IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eme/majpps/maj-07-2016-1408.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

An analysis of sustainability report assurance statements

Author

Listed:
  • Adriana Rossi
  • Lara Tarquinio

Abstract

Purpose - This paper aims to achieve the following objectives. First, through a longitudinal study, the authors explore the trend of voluntary external assurance of sustainability reports among Italian listed companies from 2008 to 2012. Thus, the authors aim to analyse the content level of the assurance statements and to test whether it is affected by certain corporate variables and by the type of practitioner chosen. Design/methodology/approach - A legitimacy theory framework is adopted to investigate the phenomenon of sustainability report assurance services in Italy. The authors developed an assurance statement disclosure index (ASDI) constructed on the basis of the standards ISAE 3000 and AA1000AS. Thus, the authors tested whether the ASDI is affected by certain corporate variables using an ordinary least square (OLS) regression model. To test how each specific item is related to the assurance provider, a contingency table was developed. Findings - The results of this paper show many differences in the assurance statements content in particular with reference to the criteria used, conclusive comments and recommendations. The presence of a corporate social responsibility committee and an expert who serves on it is positively related to a higher rank on the ASDI. In contrast, Big4 firms seem to be associated with a lower disclosure rank. Finally, Big4 are positively associated with the indications of the provider’s characteristics and negatively with their conclusive comments and recommendations. Originality/value - This paper presents some findings in an area where little evidence exists, that is, the effects of some variables on the quantity of information disclosed in the assurance statements.

Suggested Citation

  • Adriana Rossi & Lara Tarquinio, 2017. "An analysis of sustainability report assurance statements," Managerial Auditing Journal, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 32(6), pages 578-602, June.
  • Handle: RePEc:eme:majpps:maj-07-2016-1408
    DOI: 10.1108/MAJ-07-2016-1408
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/MAJ-07-2016-1408/full/html?utm_source=repec&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=repec
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers

    File URL: https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/MAJ-07-2016-1408/full/pdf?utm_source=repec&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=repec
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1108/MAJ-07-2016-1408?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Nusirat Ojuolape Gold & Fauziah Md. Taib & Yaxin Ma, 2022. "Firm-Level Attributes, Industry-Specific Factors, Stakeholder Pressure, and Country-Level Attributes: Global Evidence of What Inspires Corporate Sustainability Practices and Performance," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(20), pages 1-28, October.
    2. Sibel Hoştut & Seçil Deren het Hof & Hediye Aydoğan & Gülten Adalı, 2023. "Who’s in and who’s out? Reading stakeholders and priority issues from sustainability reports in Turkey," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 10(1), pages 1-13, December.
    3. Sahar E-Vahdati & Norhayah Zulkifli & Zarina Zakaria, 2018. "A Moderated Mediation Model for Board Diversity and Corporate Performance in ASEAN Countries," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(2), pages 1-20, February.
    4. Ho-Tan-Phat Phan & Francesco De Luca & Lea Iaia, 2020. "The “Walk” towards the UN Sustainable Development Goals: Does Mandated “Talk” through NonFinancial Disclosure Affect Companies’ Financial Performance?," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(6), pages 1-20, March.
    5. Cristian R. Loza Adaui, 2020. "Sustainability Reporting Quality of Peruvian Listed Companies and the Impact of Regulatory Requirements of Sustainability Disclosures," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(3), pages 1-22, February.
    6. Teresa Eugénio & Sónia Gomes & Manuel Castelo Branco & Ana Isabel Morais, 2022. "Non-Financial Reporting and Assurance: A New Opportunity for Auditors? Evidence from Portugal," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(20), pages 1-15, October.
    7. Shan Zhou, 2022. "Reporting and Assurance of Climate‐Related and Other Sustainability Information: A Review of Research and Practice," Australian Accounting Review, CPA Australia, vol. 32(3), pages 315-333, September.
    8. Arpan Kumar Kar & Sunil Kumar & P. Vigneswara Ilavarasan, 2021. "Modelling the Service Experience Encounters Using User-Generated Content: A Text Mining Approach," Global Journal of Flexible Systems Management, Springer;Global Institute of Flexible Systems Management, vol. 22(4), pages 267-288, December.
    9. Sumon Kumar Das & Md Khalilur Rahman & Songita Roy, 2024. "Does ownership type affect sustainability reporting disclosure? Evidence from an emerging market," International Journal of Disclosure and Governance, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 21(1), pages 52-68, March.
    10. Govindan, Kannan & Kilic, Merve & Uyar, Ali & Karaman, Abdullah S., 2021. "Drivers and value-relevance of CSR performance in the logistics sector: A cross-country firm-level investigation," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 231(C).
    11. Lara Tarquinio & Stefanía C. Posadas & Deborah Pedicone, 2020. "Scoring Nonfinancial Information Reporting in Italian Listed Companies: A Comparison of before and after the Legislative Decree 254/2016," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(10), pages 1-22, May.
    12. Patrick Velte & Martin Stawinoga, 2020. "Do chief sustainability officers and CSR committees influence CSR-related outcomes? A structured literature review based on empirical-quantitative research findings," Journal of Management Control: Zeitschrift für Planung und Unternehmenssteuerung, Springer, vol. 31(4), pages 333-377, December.
    13. Stefania Veltri & Francesco De Luca & Ho‐Tan‐Phat Phan, 2020. "Do investors value companies' mandatory nonfinancial risk disclosure? An empirical analysis of the Italian context after the EU Directive," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 29(6), pages 2226-2237, September.
    14. Giorgio Mion & Cristian R. Loza Adaui, 2019. "Mandatory Nonfinancial Disclosure and Its Consequences on the Sustainability Reporting Quality of Italian and German Companies," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(17), pages 1-28, August.
    15. Bradbury, Michael & Jia, Jing & Li, Zhongtian, 2022. "Corporate social responsibility committees and the use of corporate social responsibility assurance services," Journal of Contemporary Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 18(2).
    16. Carmelo Reverte, 2021. "Do investors value the voluntary assurance of sustainability information? Evidence from the Spanish stock market," Sustainable Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 29(5), pages 793-809, September.
    17. Natalia Vaz Ogando & Silvia Ruiz Blanco & Belen Fernandez-Feijoo, 2018. "A Provider’s Approach to the Assurance Market of Sustainability Reports in Spain," Administrative Sciences, MDPI, vol. 8(3), pages 1-27, June.
    18. Romilda Mazzotta & Giovanni Bronzetti & Stefania Veltri, 2020. "Are mandatory non‐financial disclosures credible? Evidence from Italian listed companies," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 27(4), pages 1900-1913, July.
    19. Genevé Richard & Elza Odendaal, 2020. "Integrated reporting assurance practices—a study of South African firms," International Journal of Disclosure and Governance, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 17(4), pages 245-266, December.
    20. Carlos Larrinaga & Adriana Rossi & Mercedes Luque-Vilchez & Manuel Núñez-Nickel, 2020. "Institutionalization of the Contents of Sustainability Assurance Services: A Comparison Between Italy and United States," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 163(1), pages 67-83, April.
    21. Kılıç, Merve & Kuzey, Cemil & Uyar, Ali, 2021. "An international investigation on assurance of integrated reports: Institutions, assurance quality, and assurers," Journal of International Accounting, Auditing and Taxation, Elsevier, vol. 42(C).

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eme:majpps:maj-07-2016-1408. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Emerald Support (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.