Is the sustainability information useful? A qualitative study of the Swedish institutional investors.

Abstract: Title: Is the sustainability information useful? A qualitative study of the Swedish institutional investors. Seminar date: 2012-05-31 Course: BUSN69 Degree Project – Accounting and Auditing, 15 ECTS Credits Authors: Gustav Rybrink and Lisa Törnblom Advisor/s: Amanda Tan-Sonnerfeldt Five key words: Sustainability information, Institutional investors, Usefulness, Integrated Reporting, GRI Guidelines Purpose: The intention with this thesis is to provide the reader with a better knowledge about how the Swedish institutional investors perceive the usefulness of sustainability information. The thesis will also attempt to illustrate the institutional investors’ opinions regarding the development towards integrated reporting. Methodology: The thesis has an interpretive research approach and has applied a qualitative research with both an inductive and deductive approach. The conducted interview has been followed a semi-structured form and the secondary data has been gathered from trustworthy sources. Theoretical perspectives: The theoretical framework and literature review consist of established theories from the company perspective and previous research from the investor perspective. Since there are no applicable theories able to explain the empirical result an analytical framework has been developed by the researchers. The analytical framework is drawn from the decision usefulness approach and has resulted in five analytical criteria. Empirical foundation: The empirical data is gathered from telephone interviews with seven Swedish institutional investors. The empirical data was thereafter assembled and analysed with the developed analytical criteria. Conclusions: The institutional investors generally have a good perception of the disclosed sustainability information. However, there are number of indications which contradict with the initial impression. This can be argued to descend already from the ambiguities in the initial terminology of sustainability. Further, the respondents were positive to the development towards integrated reporting and they could see possible future benefits.