Sustainability assurance – a review and research agenda

Unofficial AI-generated summary based on the public title and abstract. Not an official translation.

🔬研究者:Identifies under-researched areas in sustainability assurance, especially quality measurement and stakeholder engagement.

🏢実務担当者:Provides evidence on effective assurance practices and the need to integrate assurance with internal controls.

🏛政策担当者:Highlights limitations in current assurance standards and suggests improvements for credibility and comparability.

Purpose This paper systematically reviews the existing litearture on sustainability assurance, integrating insights from firms’ motivations, theoretical frameworks, assurance standards, and influencing factors of sustainability assurance quality. Design/methodology/approach This paper reviews and synthesises the literature on sustainability assurance within the accounting and finance domain. It systematically examines prior research to distill the core themes, theoretical foundations, methodological approaches, and key findings of sustainability assurance works. Findings Building on a systematic review of the sustainability assurance literature, this paper advances understanding of the field from multiple dimensions. Specifically, by synthesising and extending prior evidence on value creation, risk mitigation, legitimacy building, and the strengthening of internal control systems, it deepens insights into firms’ motivations for seeking sustainability assurance. Moreover, drawing on the perspectives of corporate social relations and the organisational environment, the study systematically integrates the main theoretical foundations of sustainability assurance and demonstrates how firms’ responses to institutional and stakeholder expectations shape the adoption, design, and implementation of assurance practices. At the same time, it critically identifies the limitations of current sustainability assurance standards—particularly regarding comparability, scope, and implementability—and reveals how these constraints affect assurance effectiveness and practical application. Finally, by incorporating the perspectives of assurance practitioners and sustainability report providers, the paper systematically identifies the key determinants of sustainability assurance quality. Meanwhile, this study highlights limitations in assurance quality measures and emphasises the need for more precise and multidimensional assessment approaches. Originality/value This paper highlights critical issues in sustainability assurance and proposes targeted improvements. Limited stakeholder engagement undermines assurance effectiveness, highlighting the need to better align managerial objectives with external stakeholder expectations. Moreover, ensuring credible sustainability assurance requires a clearer separation between financial audit and sustainability assurance functions, the strengthening of internal information systems, and the allocation of adequate organisational resources.

• openalex https://doi.org/10.1108/jal-03-2026-0141first seen 2026-07-15 05:12:46