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THE Florentin Emil Tănasă, Marian Siminică, Florian Marcel Nuță: The Role of Sustainability
Reporting for Enhancing the Corporate Credibility. A Literature Review

Altogether, the mapping shows the evolution of ESG-related topics in relation with
the evolution of the society in general and business environment in particular.
Furthermore, it shows the transition from addressing environmental, social, and
governance issues separately to a more comprehensive way of discussing them, in
alignment with the ESG reporting framework, without ignoring its limits and
challenges, but trying to find practical solutions to enhance its effectiveness.

Figure 6: Conceptual overlay (107 keywords)

Conclusions, Implications and Limitations
This literature review aimed to answer the question: what is the current state of the
literature on the capacity of mandatory sustainability auditing to enhance reporting
credibility, in light of new requirements (CSRD) and standardization (ISSA 5000)?
The analysis of the 47 relevant papers allows us to formulate a nuanced answer. First,
the academic literature is unanimous in positioning auditing as the main, if not the
only, mechanism capable of resolving the credibility crisis and combating the
phenomenon of "greenwashing". The analysis revealed two critical obstacles to the
effectiveness of this new regulation:

Unresolved Expectations Gap: The CSRD requires, at least initially, a “limited
assurance”. The literature is deeply skeptical that this level, based on less invasive
analytical procedures, will be sufficient to meet the market’s demand for rigor.

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