Application of the Global Reporting Initiative Standards and Sustainability Disclosure Performance: An Analysis of the Largest Chinese Companies Listed in Hong Kong

Abstract In the wake of rising demand for corporate social responsibility, international organizations have been set up for establishing sustainability reporting standards. The standards issued by the global reporting initiative (‘GRI’) have become the most prevalently referred to sustainability reporting standards across the globe. Even though some research studies have investigated the impact of applying the GRI Standards on sustainability reporting performance, few studies have focused on companies listed in Hong Kong, an international financial center. The purpose of this article is to examine the extent to which Hong Kong-listed companies have applied the GRI Standards and how such practice has affected their sustainability disclosure quality. As an introductory study on this subject in Hong Kong, the current research focuses on the 100 largest Hong Kong-listed Chinese companies. This study shows that the rate of applying the GRI Standards among the sample companies has fluctuated in a narrow range over the past five years, and the sustainability reporting performance of companies which apply the GRI Standards outperformed their peers not applying the GRI Standards. Furthermore, the results indicate that government ownership and industry have an impact on the sample companies’ preference for referring to the GRI Standards.