GRI Conference - 27 May - Perego - Assurance Of Sustainability Reporting
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Trends in Sustainability Assurance
Paolo PeregoDepartment of Accounting
Rotterdam School of ManagementErasmus University
Amsterdam GRI Conference 2010 - Thursday 27 May
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Trend analysis (1)
• Panel data from a sample of Fortune G250 in the period 1999-2008 (N=212).
• Adoption of sustainability assurance statements:
Year Reports % Assurance % 1999 84 40% 18 21% 2002 111 52% 35 32% 2005 146 69% 45 31% 2008 147 69% 82 56% Total 341 180
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Trend analysis (2)
• Diffusion of sustainability assurance statements:
• Consistent early adopters:
– Bayer, BHP Billiton, BP, BT, Enel, Eni, Ing Group, Novartis, Philips, Shell, Statoil, Unilever
Early adopters
Late adopters
Followers Laggards Non-adoption
Consistent YYYY 12 NYYY 9 NNYY 13 NNNY 42 NNNN 118
Non-consistent YNYY 1 NYNY 3 NNYN 3 YYNN 2 NYYN 6 YYNY 2 YYYN 1 Total N=212 N=18 N=18 N=16 N=42 N=118
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Trend analysis (3)
• Diffusion per country:
Japan 39 (22%)
United Kingdom 29 (16%)
Germany 18 (10%)
Netherlands 15 (8.3%)
…
United States 12 (6.7%)
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Assurance providers (1)
• Four categories:
1. Accountants (Big-4 and other accounting firms)
2. Consultants (Broader and Specialist consultancies)
3. Certification bodies
4. Others (NGOs, Stakeholder panels, Academic institutions, individuals)
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Assurance providers (2)
• Assurors per year:
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Assurance standards
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Assurance standards and assurors
• Most frequent combinations for accountants:
• ISAE 3000 + GRI (N=10)
• ISAE 3000 (N=9)
• AA1000 + GRI (N=5)
• Most frequent combination for specialists and certification bodies:
• AA1000 + GRI (N=5)
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Quality of assurance statements (1)
• Methodology:
– Content analysis of 19 categories from O’Dwyer & Owen (2005) framework.
– Multiple scores per categories for max 30 points.
• Highest scores:– 30 points: HSBC Holdings (2008)– 24 points: BT, Ericsson, Nestle (2008)
• Mean (s.d.) per year:
1999: 10.28 (3.43)
2002: 9.43 (3.54)
2005: 12.64 (4.83)
2008: 13.80 (6.67)
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Quality of assurance statements (2)
• Mean (s.d.) across assurors:
Accountants 13.94 (4.50)
Consultants 11.25 (5.69)
Certification bodies 14.30 (7.20)
Others 6.81 (4.47)
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Quality of assurance statements (2)
• Mean (s.d.) across standards:
No standard 9.73 (4.52)
AA1000 17.83 (4.17)ISAE3000 17.50 (2.07)GRI 15.67 (7.38)AA1000 + ISAE3000 16.00 (6.08)AA1000 + GRI 20.13 (4.47)ISAE3000 + GRI 17.80 (1.03)AA1000 + ISAE3000 + GRI 19.50 (0.71)
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Research directions (1)
• Determinants of non-financial assurance:
– Country-level (Simnett et al, 2009, Kolk & Perego, 2010)
– Industry-level
– Firm-level
– Individual-level
• Consequences of non-financial assurance:
– Tangible effects, e.g. on environmental performance
– Intangible effects, e.g. on reputation, stakeholder pressure, or financial analysts’ judgment
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Research directions (2)
• Dynamics of standardization applied to assurance engagements:
– Multi-stakeholder (AA1000) versus professional standards (ISAE 3000)
– Global versus national standards
– Voluntary versus mandatory standards
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