Determinants of sustainability reporting: Empirical evidence from East African Countries
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Author(s)Haruna MaamaLink to ORCID Index: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4943-5489
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Shenaaz GaniLink to ORCID Index: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8801-6079
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DOIhttp://dx.doi.org/10.21511/ppm.20(2).2022.46
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Article InfoVolume 20 2022, Issue #2, pp. 564-574
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- 861 Views
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267 Downloads
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Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
Sustainability reporting is gaining attention among industry professionals and academics. However, it has been criticized since it fails to represent the proper reporting practices of firms, with this being described as symbolic in form. Regardless of this criticism, management of firms in East Africa is increasingly adopting sustainability reporting, despite being voluntary. Therefore, the paper analyzed the determinants of sustainability reporting of East African firms. Eight years of annual reports of 74 listed firms in Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda were used. Random and fixed effect regression techniques were employed for the estimates. The study found that firms’ specific characteristics such as size, Tobin’s Q, industry affiliation, and ownership structure have a positive and significant influence on firms’ management to adopt sustainability reporting practices. In addition, it was suggested that firms with a more considerable asset and Tobin’s Q provide more sustainability reporting than those with smaller assets and Tobin’s Q. The results further showed that firms’ age and return on assets do not influence sustainability reporting. The evidence further demonstrated that firms with foreign parent companies significantly disclosed more sustainability information than local firms. The paper concludes that the firm-specific characteristics influence their sustainability reporting practice. The study provides policy implications because it can assist the governments and regulators in these countries in guiding the firms’ reporting practices.
- Keywords
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JEL Classification (Paper profile tab)M14, M40, M41
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References43
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Tables3
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Figures0
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- Table 1. Descriptive statistics
- Table 2. Correlation matrix and VIF
- Table 3. Regression results
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The role of accounting in sustainable development
Inna Makarenko 
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Alex Plastun
doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.21511/afc.01(2).2017.01
Accounting and Financial Control Volume 1, 2017 Issue #2 pp. 4-12 Views: 7823 Downloads: 4774 TO CITEIdeology of Sustainable Development and Sustainable Development Goals influence the transformation of business processes in the companies. Professional accountants are important part of this transformation. In this paper the role of accounting in Sustainable Development Goals achievement is discussed. Different approaches to structuring the role of professional accountants in Sustainable Development are investigated. Among them are types of roles that perform accountants, their professional functions, skills and competencies in the corporate environment. As the result a holistic vision of the role of accounting in sustainable development in the new economic conditions is provided.
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Sustainability reporting: An overview of the recent development
Inten Meutia ,
Zulnaidi Yaacob ,
Shelly F. Kartasari
doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.21511/afc.03(1).2020.03
Accounting and Financial Control Volume 3, 2020-2021 Issue #1 pp. 23-39 Views: 2415 Downloads: 819 TO CITE АНОТАЦІЯThis study aims to provide an extensive overview of the current state of sustainability reporting through the review studies on sustainability reports (SR) in the accounting literature for the period 2015–2020. A structured literature review (SLR) methodology is used to investigate how the SR literature develops and focuses. The study uses keywords such as “sustainability report” and “sustainability reporting” to identify studies that are relevant to a given topic. A total of 44 published studies were found. This study identifies the main directions of SR research in the 2015–2020 period and discusses several important aspects of research, namely methodology, research methods, and the theory used. To enrich the results, this study defines the scope, country of research, topics and sectors studied. The study provides insight into future SR research used by researchers to develop SR research. Several things are proposed that can be used as a guide for future SR research, such as sustainability in SMEs and the public sector. Ensuring sustainability is one of the research topics that can be a direction for researchers in the future. Theories such as contingency and source credibility can be an alternative to explaining the reality of sustainability reporting.
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Standardization of sustainability reporting: rationale for better investment decision-making
Henry Mynhardt , Inna Makarenko ,
Alex Plastun
doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.21511/pmf.06(2).2017.01
Public and Municipal Finance Volume 6, 2017 Issue #2 pp. 7-15 Views: 2354 Downloads: 354 TO CITE АНОТАЦІЯThe role of sustainability reporting in investment decision-making is not clear and obvious. Despite the steady increase of such statements in corporate annual reports, the relationship between the sustainability reporting and the financial performance of companies is not always positive. The main problems of sustainability reporting nowadays are insufficient comparability of reporting, accuracy (lack of materiality, reliability and validity of indicators), lack of common approaches for its verification.
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