Table 4 Reporting reasons and effects on... | Emerald Publishing

Table 4

Reporting reasons and effects on strategy formulation

Reporting reasons	Empirical examples
Materiality analysis and external benchmarking	“[…] sustainability reporting is connected to the strategy […] because, in sustainability reporting, we have the materiality analysis, that is the way we do it now connected to CSRD, its [about] internal and external [analysis] and what [would] get material, what gets important, and also, what gets into the strategy. […] Sustainability reporting can influence strategy through the door of materiality analysis.” #Interview 22 “When we produce the annual report, we also compare ourselves to other companies, looking into what others report about, how they report and what kind of topics they are bringing up. So, I think it is also a way to have some benchmarking. Even if it is a desktop benchmarking, we can actually get some input on the way forward, as well.” # Interview 10
Identifying strategic uncertainties	“ It is obvious that sustainability reporting will be much more integrated with the strategy process. So, all the gaps that we’ve found [lead to] changes in risk assessments, we also need to find KPIs and when we’ve identified them, we also [need to] see progress in performance […] when we start to see the performance, we can also start to set [new] targets and follow-ups.” # Interview 22 “Sustainability reporting impacts KPIs, mainly on the environmental and social parts. […] And it is a good way to find the gaps. The gap between what we think is important and what our stakeholders think is important to talk about or to show.” #Interview 10 “I think [sustainability reporting] drives us to question the importance of the environment, to ask, what are we doing to our environment? Because reporting itself has that effect on us, it tries to question and make us realize what is important […] sustainability reporting’s biggest contribution is raising questions […] our basic fundamental thinking is changing.” #Interview 12
Strategy re-assessment and adjustments	“We report on KPIs connected to the strategy’s targets and we realize […] we need to adjust the strategy and ask: Can we do it in a different way? Can we find another strategy? So, that feedback is really important because reporting is the answer to how well we are doing and how our activities affect and what kind of effect our activities result in.” #Interview 4 “Sustainability reporting is a wonderful tool for establishing what we have done and what we intend to do in the future, and many details on how we want to do it, and that reflects the strategy we are developing.” #Interview 2 “The sustainability report could be quite an important input to what we call the management yearly review. And that is because they are produced at the same time, and then they look at: […] Have we achieved our targets? Why didn’t we achieve the targets? What do we need to do? What changes do we need to make?” #Interview 11

Reporting reasons	Empirical examples
Materiality analysis and external benchmarking	“[…] sustainability reporting is connected to the strategy […] because, in sustainability reporting, we have the materiality analysis, that is the way we do it now connected to CSRD, its [about] internal and external [analysis] and what [would] get material, what gets important, and also, what gets into the strategy. […] Sustainability reporting can influence strategy through the door of materiality analysis.” #Interview 22“When we produce the annual report, we also compare ourselves to other companies, looking into what others report about, how they report and what kind of topics they are bringing up. So, I think it is also a way to have some benchmarking. Even if it is a desktop benchmarking, we can actually get some input on the way forward, as well.” # Interview 10
Identifying strategic uncertainties	“ It is obvious that sustainability reporting will be much more integrated with the strategy process. So, all the gaps that we’ve found [lead to] changes in risk assessments, we also need to find KPIs and when we’ve identified them, we also [need to] see progress in performance […] when we start to see the performance, we can also start to set [new] targets and follow-ups.” # Interview 22“Sustainability reporting impacts KPIs, mainly on the environmental and social parts. […] And it is a good way to find the gaps. The gap between what we think is important and what our stakeholders think is important to talk about or to show.” #Interview 10“I think [sustainability reporting] drives us to question the importance of the environment, to ask, what are we doing to our environment? Because reporting itself has that effect on us, it tries to question and make us realize what is important […] sustainability reporting’s biggest contribution is raising questions […] our basic fundamental thinking is changing.” #Interview 12
Strategy re-assessment and adjustments	“We report on KPIs connected to the strategy’s targets and we realize […] we need to adjust the strategy and ask: Can we do it in a different way? Can we find another strategy? So, that feedback is really important because reporting is the answer to how well we are doing and how our activities affect and what kind of effect our activities result in.” #Interview 4“Sustainability reporting is a wonderful tool for establishing what we have done and what we intend to do in the future, and many details on how we want to do it, and that reflects the strategy we are developing.” #Interview 2“The sustainability report could be quite an important input to what we call the management yearly review. And that is because they are produced at the same time, and then they look at: […] Have we achieved our targets? Why didn’t we achieve the targets? What do we need to do? What changes do we need to make?” #Interview 11

Note(s): Quotes are adjusted for increased readability

Source(s): Table created by authors