Auditor Specialization in Assurance of Sustainability Reports: An Exploratory Study

• In Event: Auditing 5

Abstract

This paper looks into the specialization of auditors issuing assurance statements for sustainability reports. We use 2,526 sustainability reports (SR) submitted by companies in 16 countries to the Global Reporting Initiative, for the years 2011 and 2012. We study specialization among all the participating assurance providers and among Big 4. Our results show dominance of Big 4 firms in the assurance of SR. We also find that KPMG is specialist in Energy and Chemicals as well as Finance. PWC is specialist in Transportation, Primary Sector and Manufacturing. Deloitte is a specialist in Construction. Finally, EY is specialist in Technology. In terms of Country specialization, KPMG is specialist in assurance of SR in countries following the French legal system, while PWC is a specialist in countries in the German and Scandinavian legal systems. To the best of our knowledge, this study is the first to analyze auditor specialization on Assurance Statements for SR. Our results have implication for practice by showing the market distribution of assurers of SR.

Authors

• Silvia Romero, Montclair State University

• Belen Fernandez-Feijoo, Universidade de Vigo

• Silvia Ruiz, Universidade de Vigo