Investigating corporate sustainability reporting and SDGs
Project Description
Corporate entities are increasingly called to demonstrate to stakeholders their active commitment to responding to social and environmental issues through comprehensive reporting practices. Such expectations were further enhanced by the recent COP26 summit which has bolstered – in particular - ecological pressures on companies to demonstrate their active engagement in supporting the fight against climate change as well as in ensuring extensive commitments to contribute to a faster sustainable-oriented transition of the global economy. Therefore, this study aims to investigate to what extent corporates in Germany and Austria disclose sustainability information on their websites. The study is based on a well-established framework adapted from the literature. The results of this study are expected to evidence that most of the sampled companies devote a specific section of their websites to disclose information on sustainability issues. Results may also highlight a strong commitment to the disclosure of social and/or economic and/or governmental issues. Particular attention is devoted to disclosing information about 'SDGs'. The results may benefit policymakers and corporate management in gaining awareness about the potential of publicly available information in engendering insights into the sustainability issues that involve a company and a more comprehensive range of stakeholders.
