Need for Harmonisation of Sustainability Reporting Standards

Thejo Jose^1,

¹Department of Business Administration, King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia

Cite this paper:
Thejo Jose. Need for Harmonisation of Sustainability Reporting Standards. Journal of Finance and Economics. 2017; 5(6):253-258. doi: 10.12691/jfe-5-6-1

Abstract

This paper aims to discuss the importance of sustainability reporting in the current business contexts and whether there is a need for standardization of sustainability reporting standards. The existing sustainability reporting standards are analyzed initially as review of literature to understand their content and scope. Since IFRS is adopted by majority of nations worldwide, the suitability of IFRS is discussed based on secondary data. Assessment of recent literature and secondary data leads to the conclusion that the plurality of reporting standards lead to the reduced comparability and therefore there is a need for IFRS relating to sustainability reporting. But it must be carried out after conducting cost-benefit analysis and checking the legitimacy of those standards.

Keywords:
Sustainability Reporting Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) International Financial Reporting standards (IFRS) comparability reliability

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