Sustainability reporting practices: a comparative study of South African and Botswana listed companies

Abstract

Sustainability reporting is a type of reporting concerning how entities deal with environmental, social, economic and corporate governance issues. This form of corporate reporting has become a primary form of corporate reporting – just like financial reporting. The purpose of this study was to determine the extent to which the sustainability reporting practices of the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) companies are comparable to those of the Botswana Stock Exchange (BSE) companies. The findings suggest that differences in the level of sustainability reporting could be due to fewer sustainable activities in the BSE sample or to inadequate reporting of sustainable activities in in the BSE sample. These results support the Institutional theory but seem to disagree with other theories that explain sustainability reporting. A study of Institutional differences between Botswana and South Africa is recommended.