Addressing Sustainability Reporting Frameworks: A Content Analysis of Western and Eastern European Companies

Corporate reporting has developed globally in the last three decades, encompassing economic, social, and environmental information. From the GRI standing out as the first organization that offers companies guidelines to sustainability reporting, to the recent ESRS standards adopted by the EU, there is an increasing trend in the diversity of sustainability reporting frameworks. This empirical research attempts to provide insights into sustainability reporting frameworks used by European companies from six countries grouped into two regions of Europe, namely Western (France, Germany, Netherlands) and Eastern (Hungary, Poland, Romania) to highlight the directions of action of companies to achieve sustainable objectives. The sample includes 30 companies headquartered in Europe, 15 companies for each region of Europe. The reports of the companies during the period of 2018–2022 were used to extract the information on sustainability frameworks, resulting in 150 sustainability or annual reports used. To achieve the objective of the research, quantitative data were collected through the content analysis of the companies' sustainability or annual reports, the extracted information being applied in statistical analyses. The study finds that the trend of using sustainability reporting frameworks in Western and Eastern Europe increases from year to year. Western European companies stand out with better corporate performance by relying on multiple sustainability reporting frameworks in the preparation and publication of sustainability or annual reports. Most European companies have a low level of compliance with the requirements of sustainability frameworks and are economic science-oriented and business-oriented. Western European companies are more focused on investment and environmental aspects, while those in Eastern Europe are more focused on profitability and social aspects. This study fills the gap in corporate reporting research in relation to the sustainability frameworks used by Western and Eastern European companies.