Resolving the Standardization Paradox: Internal Functional Struggles as Drivers of Sustainability Reporting in a Nascent Emerging Market

Abstract

Sustainability reporting (SR) has become a global strategic imperative, yet Cambodia faces a profound awareness-execution gap where 74 percent of professionals recognize its importance but only 29 percent of firms report on ESG impacts. This study investigates the “standardization paradox,” where vocal professional demand for top-down mandates serves as a statistical proxy for deeper internal management failures to operationalize sustainability. Utilizing a quantitative research design and multiple linear regression, the study analyzed data from a purposive sample of 118 qualified Cambodian professionals via a structured bilingual instrument with robust scale reliability (Cronbach’s α = 0.822). The results reveal that the difficulty of aligning ESG goals with core business objectives (CM3) is the sole statistically significant predictor of the perceived necessity for a unified SR framework (p-value = 0.003), while structural gaps like the lack of standardized ESG reporting frameworks were statistically insignificant (p-value = 0.992). These findings necessitate a refinement of managerial stakeholder theory, positioning the drive for standardization in nascent markets as a proactive search for internal operational clarity rather than a purely reactive response to external pressure. Ultimately, a unified SR framework must function as a strategic navigational tool to resolve functional struggles and bridge Cambodia’s “expertise gap” toward Vision 2050.