Sustainability assurance’s link to reporting quality

Source: , 11 October 2019

The number of companies across the world who issue some form of sustainability report continues to increase. However, even as organizations place more emphasis on improving reporting quality related to the environmental and social impact of their business activities, little is known about whether assurance for these reports improves the quality, and whether accounting firm assurers improve that quality to a greater extent than nonaccounting firm assurers.

“With investor attention on such information higher than ever, corporate sustainability reporting is ripe for the next phase of its evolution,” said a 2018 report posted on the Harvard Law School Forum on Corporate Governance and Financial Regulation.

This article provides a summary of insights on these issues based on an academic study we recently published in the Journal of Accounting and Public Policy (“Corporate Social Responsibility Assurance and Reporting Quality: Evidence From Restatements”).

Read the full article