.... The study applies the Sustainability Expectation Gap ( SEGAP ), an extension of the Audit Expectation Gap ( AEG ), to explain emerging legitimacy tensions in sustainability assurance. Design/methodology/approach Seventeen semistructured interviews with auditors in Germany and Austria were examined using...

... and the Omnibus I Package, and embodying differing political, economic and institutional interpretations of sustainability, may influence the future configuration of the sustainability assurance market for both mandatory and voluntary adopters. Design/methodology/approach The paper adopts a scenario analysis...

...). Sustainability reporting Public interest Sustainability assurance International standard on assurance engagements Public accountants and auditors © Pieter Conradie and Karin Barac. 2025 Pieter Conradie and Karin Barac Published by Emerald Publishing Limited. This article is published under...

... of new audit fields and highlights the challenges of maintaining legitimacy with different audiences. Sustainability assurance Audit Legitimacy Assurance providers Stakeholders Sulaiman Aliyu can be contacted at: S.Aliyu@mdx.ac.uk Commissioning assurance on a sustainability report...

...David C. Hay; Michael Kend; Laura Sierra-García; Nava Subramaniam Purpose This paper aims to assess the cumulative evidence on the determinants of sustainability assurance (SA) reports and the choice of assurance provider quality. It addresses the contradictory and inconsistent findings of past...

... between sustainability reporting and firm value. The results also suggest that sustainability assurance has significant explanatory power on firm value. Furthermore, the authors found that the market is unable to distinguish between sustainability assurance services provided by Big 4 audit firms...

...Emiliano Ruiz-Barbadillo; Jennifer Martínez-Ferrero Purpose Sustainability assurance services are carried out in a competitive market where a wide range of assurance providers operate without the need for any specific professional qualifications, competencies or skills. Assurance providers have...

...Isabel-María García-Sánchez; Beatriz Aibar-Guzmán; Cristina Aibar-Guzmán Purpose The purpose of this study is to analyse the role played by institutional investors in a firm’s decision to hire sustainability assurance services and to determine the benefits of sustainability assurance...

...Tom Tyson; Carol A. Adams Purpose Theorizing in the extant sustainability assurance literature is limited. This paper aims to identify apposite organizational theories from related fields which scholars could apply to sustainability assurance research. Through the introduction of theoretical...

...Claire Gillet-Monjarret Purpose This paper aims to examine the practice of sustainability assurance and in particular the content of the assurance reports disseminated in the corporate social responsibility (CSR) reports. The objective of the research is to study the evolution of the content...