Sustainable development goals and assurance of non-financial information reporting in Spain

Purpose - This paper aims to investigate the relationship between corporate reporting on issues related to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) and the quality of non-financial information (NFI) corroborated by different types of assurors. Design/methodology/approach - The study methods used include logistic regressions, focusing on data for Spanish listed companies in 2017–2018. Findings - Analysis shows that companies are more likely to report SDG-related performance when their sustainability report is assured. This association remains constant irrespective of the nature of the assurance, which only became mandatory in Spain following the entry into force of Act 11/2018 in this respect. Moreover, companies that hire KPMG or PwC (two of the big four accounting firms) as assurance providers are more likely to report SDG-related performance than those that hire non-accounting firms. Finally, companies with higher quality assurance statements are more likely to address SDG-related matters. Research limitations/implications - The authors believe the findings reported in this paper will help decision-makers better understand the quality of organisations’ contributions towards achieving the SDGs. Furthermore, this paper has implications for stakeholders, policymakers, academics and assurance providers concerning the relationship between SDG-related reporting and the quality of NFI. Originality/value - To the best of the authors’ knowledge, no prior research has been undertaken to analyse the relationship between SDG-related company reporting and the assurance of NFI.