The theoretical range of scores obtained from the content analysis is from 0 to 19. The average score across the whole sample amounts to 13.47, thus approximately 71% of the total maximum score. The region that scores best is south africa with an average of 14.33 points, whereas Hong Kong still represents the lower end with an average score of 10 points. The assurance statement of Rabobank (the Netherlands) achieved the highest score of 18 points, while the lowest score was attained by Thiess (Australia) with 7 points. Table 3 presents the descriptive statistics and the correlation among variables for those firms issuing a sustainability assurance statement in our sample (n=69). It appears that the correlations are relatively low, thus suggesting that multicollinearity is not likely to be a serious concern in the estimation of the regression models.
Prof = firm’s profitability measured by the natural log of a firm’s return on assets;
Ind = 1 if a firm is a member in environment sensitive industry and otherwise 0. Industry affiliation to a sensitive industry is determined using a slightly modified version of patten (1991). It included industries in the petroleum, chemical, forestry and paper products.