Global reporting initiative disclosure and corporate performance among GCC listed firms

This study aims to investigate the impact of sustainability reporting quality on corporate performance. It also seeks to gain the deep insight into the useful of Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) to better sustainability reporting quality. The study uses a sample of this study includes 171 listed firms in Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries, spanning 590 observations over 9 years from 2014 to 2023. This study relies on a quantitative approach to examine the key hypotheses. The findings of this study indicate high-quality sustainability reporting positively influences corporate performance, reinforcing the idea that better sustainability practices lead to improved business outcomes. Although the magnitude and statistical significance vary across model specifications, the results suggest that sustainability reporting associated with firm performance. Moreover, this study passes multiple robustness checks fixed effect, random effect, GMM, and MM-Q regression to confirm our findings. This study furnishes crucial policy implications for regulators, investors, sustainability experts by highlighting the latest practices of corporate aligned with achieving Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Investigating the impact of sustainability reporting quality on corporate performance using GRI guidelines, potentially driving innovation and best sustainability reporting quality practices. This study fills several gaps in the literature about voluntary sustainability measured by GRI in emerging markets such as GCC context, and how a company's strategic approach to voluntary GRI reporting can impact its financial performance and sustainability quality.