Lobbying against increased accountability: The case of the European Sustainability Reporting Standards (ESRS)

Sammanfattning: This study investigates the feedback received in the public consultation process for the European Sustainability Reporting Standards to determine if business associations engaged in lobbying by comparing the policy positions of said business associations to organizations geared towards examining and advocating for sustainability topics. The effects of the organization's characteristics on policy positions were examined based on findings of previous studies suggesting distinct factors determine the decision to lobby and the success of such actions. The study did not find evidence that business associations held different positions on the ESRS than sustainability organizations. The results did suggest that the explanation for why this case study did not find organization characteristics to be telling the organization's policy position are found within the subject of the policy positions - the salience and granularity of the ESRS.