Unearthing facets of sustainability initiatives reporting and legitimacy: a knowledge management perspective

Purpose The purpose of this study is to investigate the sustainability disclosure framework surrounding India’s tourism firms and to analyze the Environmental Initiatives (EI), Social Initiatives (SI) and Governance Initiatives (GI) of these firms, which constitute their intellectual capital (IC) and establish their legitimacy. Design/methodology/approach This inductive approach–based study investigates the sustainability reports of listed tourism firms. It analyzes the extent and variance of sustainability disclosures concerning environmental (E), social (S) and governance (G) aspects through a combination of qualitative content analysis and quantitative methods. Findings Based on a sample of 30 listed tourism companies that are publishing business responsibility and sustainability reports (BRSR), the results of these reports, based on content and quantitative analysis, indicate the extent and variance of environmental, societal and governance (ESG) initiatives reported by the tourism firms that help legitimize their activities and contribute to intellectual capital formation. Research limitations/implications This study sought to analyze the sustainability reports as per the BRSR 2021 framework, which is so far applicable to the top 1,000 listed companies of India; however, not many tourism firms fall into this category. As a result, the number of firms that published sustainability reports in 2021–2022 is small. Future studies can extend this research in tourism with a more extensive data set for qualitative and quantitative analysis. Moreover, there is no limitation to applying this methodology in other industry sectors with a larger sample size. Practical implications ESG disclosures by these firms contribute to Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) through their business operations and initiatives’ ESG impact. Policymakers and managers, both at national and global levels, can push ahead the agenda of sustainable tourism through the interaction of firms and stakeholders within the national policy preview, such as BRSR reporting, and international policy purview, such as SDG mapping of ESG initiatives as a part of larger sustainability goals where tourism firms are one of the key contributors to them. Social implications The quality and extent of ESG initiatives and their variance in tourism firms affect how diverse stakeholders gauge and assess the business and social responsibility discharged by the listed entities in this sector. Originality/value Most disclosure-based studies focus on aggregate disclosures; however, this study aims to examine the extent and variance of sustainability disclosures related to environment (E), social (S) and governance (G) in a disaggregated manner within the tourism sector. Such ESG initiative-based disclosures are then mapped to SDGs to find that ESG initiatives are in tandem with the SDG goals. This study found that the listed tourism firms in India are passably reporting on sustainability to establish legitimacy, and the extent of associated initiative disclosures varies significantly within the groups contributing primarily toward green intellectual capital formation due to overarching EI. In addition, the knowledge management–enabled ESG disclosures collectively contribute toward enhancing human, structural and relational capital to legitimize their initiatives.