Determinant factors of sustainable reporting in the UK – an analysis based on the reports from gri’s sustainability disclosure database

Abstract

Regardless of the area where they perform their activity, entities influence the environment, the economy and the society. The present paper presents the results obtained following the analysis of the sustainability reports of the publicly traded companies in the UK and published in GRI's Sustainability Disclosure Database. The estimation of the three models for which 7 variables were used as well as the analysis of the results enabled the formulation of certain useful conclusions on the relationship between the conformity degree with the GRI benchmark of the reports studied and some characteristics of the companies which published the reports. The results obtained show that the manufacturing companies are more inclined to publish sustainability reports using GRI standards or at least citing them (Citing-GRI), in comparison with the service sector companies. The results also indicate a direct and strong correlation between the size of the company and the free cash flow per share, on one hand and the publication of GRI sustainability reports, on the other hand. Both results confirm the legitimacy theory. At the same time, financialfactors such as firm profitability, firm growth opportunity, the leverage, the liquidity and the free cash flow do not significantly influence the publication of sustainability reports of the UK firms, no matter what the level of their GRI adherence.