Determinants of voluntary sustainability assurance : the importance of corporate environmental performance

Abstract

Purpose: The main purpose of this study is to investigate whether corporate environmental performance exerts any significant influence on the voluntary external assurance of sustainability reports. Design/methodology/approach: The sample of this study includes 176 firm-year observations covering an 8-year period (2008-2015) for 22 listed Finnish companies that have issued sustainability reports during the sample period. As the dependent variable ‘voluntary external assurance’ is a binary variable, a logistic regression model has been estimated to observe the effect of corporate environmental performance on the dependent variable. In addition, a number of control variables have also been included in the empirical model. Findings: The results of this study exhibit that Finnish firms with superior environmental performance in terms of GHG emissions and water consumption have their sustainability reports externally assured. Additionally, among the control variables, firm size, leverage and asset age are found to have significant impact on the adoption of voluntary sustainability assurance. These results are robust as they do not change substantially when conducting sub-sample analyses. Originality/value: The literature on voluntary sustainability assurance is evolving slowly paying very little attention to the association between corporate environmental performance and voluntary sustainability assurance. This empirical research aims to extend such scant literature. The results are of paramount importance to users of environmental information, managers and regulators.