There is a significant overlap between Sustainability Reporting (SR) disclosures and other non-financial reports, particularly Directors’ Report and Management Discussion and Analysis, with governance and qualitative factors showing the most overlap.
Authors
Renu Devi, Department of Business Administration, National Institute of Technology Kurukshetra, Kurukshetra, India
Mohammad Firoz, Department of Business Administration, National Institute of Technology Kurukshetra, Kurukshetra, India
R Saravanan, Assistant Professor, Jindal School of Banking and Finance, O.P. Jindal Global University, Sonipat, Haryana, India
Summary
Purpose
This study aims to investigate redundant information in mandatory non-financial reports (NFRs) demanded by regulators, focusing primarily on overlapping disclosures in a new Indian sustainability reporting (SR) framework.
Design/methodology/approach
The study sample comprised NIFTY100 listed entities that published SR voluntarily during 2021–2022. The authors used content analysis and cosine similarity techniques to conceptually compare redundancy in SR disclosures with non-financial disclosures.
Findings
The findings reveal an information overlap in SR disclosure with other NFRs disclosures. The disclosures of Directors’ Report have higher cosine similarity scores at the firm level with SR, followed by the Management Discussion and Analysis report, Corporate Governance report and Corporate Social Responsibility report. The additional analysis reveals that qualitative disclosures and disclosures comprising governance factors overlap more in SR.
Practical implications
Policymakers should look to establish relevant disclosure guidelines in the SR system, and thereby, shed light on fundamental issues to enhance future SR framework reforms.
Social implications
The study highlights the need for integration and amendment in the disclosure guidelines of NFRs to improve the overall transparency of the reports.
Originality/value
Previous studies have examined the redundancy in annual reports and SRs from the point of view of overlapping information. To the best author’s knowledge, this is possibly among the first studies to offer insights into the repetition of disclosures required by regulators in statutory NFRs based on environmental, social, and governance factors through the lenses of the institutional theory.
Published in: Sustainability Accounting, Management and Policy Journal
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