The Sustainability Assurance: Rigidity, Boundaries and Labour Division

Abstract

This article uncovers a source of rigidity in sustainability assurance, which goes beyond institutional arrangements and is centred on the assurors’ approach to disclosure. Such rigidity appeared independently of the standard or level of assurance applied. This rigidity tends to drive a division of responsibilities between groups of assurors, affecting the quality and transparency of assurance reports produced by these groups. Different approaches to disclosure on sustainability assurance tend complement each other and their cooccurrence are not exclusive. However, the absence of one of these two perspectives of disclosure tend to commit the quality of assurance report as well as the potential for stakeholder engagement. These findings were reached after conducting an in-depth as well as content analysis of assurance reports produced by a sample of listed companies in a Brazilian stock market. Implications of this research are not only of the interest of policy makers, who can reflect on the types of incentives to improve quality of assurance produced by listed companies, but also to those interested in the quality of non-financial information as well activities in emerging economies.