A Comparative Study of Sustainability Disclosure Practices of India and USA

Abstract

Sustainable development efforts presented on a piece of paper take the shape of a sustainability report, also labelled as sustainable development report. Sustainability report integrates economic, environmental and social performance of the company into one report. This study compares the sustainable development efforts by companies in developed (USA) and developing (India) nations. The recent sustainability reports from a three-year period that is 2008–2011 of AMEX major market index (USA) and SENSEX companies (India) are studied using content analysis. Independent sample t test and ANOVA have been used to compare the reports of the said countries. The results of the analysis show that companies are now more aware of sustainable development. Out of 20 AMEX major market index companies, 14 companies are providing sustainability information in a separate sustainability report while in case of SENSEX there are 16 companies out of 30 that are producing sustainability reports. In USA greater percentage of companies is disclosing sustainability information, while the quantity of information disclosed as per GRI’s G3 guidelines, in sustainability reports is more in the case of Indian companies.

Keywords

Sustainability reporting sustainable development global reporting initiative G3 guidelines SENSEX AMEX major market index

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Belal

A.R.

(2001). A study of corporate social disclosures in Bangladesh. Managerial Auditing Journal, 16(5), 274–289.

Clelland

I.J.

Dean

T.J.

Douglas

T.J.

(2000). Stepping towards sustainable business: An evolution of waste minimization practices in us manufacturing. Interfaces, 30(3), 107–124.

Daub

C.H.

(2007). Assessing the quality of sustainability reporting: An alternative methodological approach. Journal of Cleaner Production, 15, 75–85.

Farneti

Guthrie

(2009). Sustainability reporting by Australian public sector organizations: Why they report. Accounting Forum, 33, 89–98.

Guthrie

Farneti

(2008). GRI sustainability reporting by Australian public sector organizations. Public Money and Management, 28(6), 361–366.

Huang

Wang

(2010). Sustainability reports in China: Content analysis. International Conference on Future Information Technology and Management Engineering, 154–158. Retrieved 11 November 2011, from http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/stamp/stamp.jsp?arnumber=05654711

Elijido-Ten

(2011). The impact of sustainability and balanced scorecard disclosures on market performance: Evidence from Australia’s top 100. JAMAR, 9(1), 59–74.

Faisal

Tower

Rusmin

(2012). Legitimising corporate sustainability reporting throughout the world. Australasian Accounting Business and Finance Journal, 6(2), 19–34.

Kolk

(2010). Trajectories of sustainability reporting by MNC’s. Journal of World Business, 45(4), 367–374.

10.

Toppinen

Tuppura

Puumalainen

Hujala

(2011). Determinants of sustainability disclosure in the global forest industry. Electronic Journal of Business Ethics and Organization Studies, 16(1), 33–40.

11.

Retrieved 31 May 2012, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BSE_SENSEX

12.

Retrieved 31 May 2012, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amex_Major%20Market_Index

13.

Roberts

D.H.

Koeplin

J.P.

(2007). Sustainability reporting practices in Portugal: Greenwashing or triple bottom line. International Business & Economics Research Journal, 6(9), 29–40.

14.

SIRAN, KLD & Social Investment Forum (2008). Sustainability reporting in emerging markets, 1–23. Retrieved 21 July 2011, from http://www.unpri.org/files/EMDP/2008%20SIRAN%20sustainability%20reporting%20in%20Emerging%20Markets.pdf

15.

Steurer

Konard

(2009). Business-society relations in central–eastern and western Europe: How those who lead in sustainability reporting bridge the gap in corporate (social) responsibility. Scandinavan Journal of Management, 25, 23–36.