| Abstract [eng] |
This master’s thesis evaluates the level and quality of information disclosed in the sustainability reports of listed Lithuanian companies operating in high environmental impact industrial sectors in order to determine the extent to which these reports are oriented towards narrative, descriptive content and towards digitalized, structured, and quantitatively measurable information. The thesis consists of three parts: a review of the scientific literature, an empirical assessment of sustainability information disclosure, report quality, and the distribution of report attributes, and a presentation of the results, conclusions, and recommendations. The literature review examines the development of the sustainability concept, identifies the main characteristics of ESG information, discusses the advantages and disadvantages of high-quality sustainability disclosure for companies, and reviews the international and national regulatory framework for sustainability reporting. It also systematizes internal and external corporate motives for disclosing sustainability data within the context of classical theories of organizational behavior and proposes that sustainability disclosure and report quality should also be assessed from the perspective of the end user of the information. The empirical study found that listed Lithuanian companies operating in high environmental impact sectors provided high-quality information on their environmental and societal impact. The dynamics of the quality index over 2022–2024 showed consistent and uninterrupted growth. In order to provide a novel perspective on the content of published reports and to interpret their development trends, an additional analysis was conducted of how the quality attributes of sustainability data are distributed across human-oriented and machine-oriented categories. The results showed that, during the period analyzed, human-oriented quality attributes were more prevalent in the reports of the companies examined, although elements of content favorable to machine readability were also strengthening. The conclusions and recommendations summarize the findings of the literature review and the empirical research. The model applied in this thesis for evaluating information disclosure, report quality, and orientation towards different user groups provides a basis for broader application through the expansion of both the research sample and the period under analysis. |
