Earnings Management And Esg Greenwashing; Repurcussions Of Financial Costs Of Integrated Reporting

Abstract

The surmounting necessity of integrating Environmental Social and Governance (ESG) disclosures with financial ones in annual reports of business entities, raised by the task force of International Financial Reporting Standards Foundation (IFRS Foundation), has forced preparers to reevaluate disclosure practices. The extended sustainability disclosures along with those for derivative investment instruments and financial performance have an important bearing on companies’ investment strategies and priorities back tailing those of financial stakeholders, capital investors and other market players. The research is conducted to gauge attitudes, perceptions and future intentions of companies’ management and institutional participants concerning disclosures of financial and non-financial performance, for ascertaining possibilities of earnings management and greenwashing. The responses findings of above information were tallied with incentives to mismanage and misreport to evade financial costs. Financial auditors from Big four, representatives of regulators, banking analysts, chief risk and financial officers from financial sector, were engaged in in-depth interviews for the purpose of qualitative research. The views offered perspective of heavy financial and capital costs (Independent variable) impacting sustainability reporting quality (dependent variable) and opening avenues for earnings management (dependent variable) while diminishing earnings quality.