Sustainability reporting practices in small-to-medium sized enterprises
Walt, Charlene van der (2018)
2018
Master's Degree Programme in Business Competence
Johtamiskorkeakoulu - Faculty of Management
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Hyväksymispäivämäärä
2018-06-13
Julkaisun pysyvä osoite on
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:uta-201806282102
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:uta-201806282102
Tiivistelmä
There is an abundance of literature on sustainability reporting although it has been claimed that most focus is on MNEs and LEs. While SMEs are valuable in a country’s economy and in the supply chains of MNEs, SMEs have been portrayed as being laggards in accounting for their sustainability impacts. MNEs and SMEs operate in the same environment, but they operate in different ways as they have different characteristic influences. The most notable difference is size and limited resources, hindering effective sustainability reporting. Reporting frameworks have been introduced to guide sustainability reporting, such as the well-known GRI framework, The GRI framework and guidelines has been criticized as being too complex and costly for SMEs. Therefore, it was claimed that SMEs need a concise set of sustainability indicators.
Thus, the purpose of the thesis is to gain more insight into the current state of SME sustainability reporting, specifically investigating sustainability indicators reported by active SME reporters applying the GRI-G4 guidelines. In the pursuit to explore the contemporary sustainability reporting practices in SMEs, the study further questions whether there is a pattern of frequently reported sustainability indicators by SMEs.
The data was collected from 52 SME reporting companies which incorporated the GRI-G4 framework in their sustainability reports and published their reports in the GRI Database. Each report included a GRI Content Index which summarized all the sustainability indicators they reported in their reports. Data was collected from the organizations and the indexes, inserted in tables and charts, and analyzed. Content analysis was used to analyze the data.
It was found that half of reporting SMEs utilizes the GRI reporting framework. Although the sustainable reporting rate in sustainable indicator disclosures was very low, it presented a slight pattern in the most common indicators SMEs disclosed, but also limited the accuracy of the results. Different common sustainability reporting themes were identified rather than specific indicators due to many limitations which questioned the accuracy of the results which encourage further research into SME sustainable reporting.
Thus, the purpose of the thesis is to gain more insight into the current state of SME sustainability reporting, specifically investigating sustainability indicators reported by active SME reporters applying the GRI-G4 guidelines. In the pursuit to explore the contemporary sustainability reporting practices in SMEs, the study further questions whether there is a pattern of frequently reported sustainability indicators by SMEs.
The data was collected from 52 SME reporting companies which incorporated the GRI-G4 framework in their sustainability reports and published their reports in the GRI Database. Each report included a GRI Content Index which summarized all the sustainability indicators they reported in their reports. Data was collected from the organizations and the indexes, inserted in tables and charts, and analyzed. Content analysis was used to analyze the data.
It was found that half of reporting SMEs utilizes the GRI reporting framework. Although the sustainable reporting rate in sustainable indicator disclosures was very low, it presented a slight pattern in the most common indicators SMEs disclosed, but also limited the accuracy of the results. Different common sustainability reporting themes were identified rather than specific indicators due to many limitations which questioned the accuracy of the results which encourage further research into SME sustainable reporting.