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This study explores the scope, materiality and extent of environmental and social sustainability disclosure – as benchmarked against the Global Reporting Initiatives (GRI-G4) – of the top 10 logistics firms operating in Australia. It also investigates the relationships between the extent of environmental and social sustainability disclosure of these firms and their actual financial performance.

The authors adopted an inductive case study approach for an in-depth investigation of the relationships among concepts. A content analysis of the firms' sustainability reports was performed to determine their pattern and extent of sustainability disclosure against the GRI framework. A disclosure–performance analysis (DPA) matrix was employed to relate the extent of environmental and social sustainability disclosure of these 10 firms with their actual financial performance (i.e. return on assets [ROA] and total revenue growth).

This study found that the extent of sustainability reporting was relatively high on the labour practices and decent work subgroup, followed by the environmental dimension of the GRI-G4 framework. However, it was relatively low on the society, human rights and product responsibility subgroups of the GRI framework. The DPA revealed that “Leaders” (firms with higher sustainability disclosure levels) achieved significantly higher ROA. However, “Opportunists” (firms with lower sustainability disclosure levels) achieved higher levels of financial returns (i.e. ROA and total revenue growth) with less attention to sustainability issues, which contradicts the win-win view of the sustainability disclosure–financial performance relationship.

First, this study contributes an in-depth review of sustainability disclosure practices of top logistics firms operating in Australia. Second, using DPA, it identifies the novel effects of environmental and social sustainability disclosure levels on these firms' financial performance. It also sheds further light on the potential effect of investments beyond substantial profitability for sustainability growth and corporate governance on the sustainability disclosure–financial performance relationship.

This study aims to construct two environmental disclosure indices (EDI), one obtained from the mandatory reporting (annual report) and the other from the voluntary reporting (sustainability report), to compare their evolution. In addition, the authors developed and evaluated a conceptual model that aims to analyse if the two EDI are affected by industry, environmental certification, lucratively and corporate governance attributes. The legitimacy, signalling and voluntary disclosure theories are used to support the theoretical relationship between the company’s characteristics, corporate governance and environmental disclosure.

Using the content analysis technique, the authors have developed two indices to assess the level of environmental disclosure in the companies’ mandatory and voluntary reporting. In addition, to analyse the determinants of EDI, the authors applied the technique of multiple linear regression using panel data.

Based on Portuguese listed companies (Euronext-Lisbon), the results, from 2015 to 2017, exhibited an increase of 14.6% and 25.8% for the EDI obtained from the annual reports and for EDI obtained from the sustainability reporting, respectively. In addition, the results revealed that the environmental certification, lucratively, number of members on board and number and proportion of women of the board directors tend to affect the annual reporting EDI. Regarding the sustainability reporting EDI, the results showed that the environmental certification, lucratively and proportion of independent members of the board of directors have an impact on it.

The study focuses on quantitative rather than qualitative disclosures and it brings some insights to the theoretical field.

The results obtained can assist corporate decision-making processes regarding the improvement of environmental disclosure, both on the mandatory annual report and on voluntary sustainability reports.

This study brings new perspectives to this topical issue in accounting. Originally, this study is applied to Portuguese listed companies and it shows different trends and determinants of environmental disclosure when included in the annual reporting or sustainability reporting.

This paper investigates the impact of sustainability information disclosure on consumers' choice of order-to-delivery lead-time in relation to consumers' sustainability concern.

Based on two choice experiments with participants from the Netherlands (n = 348) and the United Kingdom (n = 1,387), the impact of sustainability information disclosure was examined in connection with consumers' concerns for environmental and social sustainability. Information on environmental impact (carbon emission) and social impact (warehouse workers and drivers' well-being) was considered and compared.

Disclosing sustainability impact information significantly increased consumers' preference and choice for longer delivery times, with equivalent effects for environmental and social impact information. Consumers' relevant (environmental or social) sustainability concern as personality traits enhanced effects on preferences, as did priming of environmental concern.

Future research may consider differences between product categories or e-commerce companies' reputation in sustainability activities.

The findings provide opportunities for online retailers to influence consumer choice of delivery time, especially through disclosing environmental and/or social sustainability information.

This study fills a gap in the literature on sustainability information disclosure to actively steer consumer choice of delivery time, particularly regarding the effect of social sustainability impact information in comparison to its environmental counterpart.

This paper aims to provide a longitudinal analysis of influences on China’s financial sector’s sustainability reporting practices, examines “green finance” disclosures and undertakes subsector comparisons. The state’s impact on the quantity and quality of reporting practices is analyzed.

Content analysis is used to examine the volumes, frequency and content of sustainability disclosures by China’s financial institutions. Survival analysis is used to identify factors significant in firms’ initiation of these disclosures. In total, 308 firm-year observations on disclosures are examined for 2007–2016.

China’s financial sector’s sustainability reporting pieces of evidence an “emerging stage” (2007–2009), “developing stage” (2010) and “greening stage” (2011–2016). The roles of institutional theory and regulatory pressure in explaining Chinese financial firms’ reporting behaviours are supported.

This study has several limitations. Firstly, given data restrictions, use of a relatively small sample size. Secondly, it examines different categories of disclosures made by financial firms, not more detailed content. Thirdly, is the potential overlap in disclosure themes under the classification scheme.

China’s financial sector’s adoption of sustainability reporting has been institutionalized, mainly in its banking subsector, consistent with general regulatory pressures.

“Greening the finance system” is examined in China’s context, as the country transforms from a resource and pollution-intensive to a green economy.

The financial sector is normally excluded from in-depth qualitative research. This study examines China’s financial sector’s responses to recent governmental pressures on green finance disclosures.

This research investigates whether firms that voluntarily publish environmental reports to supplement their annual financial statements disclose significantly more sustainability data than others. A matched-pair sample of companies, drawn from the EPA’s list of the 500 largest (volumetric basis) U.S. polluters, that published such environmental reports during 2001 or 2002 is used to assess the type and level of non-environmental social accounting disclosures in five different areas: employee safety/health, workforce and supplier diversity, product safety, community involvement, and energy usage. Fifty-two environmental report producers were matched with non-reporters based on total asset size and SIC. Content analysis was used to assess the substance of sample firm reporting. The results show highly significant differences in social accounting reporting, with the environmental report publishers disclosing more sustainability data in a wider range than their matched counterparts.

Focusing on the Agri-Food and Beverage sector, the paper investigates the direct effect of worldwide mandatory non-financial disclosure on several financial dimensions as well as its moderating effects on the relationship between sustainability and financial performance.

The authors performed fixed-effect regressions on a sample of 180 global listed companies, considering a period of eight years. The authors also tested the moderating effects of non-financial disclosure regulation on the relationship between sustainability and financial performance.

The authors found a positive direct impact of mandatory non-financial disclosure on Operating Return on Asset, Return on Equity and Return on Sales. The analysis also highlighted the negative moderating effects of non-financial reporting regulation on the relationship between sustainability issues and financial performance. As for the Cost of Debt, the authors found mixed results.

This study considers a short-term perspective focusing on a limited sample composed of companies playing a key role in the global agri-food system.

The paper identifies which financial performance dimensions are positively or negatively affected by mandatory non-financial disclosure. Accordingly, managers can rearrange corporate activities to deal with further reporting normative requirements concurrently preserving financial performances and fostering corporate sustainability.

This study recommends fostering mandatory non-financial disclosure to increase corporate transparency fostering the sustainability transition of the Agri-Food and Beverage industry.

The paper highlights global mandatory non-financial disclosure effects on financial performance considering a sector that is cross-cutting impactful on plural sustainability issues.

This paper aims to investigate and compare the sustainability reporting practices of companies in the two most successful Western economies, the USA and the UK, as per Global reporting initiative framework.

Content analysis has been applied on a sample of 136 companies listed on the Stock Exchanges of the USA and the UK (USA – NASDAQ 100, 100 companies and Amex major market index, 20 companies; UK – FTSE 100, 100 companies). It uses descriptive statistics and independent sample t-test to identify significant comparisons.

The findings of the study suggest that the level of sustainability reporting is almost similar in the USA and the UK. It is somewhat low in both the countries. Overall mean disclosure score is 39.1 per cent in case of the USA followed by UK with 34.5 per cent. The result of independent sample t-test shows that these differences are not significant.

Sustenance is not a grave issue in both the USA and the UK. Thus, sustainability reporting is a voluntary practice in both these countries. Even then these countries are fostering in the field of sustenance and sensitizing the developing nations towards its need and relevance. The present study would provide developing countries a base and understanding of need based rules for moving on the path of sustenance.

The USA and the UK are the two most successful Western economies. However, not even a single study was found while reviewing the literature that studied and compared the sustainability reporting practices of these two leading developed countries.

This study aims to examine the impact of soft law and institutional signalling on voluntary reporting of environmentally sensitive companies in Thailand.

Environmental disclosures in annual reports and sustainability reports of 108 listed companies for the years 2010–2014 were analysed using a checklist of un-weighted scores combined with panel data modelling.

The results show increasing trends of voluntary reporting dominated by disclosures on emissions data. Thai sustainability reporting guidelines released in 2012 were found to have a significant effect on the amount of disclosures of companies in the agriculture and food sector only. Results show that the age of the company and media attention have a significant positive relationship with environmental disclosures. Profitability is found to have a negative relationship with the level of environmental disclosures.

This study adds to existing environmental reporting literature from the perspective of soft law and institutional signalling and their impact on environmental reporting in the context of an economically developing, environmentally sensitive and in a Buddhist cultural setting country, Thailand.

This paper looks at Thai environmental disclosures from the perspective of soft law and institutional signalling, which is an original and unique contribution to CSR literature, considered through the lens of institutional legitimacy.

This paper aims to examine the impact of the Australian Securities Exchange Corporate Governance recommendations on the breadth (amount of items covered) of (environmental and social) sustainability reporting by the firms in the Top 100, around the change from G3.1 to G4 disclosure regimes.

This paper undertakes comparisons of means and regression models to investigate the changes between disclosure scores of 98 listed entities from the 2013 G3.1 to the 2015 G4 disclosure regimes.

This paper finds that average disclosure levels did not change. Nonetheless, disclosure practices did vary by entity size and performance. Analysis of 2015 disclosures contingent on 2013 disclosure practice indicates that disclosure changes are consistent with a pattern of mean reversion.

Evidence that low disclosers increased disclosure and high disclosers reduced disclosers is consistent with the idea that sustainability disclosure is not so much driven by any ethical considerations, but rather by a desire to not be a disclosure outlier. Reliance on voluntary disclosure to achieve a socially desired level of disclosure is unlikely to bear fruit.

This paper contributes to the literature on sustainability by examining firm responses to change in disclosure regimes, and concluding that size and peer relativities drive the disclosure process.

Taking on a corporate political activity (CPA) perspective, the purpose of this paper is to investigate how CPA affects environmental sustainability disclosure among firms in China and whether the disclosure level varies across ownership structures and environmental sensitivity statuses.

The sample comprises 652 corporate social responsibility reports released by firms in China during 2008-2010. Data are coded through a content analysis procedure before being analyzed using regression analysis.

The authors find a significant and positive association between CPA and environmental sustainability disclosure. However, the effect of CPA on environmental sustainability disclosure is significantly negative among firms in the environmentally sensitive industries (ESIs) and privately owned enterprises (POEs). More specifically, a firm’s environmental disclosure level is lower when the proportion of board members with a significant status, such as party chief of the Communist Party, is higher among firms in ESIs and POEs. This implies that firms with guanxi (i.e. Chinese-specific CPA) are more likely to be free from trouble.

This empirical study offers important evidence on the fulfillment of environmental sustainability policies and the effectiveness of regulatory controls that China has used in the development toward a low-carbon economy.