Sustainability reporting has recently faced increasing criticism. In
particular, the legitimacy and accountability of the reports have been questioned.
Despite these questions, there has been little further study on how
stakeholders’ expectations are influenced by assumptions of a social contract. In
this study we examine stakeholders’ views on sustainability reporting by
applying nano-level social contract theory. Our research question is: how do
stakeholder interpretations differ concerning sustainability reporting when it
comes to meeting the requirements of the social contract? We interviewed
representatives of internal and external stakeholders of two Finnish companies
on the usability and challenges of sustainability reporting. The study
constructs a typology of stakeholder expectations and the social norms
influencing these expectations. The study contributes to the current literature
by showing how the stakeholder expectations are contradictory, not only between
different stakeholder groups, but also among individuals within those groups.