The influence of coercive pressures on reporting on SDGs during the COVID‐19 pandemic: An international study

Abstract

The sustainable development goals (SDGs) are recognized as global development guidelines for 2030. The accounting profession can contribute to achieving these goals by encouraging reporting on SDGs at the company level. The increasing awareness of the contribution of businesses to the achievement of the SDGs is one of the reasons for the improvement in the practice of reporting by companies. This research is secondary data‐based accounting research that aims to analyze the quality of reporting on SDGs and whether coercive pressures in the form of regulatory quality, sustainability regulations, and the strength of audit and reporting standards were determinants of the quality of reporting on SDGs in the era of the COVID‐19 pandemic. The results of this study show that, on average, companies reported on 10 of the SDGs (56% of the 17) during the COVID‐19 pandemic. Further, this study found that coercive pressures in the form of regulatory quality, sustainability regulations, and the strength of audit and reporting standards positively affected the quality of reporting at the country and company levels. These results may imply that reporting on SDGs in the pandemic era was defensive reporting that sought to maintain legitimacy and was mainly driven by formal pressures.