European commission new regulations concerning environmental and social impact reporting

The European Commission has released a new directive concerning sustainability reporting that must be implemented in thousands of companies by 2017. Many companies already report on sustainability. Thus, the question emerges whether companies already fulfil the requirements for reasons of legitimacy, signalling and authenticity, regardless of the new directive. A multiple comparative case study of exemplary companies with triangulation through qualitative expert interviews has been conducted. Business reports, newspapers and interviews have been coded deductively and inductively. The exemplary companies already fulfil the majority of the new requirements. The result of the coding is a framework of five categories, namely, motives, legitimacy, integration, signalling and authenticity. It has been identified that motives have changed and sustainability reporting has developed into an instrument for legitimacy. The implementation has become more standardised and distinct signals have gained in significance to attain authenticity.