A Unified Yet Flexible Sustainability Reporting Framework for an Emerging Market: Integrating the ISSB Standards and Integrated Reporting for Cambodian Companies

Emerging markets adopting the International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB) standards face a practical problem: global requirements assume reporting capabilities that local preparers often lack. This paper develops a unified yet flexible sustainability reporting framework, using as its context Cambodia, which is moving from voluntary environmental, social and governance (ESG) disclosure to mandatory reporting. Prior studies and a survey of 118 professionals revealed limited reporting experience, cost concerns and difficulty aligning ESG goals with business objectives. Six international frameworks were compared against five fittingness parameters: proportionality, implementation cost, pedagogical utility, strategic connectivity and compatibility with accounting frameworks. No single framework met all five. The ISSB standards performed best on proportionality, cost and compatibility, and Integrated Reporting on strategic connectivity and pedagogical utility. The proposed hybrid uses IFRS S1 and IFRS S2 as its technical baseline and the six capitals as its strategic architecture, supported by a three-step materiality process, ESG disclosure templates and proportionate measures, including a template for small and medium-sized enterprises. The fittingness parameters and hybrid architecture offer a potentially transferable model for other Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and emerging markets, such as Lao PDR, Myanmar and Viet Nam, as they move toward mandatory ESG reporting.