The Role of Moral Reasoning in Sustainability Accounting: An Analysis of the Content of a Company's Sustainability Report

Sustainability issues have become a major global concern in business practices, emphasizing not only financial performance but also social and environmental responsibilities. As a result, sustainability reporting is expected to reflect not only quantitative data but also ethical values that demonstrate a company’s moral commitment. This study focuses on industrial sector companies listed on the Indonesia Stock Exchange (IDX), aiming to analyze how moral reasoning is reflected in sustainability accounting through the content of 2024 corporate sustainability reports. This study aims to analyze how moral reasoning is manifested in the content of corporate sustainability reports using a qualitative content analysis approach. The Cognitive Moral Development (CMD) theory is employed as the analytical framework to identify the stages of moral reasoning embedded in sustainability disclosures. The findings of this study are expected to reveal the extent to which moral reasoning is internalized and expressed in sustainability reporting practices. Furthermore, the study identifies ethical narrative patterns and assesses whether these disclosures function more as regulatory compliance tools or as genuine expressions of corporate moral values. This research contributes to the literature on sustainability accounting by highlighting the ethical dimension of corporate reporting.