Assessing the Readability of Sustainability Reports: Obfuscation or Jargon?
サステナビリティ報告書の可読性評価：難解化か専門用語か？ (AI 翻訳)
Silvia Ruiz‐Blanco, Yunsen Wang, Silvia Romero
🤖 gxceed AI 要約
日本語
本研究は、米国企業のサステナビリティ報告書（2017-2023年）の可読性とCSRパフォーマンスの関係を分析。パフォーマンスが低い企業は翌年報告書を読みやすくする一方、改善した企業は専門用語で難解化する傾向がある。利害関係者の圧力も影響する。
English
This study analyzes 1,451 US sustainability reports (2017-2023) to test the obfuscation hypothesis. Poor CSR performance leads to more readable reports the following year, while improved performance leads to less readable reports due to jargon. Stakeholder pressure also affects readability.
Unofficial AI-generated summary based on the public title and abstract. Not an official translation.
📝 gxceed 編集解説 — Why this matters
日本のGX文脈において
日本でもサステナビリティ報告書の開示が進む中、可読性の重要性が高まっている。本研究成果は、SSBJ基準に基づく報告書において、意図的な難解化を避け、透明性を確保するための示唆を与える。
In the global GX context
This paper adds to the literature on sustainability report readability, relevant to global disclosure frameworks like ISSB and CSRD. It highlights that readability is influenced by both CSR performance and stakeholder pressure, which has implications for transparency standards.
👥 読者別の含意
🔬研究者:This paper offers insights into the determinants of sustainability report readability, supporting the obfuscation hypothesis and the role of stakeholder pressure.
🏢実務担当者:Corporate sustainability teams can use these findings to manage report readability strategically, balancing transparency with legitimacy.
🏛政策担当者:Regulators should consider readability as a dimension of disclosure quality when setting reporting standards.
📄 Abstract（原文）
ABSTRACT This study analyzes the relationship between corporate social responsibility performance and sustainability report readability to test the obfuscation hypothesis. It also explores the influence of stakeholder pressure on sustainability report readability. We employ a sample of 1451 sustainability reports from US companies for the period 2017–2023, using the Mundlank within‐between random‐effects model. We find that poor CSR performance may motivate companies to make their reports more readable in the following year to achieve legitimacy. Simultaneously, an improvement in CSR performance may lead to a reduction in readability the following year if companies start using sophisticated language to signal commitment to CSR to attain legitimacy. Our findings show that companies in environmentally sensitive industries present sustainability reports with lower readability than their peers. Additionally, companies in consumer proximity industries tend to disclose more readable sustainability reports than those in other industries. We expand on previous research in this field supporting the rationale that the level of readability may depend on intentional and nonintentional circumstances, such as stakeholder pressure.
🔗 Provenance — このレコードを発見したソース
- openalex https://doi.org/10.1002/bse.71291first seen 2026-07-22 05:20:06
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