Ethical environment, accountability, and sustainability reporting: What is the connection in the hospitality and tourism industry?

Abstract

Drawing on institutional theory, this study tests how the ethical behaviors of firms, in interaction with public officials and through the strength of accountability regulations, influence sustainability reporting practices in the hospitality and tourism (H&T) sector. The results indicate that firms operating in a highly ethical business environment are less likely than those in a less ethical environment to disclose a sustainability report. However, accountability yields the opposite result; firms established in environments characterized by high accountability are more likely than low accountability environments to issue a sustainability report, which implies a complementary effect between the strength of the accountability and the firms’ sustainability disclosures. This verifies that the weakness or strength of informal and formal institutional forces exert considerable influence on firms’ desire to carry out sustainability reporting. However, this influence is not true of the acquisition of external assurance statements and following Global Reporting Initiative guidelines, with which accountability has a negative and insignificant association, respectively.

To act or to react? The role of responsiveness in corporate social performance disclosure in preventing plastic pollution in the travel and tourism sector

“…Essentially, this means that consumers are unlikely to adopt sustainable actions without basic information about the drivers and the potential outcomes of their behavior (Gifford & Nilsson, 2014). The T&T sector has to pay attention to the social, cultural, and political factors that affect the perception of stakeholders (Iazzi et al, 2020) because voluntary disclosure increases companies' social legitimacy and reputation (Hamrouni et al, 2021; Uyar et al, 2021).…”

Sustainability reporting as a social construct: the systematic literature review within socio-political view

“…Industry is found to construct possibilities for SR as it determines the level of sustainability performance (Russo-Spena et al , 2018; Hamrouni et al , 2021), defines the framework for reporting practice (Christensen and Lamberton, 2022; Dube and Maroun, 2007) and conditions isomorphic mechanisms (Gallego-Álvarez and Pucheta-Martínez, 2020; García-Sánchez and Araújo-Bernardo, 2020). Industry also represents the degree of stakeholder pressure (Schepis, 2020) and determines patterns for legitimacy seeking.…”

Sustainability reporting in Africa: A systematic review and agenda for future research

“…For example, a comparison of how combined assurance models are developing and being applied in countries with different levels of investor protection, less emphasis on integrated reporting, and alternate corporate governance models to those found in South Africa will be particularly interesting. Additionally, future research could examine whether stock market regulations may stimulate firms to adopt sustainability reporting, external assurance, and compliance with GRI guidelines (Cicchiello et al, 2021; Hamrouni et al, 2022; Prinsloo & Maroun, 2021).…”

“…Some of the current literature has focused on the determinants of sustainability assurance that gender diversity of the boards is positively associated with the adoption of an external assurance provider, regardless of the type of assurance provider, for sustainability reporting (Buertey, 2021; Cicchiello et al, 2021; Girón et al, 2021, 2022). Firms operating in less accountable environments tend to implement external assurance of sustainability reporting than business firms operating in more accountable environments (Hamrouni et al, 2022). The same result was reported for firms operating in the manufacturing sector (Girón et al, 2021).…”

“…Furthermore, a country's level of accountability can equally influence the adoption of sustainability reporting. Specifically, Hamrouni et al (2022) found that firms operating in countries with a high level of accountability are more likely to issue a sustainability report than firms in less accountable countries. However, it does not have a significant association with the adoption of GRI reporting guidelines.…”