Research problem: The purpose of this study is to extend existing knowledge on the determinants of sustainability reporting. Institutional theory, legitimacy theory, CSR and TBL are used to find out if: (1) audit firms’ sustainability reports are an influencing factor on non-audit firms’ sustainability reports, (2) if audit firms’ sustainability reports are an influencing factor on their clients’ sustainability reports. Methodology: To find out if there is a relationship between the content in sustainability reports of audit firms and non-audit firms, the study conducts a content analysis using a quantitative strategy and a deductive approach. The sample consists of three of the Big 4 audit firms as well as 30 Swedish publicly listed companies, small and large cap. Their sustainability reports are analyzed from 2010 to 2020. Conclusion: The findings show that, first, firms do imitate audit firms when they issue sustainability reports, thus a case of mimetic isomorphism can be concluded. Second, clients of audit firms do not imitate their external auditors more than other audit firms when issuing their sustainability reports.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UPSALLA1/oai:DiVA.org:hj-57660 |
| Date | January 2022 |
| Creators | Dzankovic, Almedina, Celami, Dea |
| Publisher | Jönköping University |
| Source Sets | DiVA Archive at Upsalla University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Student thesis, info:eu-repo/semantics/bachelorThesis, text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Rights | info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
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