Analysis of Sustainability Reports and Quality of Information Disclosed of Top Brazilian Companies

Abstract

The objective of this research is to examine the quality of information disclosed from a sample of Brazilian listed companies, using a multidimensional construct based on economic, environmental and social dimensions of sustainability. The research design combines both quantitative and qualitative methods. The qualitative approach is used in the content analysis procedure and the quantitative is employed for statistical analysis. The target population consists of top 36 sustainable companies (ISE) and 24 with corporate governance practices (NM) in 2011. We find that 37% of the companies achieved score above 0.5; 30% between 0.26 and 0.5 and 33% scored below 0.25, being score zero the worst and one the best score. The best company scored 0.896 and the worst of the 60 companies scored 0.0167. Overall our statistical results confirm that ISE companies tend to disclose more information and in a more adequate way than NM, and in general, the companies are reporting the content in all the three dimensions with same quality level. Furthermore, companies from Infrastructure sector present better quality content reported when compared to Service companies. We conclude that a good sustainability report is directly related to the good content in all the tree dimensions, regardless the economic sector and these reports still have a big room for improvement, which echoes within the literature analyzed. Companies need to disclose their information in a more integrated way, addressing sustainability issues under the scope of business strategy.

CSR Reporting Practices in Visegrad Group Countries and the Quality of Disclosure

“…The study presented in this paper focuses also on CSR reports quality and extends the analyses of prior published studies in this field carried out by Michelon, Pilonato and Ricceri [2], Freundlieb, Gräuler and Teuteberg [23], Ching, Gerab and Toste [26]. Studies based on measuring the quality of CSR reports allow for a more comprehensive investigation by using multiple parameters in the assessment process.…”

“…Studies based on quality (calculation of disclosure index) allow for a more comprehensive investigation by using multiple parameters in the assessment process [39]. Study presented in this paper focuses on CSR reports quality and extends the analyses of prior published studies in this field [2,23,25,26,29].…”

The Quality of Sustainability Reports and Corporate Financial Performance: Evidence From Brazilian Listed Companies

“…We set off from the previous studies by Ching et al (2013) that analyzed the quality of SR from ISE companies, according to the GRI framework, from 2008 to 2012. In the present study, we extended the analysis for 2013 to 2014 and used the same methodology as before.…”

Sustainability reporting quality of Indian and American manufacturing firms: A comparative analysis

“…It was found that at 1% level of significance, a positive relationship exists between level of CSRD and firm reputation. Ching et al (2013) studied 60 listed firms in Brazil comprising of top 36 sustainable firms and 24 conforming to corporate governance practice, in the year 2011. The aim of the study was to assess the quality of information disclosed by firms on sustainability dimensions.…”