Title: The impact of CSRD on reliability and harmonisation – A qualitative study of Swedish auditors' views.

Level: Bachelor’s thesis in Business Administration

Author: Ida Johansson och Matilda Potila 

Supervisor: Fredrik Hartwig

Date: 2025 – January

Aim: In 2022, the European Parliament and the Council of the EU adopted the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) to improve sustainability reporting. Previously, non-financial reporting was regulated by the Non-Financial Reporting Directive (NFRD), but the flexibility in the choice of standards and frameworks led to great variation in content and level of detail. This underlined the need for reliable and harmonised sustainability reporting, which the CSRD aims to achieve. Despite research in the area, there is a lack of studies that examine Swedish auditors' perceptions of how the CSRD affects the reliability and harmonisation of sustainability reporting in comparison with the NFRD. Therefore, the purpose of the study is to investigate whether Swedish auditors believe that the CSRD will contribute to more reliable and harmonised sustainability reporting than the previous regulatory framework, the NFRD.

Method: The study uses a qualitative method based on six semi-structured interviews. The collected data was analyzed using thematic analysis to identify central themes and patterns in the material.

Results and conclusions: The study's results indicate that CSRD can contribute to a more standardized and uniform sustainability reporting in Sweden, which can increase both reliability and harmonisation. According to the empirical material, the directive's requirement for external review plays a crucial role in improving reliability. Through a uniform reporting standard, the CSRD is expected to reduce information gaps and improve comparability between companies' reports. The study indicates that the CSRD has the potential to improve both the reliability and harmonisation of sustainability reporting compared to the previous NFRD directive.

Contribution of the thesis: The most important contribution of the study is that the empirical material indicates that the CSRD is likely to improve the quality of sustainability reporting. This can serve as valuable feedback for regulators by providing insight into whether the objectives of the directive are being achieved or whether adjustments may be needed.

Suggestions for future research: CSRD is in its early stages, which means that there is considerable scope for further research into its long-term impact and development. Future studies can investigate how companies and auditors handle the increased requirements in practice, and whether the expected positive effects are achieved. We also suggest that future research should investigate whether CSRD affects the relevance of sustainability reporting.

Key words: Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive, harmonization, reliability, sustainability reporting, coercive isomorphism and NFRD.