Non-financial information assurance. Do Italian listed companies assure sustainability reports and/or web communications?

The present research aims to understand the scope of assurance practices performed on environmental, social and governance (ESG) information disclosed by Italian companies. The key questions addressed are the followings: Do Italian listed companies recur to third party assurance services to demonstrate the credibility of their sustainability/CSR/social reports? Does the assurance process encompass the sustainability information disclosed on institutional websites?This is an explorative research, which aims to describe current company behavior. Data refer to a sample of listed Italian companies participating to an online survey. Findings highlight a diffuse company orientation toward third party assurance of sustainability/CSR/social
reports. On the contrary, commissioning external assurance to enhance credibility of web information does not seem to be a relevant issue so far.