Hållbarhetsredovisning : En kvalitativ studie om skillnader och likheter mellan statliga och de privata bolagen som ska upprätta en hållbarhetsrapport enligt lagen

Sammanfattning: Sustainability performance reporting is becoming increasingly important to address fordifferent forms of ownership whether they are state-owned companies or private ownedcompanies. This is due to the implementation of the new law on mandatory sustainabilityreporting. The report scrutinizes the differences and similarities that may occur in these typesof sustainability reporting. Subsequently knowledge would be gained on which companiestake more responsibility regarding sustainability issues. The purpose of this study is toinvestigate how Swedish privately own companies and state-owned companies prepare theirsustainability report according to law and compare the differences and the similarities thatmay exist. The companies being compared are operating within the same industry. The studyis limited to six companies: four privately-owned companies and four state-ownedcompanies. The study is based on a qualitative method with a deductive research approach(scientific investigation). It implements a comparative research design and applies the contentanalysis of the companies' annual and sustainability reports. It implements a comparativeresearch design and applies the content analysis of the companies' annual and sustainabilityreports. The conclusion that can be drawn is that public and private companies have moresimilarities than differences. The similarities are that all companies take roughly equalresponsibility for their impact on sustainability issues. Both public and private companiespresent their sustainability reports in accordance with the Annual Reports Act and follow theGRI guidelines. Another similarity is that both public and private companies present similartopics. The conclusion that can be drawn also is that the differences that exist are notsubstantial. What differs is the amount of information presented in the topics or theinformation presentation. The small differences may be largely due to the form of ownership,the need for legitimacy, sector affiliation or the prioritization of stakeholders.