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Sustainable Development and Assurance of Corporate Social Responsibility Reports Published by Ibex‐35 Companies

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  • Laura Sierra
  • Ana Zorio
  • María A. García‐Benau

Abstract

Spain is the world's leading country as regards corporate social responsibility (CSR) reporting (KPMG, 2011). In addition, Spain is taking new initiatives with regard to environmental policy, sustainable development, and stakeholder engagement in accordance with Law 2/2011.This is why we choose Spain as the setting to analyze whether the determinants for external assurance posited by existing literature (industry, size, profitability, leverage) have an impact on the decision of companies to assure their CSR reports. Our study is a pioneer in the sense that it investigates the possible links between the auditor of the annual report and the provider of assurance. The results of this study indicate that assurance of CSR reporting depends on the size, leverage, and profitability of the company. We find that the sustainability assurance market is dominated by the Big‐4 firms, who develop different strategies in this field. Finally, we find that the decision to hire an auditor to perform sustainability assurance sometimes depends on the industry. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment.

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  • Laura Sierra & Ana Zorio & María A. García‐Benau, 2013. "Sustainable Development and Assurance of Corporate Social Responsibility Reports Published by Ibex‐35 Companies," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 20(6), pages 359-370, November.
    • Handle: RePEc:wly:corsem:v:20:y:2013:i:6:p:359-370
    DOI: 10.1002/csr.1303
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    2. Miralles Quirós, María Mar & Miralles Quirós, José Luis & Daza Izquierdo, Julio, 2021. "The assurance of sustainability reports and their impact on stock market prices," Cuadernos de Gestión, Universidad del País Vasco - Instituto de Economía Aplicada a la Empresa (IEAE).
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    6. Karaman, Abdullah S. & Orazalin, Nurlan & Uyar, Ali & Shahbaz, Muhammad, 2021. "CSR achievement, reporting, and assurance in the energy sector: Does economic development matter?," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 149(C).
    7. Maria del Mar Miralles‐Quiros & Jose Luis Miralles‐Quiros & Irene Guia Arraiano, 2017. "Are Firms that Contribute to Sustainable Development Valued by Investors?," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 24(1), pages 71-84, January.
    8. Samuel Buertey, 2021. "Board gender diversity and corporate social responsibility assurance: The moderating effect of ownership concentration," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 28(6), pages 1579-1590, November.
    9. Bradbury, Michael & Jia, Jing & Li, Zhongtian, 2022. "Corporate social responsibility committees and the use of corporate social responsibility assurance services," Journal of Contemporary Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 18(2).
    10. Carmelo Reverte, 2021. "Do investors value the voluntary assurance of sustainability information? Evidence from the Spanish stock market," Sustainable Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 29(5), pages 793-809, September.
    11. Jolanta Wisniewska & Joanna Gorka, 2021. "A Model on the Decision to Conduct Independent Verification of CSR Data: The Case of Poland," European Research Studies Journal, European Research Studies Journal, vol. 0(2B), pages 189-212.
    12. Rita Almeida & José Ángel Pérez-López & Rute Abreu, 2022. "Digital Corporate Social Responsibility Reporting in the Water Industry," Water Resources Management: An International Journal, Published for the European Water Resources Association (EWRA), Springer;European Water Resources Association (EWRA), vol. 36(11), pages 3929-3947, September.
    13. Maria del Mar Miralles‐Quiros & Jose Luis Miralles‐Quiros & Irene Guia Arraiano, 2017. "Sustainable Development, Sustainability Leadership and Firm Valuation: Differences across Europe," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 26(7), pages 1014-1028, November.
    14. Grigoris Giannarakis & Andreas Andronikidis & Nikolaos Sariannidis, 2020. "Determinants of environmental disclosure: investigating new and conventional corporate governance characteristics," Annals of Operations Research, Springer, vol. 294(1), pages 87-105, November.
    15. Alicia Girón & Amirreza Kazemikhasragh & Antonella Francesca Cicchiello & Eva Panetti, 2021. "Sustainability Reporting and Firms’ Economic Performance: Evidence from Asia and Africa," Journal of the Knowledge Economy, Springer;Portland International Center for Management of Engineering and Technology (PICMET), vol. 12(4), pages 1741-1759, December.
    16. Kılıç, Merve & Kuzey, Cemil & Uyar, Ali, 2021. "An international investigation on assurance of integrated reports: Institutions, assurance quality, and assurers," Journal of International Accounting, Auditing and Taxation, Elsevier, vol. 42(C).
    17. María D. Odriozola & Elisa Baraibar‐Diez, 2017. "Is Corporate Reputation Associated with Quality of CSR Reporting? Evidence from Spain," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 24(2), pages 121-132, March.

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