What impacts sustainability reporting in the global aviation industry? An institutional perspective

Abstract

The objective of this study is to test the link between sustainability performance and sustainability reporting over the period 2011 and 2016 in the global aviation industry. The data for three sustainability performance metrics were derived from three different sources such as Worldwide Governance Indicators, Social Progress Imperative, and Environmental Performance Index. Sustainability reporting data was obtained from the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) Disclosure Database. The control variables such as Gross Domestic Product (GDP), size of the aviation industry, and trade openness were downloaded from World Development Indicators. Briefly, the results indicate that aviation companies originated from countries with strong governance structure and high social and environmental development are more likely to produce sustainability reports using the GRI framework. However, these three indices are not equivalently affecting sustainability reporting practices such that the social and environmental indices are more consequential than governance quality. Among control variables, the size of the economy of a country and industry are also significant predictors of sustainability reporting presence and level.