
H-Index - 105
eISSN - 1099-0836
pISSN - 0964-4733
DOI - 10.1002/bse.2251
Subject(s) - sustainability reporting , sustainability , shareholder , integrated reporting , business , quality (philosophy) , stakeholder , stakeholder engagement , accounting , sustainability organizations , corporate sustainability , order (exchange) , process management , corporate governance , public relations , finance , political science , ecology , philosophy , epistemology , biology
The purpose of this paper is to compare the quality of the sustainability information issued following the three most common reporting models: annual report (addressed to shareholders), sustainability report (addressed to stakeholders), and integrated report (addressed to shareholders). To this aim, we create a quality index based on previous literature, analyzing the content of the sustainability information disclosed by Spanish listed companies during the years 2013 to 2015. We find that companies issuing sustainability reports or integrated reports provide higher quality information than companies including their sustainability information within the annual report. We also find that sustainability reports are issued with higher quality than integrated reports. Both findings indicate that companies in Spain are engaged in a dialogue with all stakeholders, not only shareholders. Our results offer insights on the need to improve the framework of the integrated report in order to achieve the objectives of the International Integrated Reporting Council and to get a speed up in the adoption of this new reporting tool.