In the recent decade, companies have increasingly been compelled to address social and environmental issues alongside financial concerns, emphasizing sustainability. This has resulted in a rapid increase in sustainability disclosures of corporate reports of public and private companies. Sustainability Reporting (SR) has emerged as a practice of communication between companies and society by publicly providing companies’ environmental, social, and economic performance. Research focusing on SR practice in the construction and real estate (CRE) sector is needed due to the sector´s features and attributes that are remarkably affecting the environment, society, and economy. Moreover, laws and regulations are evolving and ultimately have come for large and listed companies to report on non-financial information. However, there is a lack of sector specific studies especially in the CRE sector. On that account, the aim of this thesis is threefold: to explore the tides of change and non-change in the landscape of SR practices in the CRE sector; to explore the institutional forces that enable and/or constraint the transition towards SR in the CRE sector; and to formulate and develop a conceptual framework of SR in CRE sector. Two distinct studies were conducted to fulfill this aim: one entailed a comprehensive literature review to examine the existing knowledge in the field (Paper 1), while the other involved an empirical study (Paper 2). These qualitative document studies applied the content analysis technique, including a literature review, analysis of annual and sustainability reports, case companies’ websites, and other relevant public documents. This research is devised from the necessity to conduct sector specific studies as businesses in the same sector handle similar institutional forces, opportunities, and uncertainties, interact with similar stakeholders, and follow similar rules, hence providing comparable data. Considering that, the foundation of this research lies in the institutional theory and socio-institutional approach of transition management. This helps contextualize the institutional pressures identified by institutional theory within the specific organizational and industry contexts of the CRE sector.
Moreover, understanding the enablers and/or constraints in the transition towards SR practices in the CRE sector reflects the influence of existing structures, norms, and power dynamics within institutional environments. The findings show that the external institutional forces (such as external stakeholders, legislative mandates, regulatory frameworks, benchmarking and ratings systems) and internal institutional forces (like internal stakeholders, organizational culture, norms, management systems, and moral codes based on social contracts and political believes) both enable and/or constraint CRE companies to report on sustainability. These institutional forces interact in complex ways, contributing to the evolving landscape of SR in the CRE sector as shown in the developed conceptual framework (Figure 7). Understanding the landscape of SR and effectively navigating these internal and external institutional forces could provide more strength to the enablers and could help to overcome the constraints. This study provides a comprehensive picture of SR practice in CRE for researchers, policymakers, and practitioners to understand the complexity and pave the way for a more sustainable and resilient future by taking collective actions and shared commitment.