Materiality as a Boundary of Accountability in University Sustainability Reports

Authors

  • Viviana Paola Delgado Sánchez Universidad Piloto de Colombia, Bogotá, Colombia
  • Andrés Mauricio Castro Figueroa Corporación Universidad Piloto De Colombia,Bogotá, Colombia
  • Carlos Fabian Rico Rojas Universidad Francisco de Paula Santander, Cúcuta, Colombia

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.61799/2216-0388.1753

Keywords:

sustainability reports; GRI adoption; accountability theory; monologic and dialogic accountability; materiality analysis; external verification; Latin America; higher education.

Abstract

Sustainability reporting is now a nearly universal practice among internationally recognized Latin American universities; however, whether this constitutes genuine accountability or merely symbolic compliance remains empirically unresolved. Drawing on Bovens’s relational definition of accountability and Roberts’s distinction between hierarchical (monologic) and socializing (dialogic) accountability, this study addresses a more specific question than whether reporting simply constitutes accountability: what predicts whether a university’s disclosure satisfies the monologic, disclosure-based layer of accountability (externally validated explanation), as opposed to the dialogic, participatory layer that this dataset does not capture. A Sustainability Disclosure Quality Index (SDQI)—comprising six weighted dimensions—was constructed and applied to 147 sustainability reports from universities across 15 Latin American countries using computer-assisted content analysis. Three regression models were estimated: an OLS model for overall disclosure quality and two Firth-penalized logistic regressions for external verification, all incorporating country fixed effects. The findings are primarily addressed to accreditation and quality assurance bodies and to policymakers focused on monitoring the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)—rather than to financial stakeholders—given that the verification construct employed here combines academic accreditation with specific sustainability assurance.

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

References

[1] K. Ceulemans, R. Lozano, and M. del M. Alonso-Almeida, “Sustainability reporting in higher education: Interconnecting the reporting process and organisational change management for sustainability,” Sustainability, vol. 7, no. 7, pp. 8881–8903, 2015.

[2] S. Moggi, “Sustainability reporting, universities and Global Reporting Initiative applicability: A still open issue,” Sustainability Accounting, Management and Policy Journal, vol. 14, no. 4, pp. 699–742, 2023.

[3] J. Bebbington, J. Brown, B. Frame, and I. Thomson, “Theorizing engagement: The potential of a critical dialogic approach,” Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, vol. 20, no. 3, pp. 356–381, 2007.

[4] J. Unerman and M. Bennett, “Increased stakeholder dialogue and the Internet: Towards greater corporate accountability or reinforcing capitalist hegemony?” Accounting, Organizations and Society, vol. 29, no. 7, pp. 685–707, 2004.

[5] M. C. Suchman, “Managing legitimacy: Strategic and institutional approaches,” Academy of Management Review, vol. 20, no. 3, pp. 571–610, 1995.

[6] P. J. DiMaggio and W. W. Powell, “The iron cage revisited: Institutional isomorphism and collective rationality in organizational fields,” American Sociological Review, vol. 48, no. 2, pp. 147–160, 1983.

[7] M. Bovens, “Analysing and assessing accountability: A conceptual framework,” European Law Journal, vol. 13, no. 4, pp. 447–468, 2007.

[8] J. Roberts, “The possibilities of accountability,” Accounting, Organizations and Society, vol. 16, no. 4, pp. 355–368, 1991.

[9] J. Roberts, “From discipline to dialogue: Individualizing and socializing forms of accountability,” in Accountability: Power, Ethos and the Technologies of Managing, R. Munro and J. Mouritsen, Eds. London, U.K.: International Thomson Business Press, 1996.

[10] UNESCO, Contribución de la Educación Superior en América Latina y el Caribe a los Objetivos de Desarrollo Sostenible. Paris, France: UNESCO, 2020.

[11] F. E. Emery and E. L. Trist, “The causal texture of organizational environments,” Human Relations, vol. 18, no. 1, pp. 21–32, 1965.

[12] V. Brescia, L. Coronella, S. Secinaro, and A. Mechelli, “Sustainability reporting in higher education: A systematic review and bibliometric analysis for strategic decision-making,” Business Ethics, the Environment & Responsibility, 2025.

[13] M. R. da Rosa, C. Boscarioli, and K. R. de Freitas Zara, “A systematic review of the trends and patterns of sustainability reporting in universities,” International Journal of Sustainability in Higher Education, vol. 25, no. 3, pp. 556–576, 2024.

[14] M. B. Farooq, A. S. A. Azantouti, and R. Zaman, “Non-financial information assurance: A review of the literature and directions for future research,” Sustainability Accounting, Management and Policy Journal, vol. 15, no. 1, pp. 48–84, 2024.

[15] S. Jharni and G. Leoni, “Mapping 24 years of sustainability reporting assurance research: A bibliometric-systematic literature review,” Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, vol. 33, no. 2, pp. 2837–2886, 2025.

[16] P. Di Tullio and M. A. Rea, “Institutionalisation of sustainability in universities: Insights from strategic planning and sustainability reporting practices in Italian universities,” Meditari Accountancy Research, vol. 33, no. 7, pp. 338–368, 2025.

[17] W. L. Filho et al., “Mapping sustainability initiatives in higher education institutions in Latin America,” Journal of Cleaner Production, vol. 315, Art. no. 128093, 2021.

[18] F. Rotondo, L. Giovanelli, and R. Lozano, Eds., Sustainability in Higher Education. Strategies for Sustainability. Cham, Switzerland: Springer, 2024.

[19] Y. C. Lee, “Are universities engaging in social washing? Rethinking the presentation of university sustainability reports,” International Journal of Sustainability in Higher Education, vol. 27, no. 2, pp. 303–321, 2026.

[20] IAASB, International Standard on Sustainability Assurance 5000, General Requirements for Sustainability Assurance Engagements. New York, NY, USA: IAASB, 2024.

[21] V. P. Delgado Sánchez, A. Zorio-Grima, and P. Merello, “Sustainability reporting assurance: Knowledge, lags, levels, and providers in leading global companies,” Journal of Innovation & Knowledge, vol. 12, Art. no. 100899, 2026.

[22] R. Hahn and M. Kühnen, “Determinants of sustainability reporting: A review of results, trends, theory, and opportunities in an expanding field of research,” Journal of Cleaner Production, vol. 59, pp. 5–21, 2013.

[23] M. M. Popowska and M. Sady, “Universities’ journey towards sustainability – Systematic literature review,” International Journal of Sustainability in Higher Education, vol. 25, no. 3, pp. 596–615, 2024.

[24] R. Gray, D. Owen, and C. Adams, Accounting and Accountability: Changes and Challenges in Corporate Social and Environmental Reporting. London, U.K.: Prentice Hall, 1996.

[25] R. E. Freeman, Strategic Management: A Stakeholder Approach. Boston, MA, USA: Pitman, 1984.

[26] V. Beattie and S. J. Thomson, “Lifting the lid on the use of content analysis to investigate intellectual capital disclosures,” Accounting Forum, vol. 31, no. 2, pp. 129–163, 2007.

[27] I. Thomson, “Is accounting for sustainability actually accounting for sustainability… and how would we know? An exploration of narratives of organisations and the planet,” Social and Environmental Accountability Journal, vol. 31, no. 1, pp. 99–100, 2011.

[28] J. R. Landis and G. G. Koch, “The measurement of observer agreement for categorical data,” Biometrics, vol. 33, no. 1, pp. 159–174, 1977.

[29] M. J. Milne and R. W. Adler, “Exploring the reliability of social and environmental disclosures content analysis,” Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, vol. 12, no. 2, pp. 237–256, 1999.

[30] D. Firth, “Bias reduction of maximum likelihood estimates,” Biometrika, vol. 80, no. 1, pp. 27–38, 1993.

[31] R. Puhr, G. Heinze, M. Nold, L. Lusa, and A. Geroldinger, “Firth’s logistic regression with rare events: Accurate effect estimates and predictions?” Statistics in Medicine, vol. 36, no. 14, pp. 2302–2317, 2017.

[32] J. D. Westphal and E. J. Zajac, “Substance and symbolism in CEOs’ long-term incentive plans,” Administrative Science Quarterly, vol. 39, no. 3, pp. 367–390, 1994.

Published

2026-09-01

Issue

Section

Artículo Originales

How to Cite

[1]
Delgado Sánchez, V.P. et al. 2026. Materiality as a Boundary of Accountability in University Sustainability Reports. Mundo FESC Journal. 16, 36 (Sep. 2026). DOI:https://doi.org/10.61799/2216-0388.1753.