Current Deficiencies and Paths for Future Improvement in Corporate Sustainability Reporting

Current International Accountability Standards for sustainability reporting, such as The United Nations Global Compact and the Global Reporting Initiative are subject to criticism from two sides, researchers and practitioners. Through interviews with key persons from audit firms and a systematic literature review, we identify major deficiencies in current corporate sustainability reporting practices. Based on these findings, we derive five propositions which address the need for future improvements, i.e. we propose that a dynamic standard for corporate sustainability reporting must capture a firm’s longitudinal learning and development of intra- and inter-organizational sustainability capabilities by integrating them as leading indicators. We conclude the article with an outlook on future paths for an improved sustainability reporting framework focusing on intra- and inter-organizational capabilities and best practices which are proposed to have an impact on sustainability performance along the entire supply chain.