An Investigation of the Readability of Sustainability Reports

Abstract

Requirement of G4 standards as common practice in sustainability reporting makes it important to understand the readability of such reports. This study contributes to the extant body of literature by assessing the readability of sustainability reports. We investigate several factors such as company size, company age, complexity, domestic versus international, and audited versus unaudited reports and how they contribute to the readability of sustainability reports. We apply text analytics to U.S. and Global firm issued sustainability reports. We also provide evidence about factors that may contribute to the readability of sustainability reports. We find that reports of companies in regulated industries are less readable than other firms' reports. We also find that less complex firms have more readable sustainability reports. This study should provide some insights to users of sustainability reports, standard setters for reporting standards, and for future researchers.