HUBUNGAN SUSTAINABILITY PERFORMANCE DAN ACCOUNTING ASSURORS TERHADAP ASSURANCE PROCESS DEPTH DAN ASSURANCE STATEMENT BREADTH

Abstract

This research aims to analyze and empirically prove the relationship between sustainability performance and accounting assurors on a sustainability assurance engagement. This research can contribute to the research that has been done previously and can be used as additional input and comparison for other upcoming research on a sustainability assurance engagement. The focus of this research was reviewed based on the characteristics of each variable. Sustainability performance was reviewed based on high-quality and low-quality sustainability performance, accounting assurors were reviewed based on accounting assurors KAP and non-KAP, and sustainability assurance engagement was reviewed based on 2 indicators, assurance process depth, and assurance statement breadth.

This research uses samples from companies listed on the Indonesia Stock Exchange (IDX) in 2017-2020 which publish sustainability reports and are accompanied by independent assurance statements with a total sample of 48 samples. Sampling was based on a purposive sampling method that followed by certain criteria. Data analyses that were  used are content analysis, descriptive statistics, and the Mann-Whitney U test.

The results of this research indicate that there was a negative relationship between sustainability performance and assurance process depth, which means that companies with low-quality of sustainability performance have a higher level of assurance process depth than companies with a high-quality of sustainability performance and there was a negative relationship between accounting assurors and assurance statement breadth, which means that companies that use accounting assurors have a higher level of assurance statement breadth than companies that use non-accounting assurors. Suggestions further research include increasing the selection of the company population outside of companies listed on the Indonesia Stock Exchange (IDX), selecting enough samples from 1 company sector, or if more can be grouped according to each sector to minimize differences in company characteristics between sectors. , and the use of parametric statistical tests as research hypothesis testing.