COMMENTARY––The Public Interest Imperative in Corporate Sustainability Reporting Research

ABSTRACT: The United Nations, federal governments and their agencies, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), shareholder activists, private sector standard setters, and academic researchers, as well as many others, are taking actions to improve corporations' accountability regarding the environmental and social impacts of their operations. These actions have helped propel a rapid increase in voluntary corporate sustainability reporting. Although the uptake in sustainability reporting has received a significant amount of support from relevant and respected organizations, academic and policy debates continue over whether voluntary corporate sustainability reports can monitor corporate activities effectively. While some researchers view these reports as signals of superior actions, others argue that they provide corporations with an opportunity to obfuscate their actual social and environmental performance through selective and incomplete disclosure strategies. The purpose of this commentary is to advocate f...