Based on the legitimacy theory, the study enhances the understanding of disclosure practices of European companies operating in the energy sector regarding the adherence to Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Toward this end, the study analyses how SDGs reporting is evolving and what are the most addressed SDGs in the context of European energy sector companies. The paper's ultimate contribution is to dive deep into how such companies disclose their contributions to the SDGs to determine whether they adopt a substantive or merely symbolic approach to corporate legitimacy. To address the research objectives, a content analysis has been performed on non-financial reports published by a sample of 15 European energy sector companies included in the Global Reporting Initiative database as SDGs reporters for the period 2017–2019. Our findings suggest that while SDGs are becoming an integral part of corporate disclosure, symbolic rather than substantial changes appear to prevail, calling for actions from legislators and policy-makers.

中文翻译：

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探索可持续发展目标报告实践：从象征性方法到实质性方法——来自能源部门的证据

基于合法性理论，该研究加深了对在能源领域运营的欧洲公司在遵守可持续发展目标 (SDG) 方面的披露做法的理解。为此，该研究分析了可持续发展目标报告是如何演变的，以及在欧洲能源行业公司的背景下，哪些是最受关注的可持续发展目标。该论文的最终贡献是深入研究这些公司如何披露其对可持续发展目标的贡献，以确定它们是采用实质性方法还是仅仅是象征性方法来实现公司合法性。为了实现研究目标，我们对全球报告倡议数据库中包含的 15 家欧洲能源行业公司样本在 2017-2019 年期间作为可持续发展目标报告者发布的非财务报告进行了内容分析。