Perceptions of the Swedish audit and business communities on sustainability reporting : A quantitative study on the differences between the two populations

Abstract: This thesis explores the differences between the Swedish audit and business communities in their perceptions of sustainability reporting. We explore the link between accounting theories such as legitimacy, shareholder, stakeholder, and agency theory and our sample groups. By utilizing statistical testing of the differences in mean values. From this we created hypotheses to test using quantitative methods.  The study intends to explore the field of sustainability reporting, its regulations, assurers, and the adequacy of both. The purpose of this is to better understand the current status of sustainability reporting and its shortfalls. Our findings should have implications of interest to the audit community, legislators, creditors, and the business community as a whole. This research can be used as a starting point to jump off from, as previous to this paper no one else has investigated our variables to sustainability reporting. The data collected in this study is primary data that was obtained through building and distributing an online survey. We find differences in perceptions of the audit and business communities, regarding three of the four tested variables. These being accuracy, normative power, and regulation. We did not find a statistical difference between the two samples regarding the variable, adequacy of education/training. The statistical difference between the two communities is weak regarding accuracy, and regulation. These findings provide a head start for further academic and private inquiry. As there now exists some literature in the connection of the tested variables to sustainability reporting. Keywords: Sustainability information disclosure, Sustainability reporting, Stakeholder theory, Agency theory, Shareholder theory, Legitimacy theory