Exploring software solutions for analyzing voluntary environmental reporting practices among listed corporations

Abstract

The lack of comparable, objective and verifiable results in environmental reporting research calls for novel solutions. This thesis seeks to explore the possibilities of automation when it comes to analyzing corporate sustainability reporting. Specifically, we design and create a highly objective way of analyzing, scoring and ranking the environmental reports of companies — both in terms of quantity and quality — via an automated, novel, Python-based software solution. Additionally, empirical analysis is conducted with key company-specific determinants (size, profitability, leverage, industry affiliation and board composition) to determine which factors affect the quality and quantity of sustainability reporting among Finnish listed corporations. Being highly novel, this thesis can be characterized as a methodological study, and as such, the process and outcomes of creating the methodology in hand act as findings for the thesis. This thesis finds that it is indeed possible to successfully create a software which fulfills said criteria. Findings for key determinants are limited; statistically significant determinants only include board composition and size.