Sustainability Reporting Quality and Earnings Management (EM) Practices: Empirical Evidence from Oil and Gas Firms in Africa.

In recent years, Sustainability reporting has gained prominence among a number of industries, with no exception to the oil and gas industry. The phenomenon of sustainability reporting cannot be glossed over by firms in the oil and gas industry due to the impact these companies’ activities have on the environment and society. Sustainability reporting has gone through various phases over the years, for instance in the late 1990s the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) introduced sustainability reporting to enhance and promote economic as well as environmental issues (Clarkson et al. 2008; Milne and Gray 2013).Sustainability reporting is a very important reporting tool used in recent times by organizations to communicate their sustainable practices to their various stakeholders (Ali et al. 2021). It provides not only financial information but also non-financial information more reliably to the users of the financial reports (Al-Shaer 2020). Aras and Crowther (2016) argue that sustainability reports enable investors to make informed decisions with regards to their investments in organizations. Moreover, Livsey (2021) posits that financial markets interest in sustainability reports have recently increased due to investors strong appetite for sustainability investments and investors interest in obtaining reliable information to assess the organizations sustainable practices on their investments. Sustainability reports disclose important information of business activities on the economy, environment and society in general (Girón et al. 2021). In recent years, there have been increase demand by different stakeholders for businesses to communicate the impact of their activities on the environment and society (Deren Van Het Hof & Hoştut, 2021). Accordingly, the businesses respond to these concerns by issuing comprehensive information through sustainability reports (Deren Van Het Hof & Hoştut, 2021). According to Lozano and Huisingh (2011), sustainability reporting is effective as a tool in contributing towards corporate sustainability practices. Rim and Ferguson (2020) posit that businesses capitalize on sustainability reports to alter the perceptions of people and create a favorable image among their numerous stakeholders.