Auditor sustainability focus and client sustainability reporting

IF 3.6 2区管理学 Q1 BUSINESS, FINANCE

Accounting Organizations and Society Pub Date : 2023-10-07 DOI:10.1016/j.aos.2023.101512

Manlu Liu , Jing Tang , Stephanie Walton , Yiyang Zhang , Xinlei Zhao

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引用次数: 0

Abstract

We examine the relationship between auditors' sustainability focus and their clients' sustainability reporting. Sustainability reporting is of increasing social and regulatory interest following SEC guidance on the provision of sustainability disclosures. Auditors can bridge the gap between a myriad of technical guidance and their clients. Positive assortative matching could occur between clients who plan to increase their sustainability reporting and auditors who have a greater sustainability focus, with sustainability alignment comprising part of client strategy for credibly reporting sustainability information. Specifically, we examine auditor-client sustainability alignment through the association between relative auditor sustainability focus and their clients' sustainability disclosures and activities. We measure auditors' sustainability focus by examining the sustainability focus in auditors’ tweets. We find that auditor sustainability focus is positively associated with client sustainability reporting, through both sustainability disclosures and social and governance sustainability activities. Our study provides a greater understanding of auditor involvement in sustainability reporting.

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审计员的可持续发展重点和客户的可持续发展报告

我们研究了审计师对可持续发展的关注与其客户的可持续发展报告之间的关系。在美国证券交易委员会就可持续发展信息披露提供指导后，可持续发展报告越来越受到社会和监管机构的关注。审计师可以在众多技术指导和客户之间架起一座桥梁。计划增加可持续发展报告的客户与更加关注可持续发展的审计师之间可能会出现积极的同类匹配，可持续发展一致性是客户可信地报告可持续发展信息战略的一部分。具体来说，我们通过审计师对可持续发展的相对关注与其客户的可持续发展信息披露和活动之间的关联来考察审计师与客户的可持续发展一致性。我们通过研究审计师推文中的可持续发展关注点来衡量审计师的可持续发展关注点。我们发现，审计师的可持续发展关注点与客户的可持续发展报告呈正相关，具体表现在可持续发展信息披露和社会与治理可持续发展活动两方面。我们的研究让人们对审计师参与可持续发展报告有了更深入的了解。

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来源期刊

Accounting Organizations and Society BUSINESS, FINANCE-

CiteScore

7.80

自引率

6.40%

发文量

期刊介绍： Accounting, Organizations & Society is a major international journal concerned with all aspects of the relationship between accounting and human behaviour, organizational structures and processes, and the changing social and political environment of the enterprise.