Premium
Multilevel Approach to Sustainability Report Assurance Decisions
Author(s) -
FernandezFeijoo Belen,
Romero Silvia,
Ruiz Silvia
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
australian accounting review
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.551
H-Index - 36
eISSN - 1835-2561
pISSN - 1035-6908
DOI - 10.1111/auar.12104
Subject(s) - accounting , audit , sustainability , going concern , variables , sustainability reporting , regression analysis , multilevel model , business , linear regression , affect (linguistics) , corporate social responsibility , econometrics , economics , auditor's report , public relations , political science , statistics , psychology , mathematics , ecology , communication , biology
Using generalised linear mixed models as a statistical tool, this paper analyses the factors that explain the decision of a company to assure their sustainability report and of the choice of a Big 4 auditor as assuror. Specifically, we investigate the variables that affect the two dependent variables, existence of assurance and the profile of the assuror, at two different levels: the characteristics of the reporting company, and the country in which the company is located. Previous literature has explained this relationship as the result of linear regression models, considering only the fixed effects of the factors. Taking into account random effects, we are able to arrive at more precise conclusions on the effect of country (legal tradition and European membership) and company variables (size, public or non‐public, industry and integrated reporting), on the existence of assurance and the profile of the assuror.