Sustainability Balanced Scorecard Disclosures and Corporate Commitment to Sustainability: An Australian Study

Abstract

The purpose of this research is to analyse corporate sustainability commitment level (SCL) and its determinants by examining the extent of Sustainability Balanced Scorecard (SBSC) public disclosures provided by Australia‟s largest publicly listed companies. First, content analysis is used to scrutinise publicly available disclosures. Then, logistic regression is conducted to analyse the determinants of SCL. The analysis shows that the company‟s level of commitment to sustainability can be determined from voluntary disclosures using a set of criteria developed from the relevant SBSC and environmental management literature. It is also found that SCL is significantly associated to size, leverage, industry and government reporting legislation but not to profitability.