Title: Sustainability reporting and assurance in Portugal published Corporate Governance (Bingley).

IPLeiria authores: Sónia Gomes and Teresa Eugénio

 

Main Results:

The authors analyze 290 sustainability reports (SR) for the years 2008,2009, 2010 and 2011. The results are not consistent with those from the majority of other recent studies which analyze resembling periods of time, which report increases in the publication of SR and increases or stagnation in the assurance of said reports. The likelihood of being severely affected by the economic crisis is higher in the case of non-listed companies. Furthermore, we found signs of a steady increase in the quality of the reports, such as the absolute and relative increase of integrated reports and the increase of reports presenting an A+ level of application of the GRI guidelines. It is possible that in periods of crisis, only companies really committed with sound SR practices continue to publish this type of information and to have their reports assured. We presente evidence supporting the view that the Portuguese SRA market follows the international trends, the embryonic stage of the Portuguese SRA market leads to very similar patterns of evolution to those of the majority of other countries which are not pioneers in SR and the assurance thereof.