Delving into sustainability reporting literature: The role of ethics

Abstract

Research background: After major scandals in apparently reputable and solvent companies, added to the great economic crises of recent decades, accounting and finance have become a fundamental discipline for the correct study of these events from an ethical point of view. Philosophers, economists and even religious people have wanted to contribute their grain of sand to the study of the ethical behaviour of companies and make it go beyond mere administration. In recent years, non-financial reporting has been gaining ground, to the point that the legal system now makes it compulsory in most Western countries. Purpose of the article: This study aims to review and summarize the role of ethics in the sustainability reporting so as to develop a holistic framework of ethics in the sustainability reporting; review the evolution of the research field; and identify the most significant research tendencies enabling the proposal of several future research directions. Methods: Using the Scopus and Web of Science databases, a bibliometric analysis has been carried out in the field of accounting on this topic from its formal origins in the 1980s to the present day, in addition to highlighting the importance of sustainability. 271 articles have been used as a basis for developing the main trends at bibliographic, geographical and institutional levels. Findings & value added: This study highlights the importance of incorporating ethics in non-financial information as a field of research, through two very different lines of research that have gained importance in recent years: ethics in business and the growing relevance of non-financial information. It also incorporates a bibliometric analysis with information obtained from two major databases: Scopus and Web of Science. The use of both databases makes it possible to broaden the body of articles covered, compared to other bibliometric analyses previously carried out on similar topics, and allows for the inclusion of more relevant articles on this subject.