RESEARCH ARTICLE Sustainability reporting practices in India: A study of selected conglomerates Anushree Poddar | Sapna A. Narula Department of Business and Sustainability, TERI School of Advanced Studies, New Delhi, India Correspondence Sapna A Narula, Department of Business and Sustainability, TERI School of Advanced Studies, New Delhi, India. Email: sapna.narula@teriuniversity.ac.in Abstract The evolutionary trends exhibit journey of companies toward sustainability of the major con- glomerates, offering a learning for other smaller companies. This article investigates the sustain- ability reporting practices of selected Indian conglomerates based on the Global Reporting Initiatives (GRI) guidelines. The cases have been selected on the basis of data on market capitali- zation (based on Bombay Stock Exchange database) and number of reporting years (based on GRI Disclosure database). The study reveals characteristics and trends of reporting practices and also traces the path of sustainability journey in terms of evolution and advancement. A com- parison of reporting on economic, environmental, and social indicators has been made and the results of the cases have also been also presented in a cumulative manner. The study opens new vistas for further researchers in understanding the process of sustainability reporting in India and is also helpful for practitioners foraying into writing sustainability reports. 1 | INTRODUCTION The article discusses in-depth the status of sustainability reporting ini- tiatives in India with a special focus on conglomerate companies in India. Reporting practices of four Indian conglomerates are taken into account. Many studies are available in the literature that explores the reporting practices of companies in various industries and also in dif- ferent countries, but there is no study which focuses solely on con- glomerates (Kumar, 2014; Kumar & Devi, 2015; Reddy & Gordon, 2010). Our interest in conglomerate companies is motivated by the fact that these firms are extremely important from an emerging coun- try perspective, as they affect multiple sectors and industries, and other companies in their respective industries also follow their foot- prints. Therefore, a detailed company-wise analysis was done of the selected conglomerates by using case study method, which also made the study novel from the methodological perspective. We also assume a lot of significance in the light of the sustainable development goals (SDGs) proposed by the United Nations as private sector has a major role to play in them and communication of their sustainability practices in the right manner is crucial, as a specific tar- get 6 of Goal 12 on “Sustainable Consumption and Production” calls for advancing sustainability reports worldwide to support responsible business practices. Reporting helps a company to manage and engage with both internal and external stakeholders. There are various theories like stakeholder theory, legitimacy the- ory, and political economy theory, which are insightful for explaining the phenomenon of nonfinancial reporting (Adams et al., 2014; Thora- deniya, Lee, Tan, & Ferreira, 2015). This article takes the analogies drawn out by Morhardt, Baird, and Freeman (2002) as theoretical background for the study. He suggested that companies venture into sustainability reporting because they have a sense of social responsi- bility of doing business and it can provide competitive advantages. It also has benefits like the promotion of stakeholder relations and reduction in operating costs for the future if done in an organized manner. As businesses operate in a dynamic environment and are affected by a lot of factors, such varied reasons do exist for pursuing sustainability reporting, especially in the Indian context where CSR expenditure and reporting has become mandatory for companies meeting certain thresholds. It is observed through the analysis of indi- cators presented in the further sections that the selected cases have scored well on the indicators related to stakeholder engagement. However, this is not true for indicators related to their environmental, social, and economic performance. This article comprises eight sections. Section 1 includes a brief introduction to the article. Section 2 covers the literature pertaining to sustainability in the Indian context and Global Reporting Initiative (GRI). Section 3 highlights the objectives and methodology of the study. Section 4 presents the evolutionary patterns and profiling of the companies followed by analysis of the indicators in section 5. Section 6 provides conclusions drawn out the study. Finally, the article ends with the discussion regarding the limitations and outline areas for future studies in section 7. DOI: 10.1002/jsc.2238 Strategic Change. 2018;27:543–557. wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/jsc © 2018 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. 543