Determinants of sustainability reporting decision: evidence from Pakistan

The public scrutiny of firms’ response to the COVID-19 pandemic is bringing renewed attention to the importance of business sustainability and effectively meeting these expectations requires understanding the key drivers of sustainability reporting decision. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the determinants of corporate sustainability reporting decision from the perspective of an emerging market, Pakistan. The study employs a logistic regression model to analyze the data from a sample of 138 firms listed on the Pakistan Stock Exchange for the years 2009–2018. The results indicate that firms with more gender diverse boards, larger audit committees and higher institutional ownership are more likely to issue sustainability reports. Moreover, concentrated ownership, managerial ownership, foreign ownership and audit committee independence negatively influence the firms’ sustainability reporting decision. The findings provide valuable insight to policy makers in Pakistan by identifying the attributes that require regulatory focus to achieve the public policy objective of sustainable development. This is one of the first research endeavours to explore the determinants of sustainability reporting decision in Pakistan. It provides empirical evidence to regulators and policymakers in Pakistan and other emerging markets who have already adopted governance framework and are considering sustainability reporting in their respective contexts.