RESEARCH ARTICLE
Towards Enhanced Sustainability Reporting Credibility: The Role of National Governance in Europe
Mohammad Alta'any,
Rasmi Meqbel,
Babajide Oyewo,
Abeer Alsulami,
Corresponding Author
Mohammad Alta'any
Department of Accounting, Business School, The Hashemite University, Zarqa, Jordan
Correspondence:
Mohammad Alta'any ([email protected])
Search for more papers by this authorRasmi Meqbel
Department of Accounting, Business School, The Hashemite University, Zarqa, Jordan
Search for more papers by this authorBabajide Oyewo
Department of Accounting, Essex Business School, University of Essex, Colchester, UK
Search for more papers by this authorAbeer Alsulami
College of Administrative Sciences, Najran University, Najran, Saudi Arabia
Search for more papers by this authorMohammad Alta'any,
Rasmi Meqbel,
Babajide Oyewo,
Abeer Alsulami,
Corresponding Author
Mohammad Alta'any
Department of Accounting, Business School, The Hashemite University, Zarqa, Jordan
Correspondence:
Mohammad Alta'any ([email protected])
Search for more papers by this authorRasmi Meqbel
Department of Accounting, Business School, The Hashemite University, Zarqa, Jordan
Search for more papers by this authorBabajide Oyewo
Department of Accounting, Essex Business School, University of Essex, Colchester, UK
Search for more papers by this authorAbeer Alsulami
College of Administrative Sciences, Najran University, Najran, Saudi Arabia
Search for more papers by this authorFirst published: 21 July 2025
Funding: The authors received no specific funding for this work.
ABSTRACT
Drawing on institutional theory, this study investigates the impact of national governance (i.e., voice and accountability, political stability, government effectiveness, regulatory quality, rule of law, and control of corruption) on companies' decisions to acquire sustainability assurance (SA) reports. The sample includes 6367 firm-year observations from 21 European countries between 2010 and 2021. A panel regression analysis using a logistic model is applied to test the hypotheses. Our results show that voice and accountability, political stability, regulatory quality, and the rule of law have a significant and positive impact on SA. On the other hand, government effectiveness and control of corruption have no influence on SA. The results are robust after several sensitivity analyses. Overall, the findings highlight the importance of national-level reforms to enhance governance features that augment the credibility of sustainability reporting. Stakeholders and investors can use governance indicators to identify companies most likely to adopt quality assurance. In addition, the study provides policy recommendations to support European sustainability goals through targeted governance improvements.
Conflicts of Interest
The authors declare no conflicts of interest.
Open Research
Data Availability Statement
The data that support the findings of this study are available from LSEG Group (Refinitiv Eikon). Restrictions apply to the availability of these data, which were used under license for this study. Data are available from the author(s) with the permission of LSEG Group (Refinitiv Eikon).
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