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GRI – ett verktyg för företag att fabricera en hållbar verklighet?
Karlstad University, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences (starting 2013), Karlstad Business School (from 2013).
Karlstad University, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences (starting 2013), Karlstad Business School (from 2013).
2023 (Swedish)Independent thesis Advanced level (degree of Master (One Year)), 20 credits / 30 HE creditsStudent thesisAlternative title
GRI - a tool for companies to fabricate a sustainable reality? (English)
Abstract [en]

In society today, there is a great focus on sustainability and that companies should contribute to sustainable development. One way to do this is through transparency between the company and its stakeholders regarding how they work on these important issues. This is done through sustainability reports that can be designed in different ways, but this study focuses on those that follow the Global Reporting Initiative, which is the dominant framework globally.

 

Prior research has shown mixed conclusions regarding GRI and its usefulness. In these, both positive and negative aspects of the framework have been highlighted. This study examines what and how high and low ranked businesses based on SBI report to study the usefulness of GRI. In addition, various theories will be used to examine what may be the reasons for the similarities and differences between the groups. This result is also related to prior research that studied sustainability reporting in connection with the selected theories.

 

The study was conducted as a method where qualitative data was quantified through a quantitative content analysis. The sustainability reports of 32 companies were reviewed based on their GRI-index and data was then statistically tested using Chi-square-tests and a Fisher's exact test. The study shows that there is no significant difference in what the high and low ranked businesses report. This difference applies to the total number of indicators as well as within the different series, economic, environmental and social. Regarding how the companies report, the study shows that the low ranked businesses are more likely to report indicators for which they do not meet the requirements, this result is also statistically significant. The reasons for the similarities and differences that were identified can be discussed in relations to institutional theory, legitimacy theory and stakeholder theory.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
2023. , p. 79
Keywords [en]
Sustainability reporting, Usefulness, Global Reporting Initiative
Keywords [sv]
Hållbarhetsrapportering, Användbarhet, Global Reporting Initiative
National Category
Business Administration
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:kau:diva-95662OAI: oai:DiVA.org:kau-95662DiVA, id: diva2:1773659
Subject / course
Business Administration
Educational program
Programme in Business and Economics
Supervisors
Examiners
Available from: 2023-06-28 Created: 2023-06-22 Last updated: 2023-06-28Bibliographically approved

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CiteExportLink to record
Permanent link

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Cite
Citation style
  • apa
  • ieee
  • modern-language-association-8th-edition
  • vancouver
  • Other style
More styles
Language
  • de-DE
  • en-GB
  • en-US
  • fi-FI
  • nn-NO
  • nn-NB
  • sv-SE
  • Other locale
More languages
Output format
  • html
  • text
  • asciidoc
  • rtf