Regulating Sustainability Reporting in the European Union: Firm Preferences in Corporate Sustainability Reporting

Abstract

Presenters (Best Paper Award Winners 2025): Michael Kemmerling, University of Cologne, Cologne Center for Comparative Politics Friedrich Haas, University of Cologne, Cologne Center for Comparative Politics Existing research on decarbonisation examines how public opinion, party competition, and powerful carbon-intensive industries shape green policies. This seminar shifts the focus to firms and their stakeholders, arguing that understanding the green transition requires an actor-based account of how businesses assess and respond to sustainability regulation. Drawing on a materialist conception of preference formation and policy feedback theories, we analyse business and stakeholder preferences on EU Corporate Sustainability Reporting (CSR) regulation towards the Non-Financial Reporting Directive (2014) and the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (2022). Using a text-as-data approach, we develop a novel and scalable method to measure preferences based on BERTopic modelling and large language models applied to consultation responses. We find that consultancies, accountancies, the financial sector, and large firms are more supportive of CSR regulation, suggesting that an immediate business case and greater organisational capacity foster support. While most companies and business associations became more supportive of stricter CSR rules over time, firms in hard-to-abate sectors did not adjust their preferences. This indicates that both the ability of firms to “green” their business models and regulations that encourage green investments shape business preferences for climate policy. Future research should uncover these mechanisms of policy feedback in greater detail.