Perceived importance of corporate sustainability disclosure: Evidence from China

Abstract

While effective sustainability reporting frameworks have become more important as sustainability disclosures have become integrated with the current economy, their complexity and users’ different expectations often deter the practice of sustainability reporting. This chapter offers an insight into users’ perceived importance of the indicators in the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) reporting framework based on a study in China , which represents an Asian giant economy with differences from the Western developed countries that the reporting frame-works were mostly developed around. The findings show that Chinese users’ perceived the relative importance of the indicators differently, with issues such as the environment being emphasised. This understanding needs to be considered in the future development of sustainability reporting and policies.