The demand for corporate sustainability reports assurance by companies close to violating their debt covenants : an empirical study

Abstract EN

This study examines whether assurance on sustainability reports affects users’ decisions.

An experiment was conducted where participants were provided with a case study containing condensed financial statements for a hypothetical highly leveraged company, a sustainability report including a Green House Gas Emissions Statement and an assurance report on this statement.

Assurance was manipulated (assurance versus no assurance) between the two groups of sample participants.

After reading the case materials, participants were asked to select the best choice regarding the value of the loan they would agree to grant to the company, the interest rate charged on the granted loan, and the percentage of assets acting as collateral on the loan.

As expected, results of statistical analysis found that the inclusion of an assurance report had a significant impact on providing credibility to the associated sustainability report resulting in increasing the value of the loan, reducing interest rate charged on the loan and reducing the percentage of fixed assets acting as collateral on this loan and accordingly accepting the study hypothesis that the assurance of sustainability reports can greatly help in reducing the company’s cost of debt especially for those companies close to violating their debt covenants.

This research contributes to the literature on the value of expanded assurance services and on the value of enhanced corporate disclosure.