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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