Sustainability Reports Disclosures: Who are the Most Salient Stakeholders?

Abstract

Due to the importance of stakeholders for the sustainability of the companies, there exists a research interest to identify the important stakeholders. With this study, most salient and other groups of stakeholders were identified based on a content analysis of sustainability reports of 78 large-scale companies. Although many researches are undertaken in developed countries based on sustainability reports that are popular tools for information disclosure for the companies, similar research in developing countries is still at infancy. The findings of the study indicate shareholders and government to be the most salient stakeholders regardless of industry difference. (C) 2016 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.