The relationship between companies' social sustainability performance and the quality of voluntary disclosure

Document Type : Original Article

Authors
Hamed Payandehdost Masooleh 1
Sina Kheradyar 2
Mohammadreza Vatanparast 3
1 Department of Accounting, Rasht Branch, Islamic Azad University, Rasht, Iran.
2 Assistant Professor, Department of Accounting, Rasht Branch, Islamic Azad University, Rasht, Iran
3 Assistant Professor , Department of Accounting, Rasht Branch, Islamic Azad University, Rasht, Iran
Abstract
The main purpose of this study is to investigate the relationship between corporate social sustainability performance and the quality of voluntary disclosure in companies listed on the Tehran Stock Exchange. In this study, information related to 497 (year-company) during the years 1391 to 1397 was collected. Social sustainability performance index was measured by examining different dimensions and quality of voluntary disclosure at both high and low quality levels and the statistical method of the study was multiple linear regression. Findings show that the quality components of voluntary disclosure of the companies surveyed in this study include environmental indicators; Materials used (in terms of weight or volume), energy consumption (direct and indirect and renewable energy sources), and social indicators; Labor force (type of employment, employment contract, degree), employee turnover (total number of employees who have left for any reason) have better reporting than other components. Also, the results of hypothesis testing show that there is a positive and significant relationship between the social sustainability performance of companies with high quality voluntary disclosure and a negative and significant relationship between the social sustainability performance of companies with low quality voluntary disclosure. According to the theoretical foundations, the research results indicate that increasing the disclosure of sustainability information leads companies to show the nature of their actual performance and thus increases their market value, as well as companies with low quality reporting of disclosure of sustainability information.
Keywords
social sustainability performance
voluntary disclosure of information
high and low quality of voluntary disclosure
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  • The relationship between companies' social sustainability performance and the quality of voluntary disclosure