Title: Corporate sustainability reporting practices in Bangladesh through the lens of global reporting initiative standards in the interface of Sustainable Development Goals

Authors: Md. Nazrul Islam; Md. Shafayet Shahed Ornob; Md. Robiul Islam; Skimla Akter

Addresses: Department of Business Administration, Shahjalal University of Science and Technology, Sylhet-3114, Bangladesh ' Department of Business Administration, Shahjalal University of Science and Technology, Sylhet-3114, Bangladesh ' Department of Business Administration, Shahjalal University of Science and Technology, Sylhet-3114, Bangladesh ' Department of Business Administration, Shahjalal University of Science and Technology, Sylhet-3114, Bangladesh

Abstract: The study aims to measure the extent to which the listed manufacturing firms are complying with the global reporting initiative (GRI) in their annual reports as these reports are a mirror of organisational activities within the boundaries of the SDGs. In conducting this study, 114 listed manufacturing companies were used as the sample and their published annual reports over a five-year period are the main sources of data and content analysis technique with a dichotomous approach is used to collect data. Econometric techniques, such as OLS, 2SLS, fixed effect, random effect, and generalised method of moments (GMM) are used to analyse the data. The dependent variable is the GRI index, while the independent variables are firm-specific financial performance indicators. The investigations revealed that the firm's total liability, leverage ratio, total sales, total expenditure, market price of stock, market value of the firm, and Tobin Q are significant determinants of GRI compliance and this compliance helps to achieve at least 12 SDGs.

Keywords: global reporting initiative; GRI; manufacturing firm; financial characteristics; sustainability index; SDGs; Bangladesh.

DOI: 10.1504/IJGE.2026.153234

International Journal of Green Economics, 2026 Vol.20 No.2, pp.108 - 129

Received: 10 Aug 2024
Accepted: 24 Jul 2025
Published online: 29 Apr 2026 *

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