Impact of Digital Technology Adoption on the Similarity of Sustainability Reports

Digital technology has transformed sustainability reporting practices, creating both opportunities and homogenization risks. This study analyzes 9903 sustainability reports from Chinese listed companies (2009–2021) through cosine similarity analysis. It reveals high intercorporate similarity (mean = 0.776). Fixed-effects modeling demonstrates that digital adoption increases report similarity, while analyst scrutiny and innovation capacity significantly mitigate this convergence effect. The findings suggest that digital tools promote isomorphic disclosure patterns through template-driven reporting. However, market monitoring (analyst attention) and R&D investment counterbalance this trend by incentivizing unique environmental, social, and governance (ESG) disclosures. This study offers novel insights into information asymmetry theory and social learning theory. The increased similarity in reporting will lead to standardization among Chinese companies, thereby enhancing their comparability in the international market. This will not only help Chinese companies improve their performance assessments for global investors but also facilitate cross-border investments.