LAUSR

Purpose - The paper compares the sustainability reporting in three different national and institutional contexts, namely Italy, Brazil and USA and aims at investigating whether companies show a different approach to sustainability reporting depending on the institutional setting where they operate. Design/methodology/approach - To reach this goal a sample of 150 reports was content-analyzed through a methodology based on a coding process which allowed overcoming part of the limitations in previous works. Findings - Results observed a relationship between the SR and the characteristics of institutional contexts, thus suggesting that while there is a general acceptance and use of international SR standards and initiatives, the content is influenced by and shaped on the characteristics of the national institutional context. In other words, although a widely diffused base of data and information can be found in the SR of companies in different contexts, the accent is put on specific issues which reflect the political, cultural, religious, legal and otherwise defined institutions in the national system. Originality/value - The paper using institutional theory demonstrated that institutional contexts is one of the drivers of contents of sustainability reports.