Corporate Sustainability: Measurement, Reporting and Effects on Firm Performance

92 Pages·2022·2.285 MB·English

by  Paolo Tenuta, Domenico Rocco Cambrea

SIDREA Series in Accounting and Business Administration
Paolo Tenuta
Domenico Rocco Cambrea
Corporate
Sustainability
Measurement, Reporting and Effects
on Firm Performance
SIDREA Series in Accounting and Business
Administration
SeriesEditors
StefanoMarasca,UniversitàPolitecnicadelleMarche,Ancona,Italy
AnnaMariaFellegara,UniversitàCattolicadelSacroCuore,Piacenza,Italy
RiccardoMussari,UniversitàdiSiena,Siena,Italy
EditorialBoardMembers
StefanoAdamo,DipartimentodiStudiAziendali,G,UniversitàdeglistudidiLecce,
LECCE,Italy
LucaBartocci,UniversityofPerugia,Perugia,Italy
AdeleCaldarelli,UniversityofNaplesFedericoII,Naples,Italy
BettinaCampedelli,UniversityofVerona,Verona,Italy
NicolaCastellano,UniversityofPisa,Pisa,Italy
DenitaCepiku,UniversityofRomeTorVergata,Rome,Italy
LinoCinquini ,Sant'AnnaSchoolofAdvancedStudies,Pisa,Pisa,Italy
MariaSerenaChiucchi,DM,MarchePolytechnicUniversity,Ancona,Italy
VittorioDell'Atti,UniversityofBariAldoMoro,Bari,Italy
FrancescoDeLuca ,UniversityofChieti-Pescara,PESCARA,Pescara,Italy
Anna Maria Fellegara, Catholic University of the Sacred Heart, PIACENZA, Pia-
cenza,Italy
RaffaeleFiorentino,UniversityofNaplesParthenope,Naples,Italy
FrancescoGiunta,UniversityofFlorence,Florence,Italy
AlbertoIncollingo ,UniversityofCampania"LuigiVanvitelli,Caserta,Italy
GiovanniLiberatore,UniversityofFlorence,Florence,Italy
AndreaLionzo ,Economic&BusinessManagementScience,UniversitaCattolica
delSacroCuore,MILANO,Milano,Italy
RosaLombardi,LawandEconomicsofProductiveActiviti,SapienzaUniversityof
Rome,Roma,Italy
DavideMaggi,UniversityofEasternPiedmontAmadeoAv,Novara,Italy
Daniela Mancini , Campus "Aurelio Saliceti", University of Teramo, Teramo,
Italy
FrancescaManesRossi,UniversityofNaplesFedericoII,Naples,Italy
LucianoMarchi,DiptodiEconomiaeMgmt,UniversityofPisa,Pisa,Italy
RiccardoMussari,UniversityofSiena,Siena,Italy
Marco Maria Mattei, Department of Management, University of Bologna, Forlì,
Italy
AntonellaPaolini,UniversityofMacerata,Macerata,Italy
MauroPaoloni,UniversityofRomeTorVergata,ROMA,Roma,Italy
Paola Paoloni, Dept Law & Econ of Productive Activities, Sapienza University of
Rome,Rome,Roma,Italy
MarcantonioRuisi,DeptSEAS,Buiding13,UniversityofPalermo,Palermo,Italy
ClaudioTeodori,UniversityofBrescia,Brescia,Italy
SimoneTerzani,UniversityofPerugia,Perugia,Italy
stefaniaveltri,DISCAG,UniversitàdellaCalabria,RENDE,Cosenza,Italy
This is the official book series of SIDREA - the Italian Society of Accounting and
BusinessAdministration.ThisbookseriesisprovidedwithawideScientificCom-
mittee composed of Academics by SIDREA. It publishes contributions (mono-
graphs, edited volumes and proceedings) as a result of the double blind review
process by the SIDREA’s thematic research groups, operating at the national and
internationallevels.Particularly,theseriesaimstodisseminatespecializedfindings
on several topics – classical and cutting-edge alike – that are currently being
discussed by the accounting and business administration communities. The series
authorsarerespectedresearchersandprofessorsinthefieldsofbusinessvaluation;
governance and internal control; financial accounting; public accounting; manage-
mentcontrol;gender;turnaroundpredictivemodels;non-financialdisclosure;intel-
lectualcapital,smarttechnologies,anddigitalization;anduniversitygovernanceand
performancemeasurement.
(cid:129)
Paolo Tenuta Domenico Rocco Cambrea
Corporate Sustainability
Measurement, Reporting and Effects on Firm
Performance
PaoloTenuta DomenicoRoccoCambrea
UniversityofCalabria UniversityofModenaandReggioEmilia
ArcavacatadiRende,Italy ReggioEmilia,Italy
ISSN2662-9879 ISSN2662-9887 (electronic)
SIDREASeriesinAccountingandBusinessAdministration
ISBN978-3-031-11490-8 ISBN978-3-031-11491-5 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-11491-5
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AG2022
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Acknowledgements
We thank the Società Italiana dei Docenti di Ragioneria e di Economia Aziendale
(SIDREA) and the anonymous reviewers for their valuable comments. We also
would like to thank Professor Franco Ernesto Rubino for his helpful advice and
Dr. Tonia Tassone for the support in researching the data used in the empirical
analysis. Finally, a warm thank you to the Springer staff, particularly Rocio
Torregrosa, for her great availability and professionalism. This book is published
in SIDREA Book Series “Accounting and Business Administration” edited by
Springerasaresultofthedouble-blindreviewprocess.
v
Contents
1 Introduction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
References. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
2 PrinciplesandPracticesofSustainability. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
1 BusinessEthics. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
2 CorporateSocialResponsibility. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
3 SustainabilityandSustainableDevelopment. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
4 CorporateSustainability. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
5 CircularEconomyandSustainability. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
References. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
3 ESGMeasuresandNon-financialPerformanceReporting. . . . . . . . . 27
1 SustainabilityIndicators. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
2 TheESGRating. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
3 TheMainESGRatingAgencies. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
4 TheMainESGIndexes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
5 Non-financialPerformanceReporting. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
6 TheSocialandEnvironmentalBalance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
7 TheSustainabilityReport. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
8 TheIntegratedReport. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
9 Directive2014/95/EUandProposalfortheDirectiveCSRD
2021/0104. . .. . . . . . .. . . . . . .. . . . . . .. . . . . . . .. . . . . . .. . . . 50
10 TheSustainabilityDisclosureStandards(ISSBStandards). . . . . . . . 51
References. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
4 CorporateSustainabilityandFinancialPerformance. . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
1 Introduction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
2 LiteratureReviewandResearchHypotheses. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
2.1 SustainabilityPerformanceandFinancialPerformance. . . . . . . 61
2.2 SustainabilityPerformanceandFinancialPerformanceinFamily
andNonfamilyFirms. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
vii
viii Contents
2.3 CollegialLeadership. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64
3 Methodology. . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . .. . . . . 66
3.1 DataCollectionandSample. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
3.2 DependentVariable. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
3.3 IndependentandModeratingVariables. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
3.4 ControlVariables. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
3.5 Model. . .. . . .. . . .. . . .. . . .. . . .. . . .. . . .. . . .. . . .. . . 67
4 AnalysisandResults. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
4.1 DescriptiveAnalysis. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
4.2 HypothesesTesting. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
5 Discussion. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72
References. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74
5 FutureResearchDirections. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81
6 Conclusions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
References. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
Chapter 1
Introduction
Abstract Thispartillustratesthemainthemesdiscussedinthebook.Specifically,
the topics developed in the three chapters are reviewed, highlighting the most
significant aspects for business administration scholars and the main results that
willbeanalyzedindetailinthesectionsofthebook.
In recent years, corporate social responsibility (CSR) and Corporate Sustainability
(CS)practiceshavebeenatthecenterofadebate.TheincreasedinterestinCSRand
CSissueshasnotablyincreasedstudiesintheseareas(Chatterjietal.,2009).
ThetermsCSR,Environmental,SocialandGovernment(ESG)andCSareoften
used alternatively (Khattak, 2021). The expressions “sustainable development” or
“sustainability”(Waasetal.,2011)andCSRandESG,althoughbasedondifferent
theories, are considered standard terms in the literature (do Prado et al., 2020).
Previous studies have discussed the convergence or autonomy of the two terms
CSRandCS(Ashrafietal.,2018).Montiel(2008)reviewsthedifferentdefinitions
ofCSRandCSandclarifiesthatthemanagerialliteratureusesthetwotermstorefer
to “issues to social and environmental management issues, but there is no clear
distinction.” Although there are points of difference between the two constructs,
conceptualizationsandmeasuresofCSRandCSseemtoconverge.Boththeaspects
share the same vision to balance the economic sphere with the social and environ-
mentalone. However, CSscholars argue that economic,social, and environmental
factorsareinterrelated,whilearelevantpartoftheempiricalresearchonCSRtreats
economic and social performance as independent components. In CSR, environ-
mental issues are a subset of social performance, whereas in CS, they represent an
independentelement.TheconceptualizationofCSRandthatofthetriplebottomline
of CS are very similar. “Both show that companies need to balance the three
elements to achieve sustainability and social responsibility results. Both CSR and
CSaimtobalanceeconomicprosperity,socialintegrity,andenvironmentalrespon-
sibility,regardlessofwhethertheyconceptualizeenvironmentalissuesasasubsetof
socialissuesorasthethirdelementofsustainability.”
ThispaperwillconsiderthetriplebottomlineandCSRassimilarapproachesto
thesamephilosophyofsustainability(doPradoetal.,2020).
©TheAuthor(s),underexclusivelicensetoSpringerNatureSwitzerlandAG2022 1
P.Tenuta,D.R.Cambrea,CorporateSustainability,SIDREASeriesinAccounting
andBusinessAdministration,https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-11491-5_1
2 1 Introduction
Inrecent decades, thenotionof CSR hasgiven rise toa competing institutional
logicthathasledcompaniestocomplywithrulesotherthanthoserequiredbylawor
by the market (Mintzberg, 1983), modifying the role of investors. Investors who
traditionally were seen as interested only in profit act as the engine of institutional
changetowardsCSR(Huttonetal.,1998).
The spread of sustainable and responsible investment (SRI), which requires
reliabledataontheESGperformanceofvariouscompanies,changestheinstitutional
context for companies, allowing investors to favor socially responsible ones to the
detriment of those that are not (Avetisyan & Hockerts, 2017; Hockerts & Moir,
2004).Therequestforaccurateinformation,notonlyfromafinancialpointofview
but also from an ESG point of view, has become part of companies’ competitive
strategy (Galbreath, 2013). Furthermore, the Sustainable Development Goals
(SDGs)haveamacro-approachthatmakestheirapplicationdifficultatthecompany
level. All this has led to the proliferation of indexes and ratings that measure
sustainability, often expressed in terms of environmental, social and governance
(ESG)(Diez-Cañameroetal.,2020).
Forthesereasons,itisbecomingincreasinglyessentialforcompaniestomeasure
andreportontheirnon-financialperformance.
Basedonthesepremises,weanalyzethetheoriesrelatedtotheconceptsofCSR,
CS,sustainabledevelopment,andcirculareconomy(CE).Subsequently,weverify
thepracticesrelatedtotheratingandtheformationofESGindexesandthetoolsfor
reporting non-financial performance and, finally, using the ESG rating of a recog-
nized agency, we verify the link between CS and corporate financial performance
alsoconcerningthedistinctionbetweenfamilyandnonfamilyfirms.
Thebookisdividedintothreechaptersinwhichthetheoreticalaspectsaretreated
firstandthenthepracticalimplicationsrelatingtoCSpractices.
In the first chapter, we mainly analyze the issues of CSR and CS as they are
driving factors of sustainability and general well-being (Moon, 2007; Montiel,
2008), focusing on the concept of circular economy (CE) as a critical element in
the transition towards a more sustainable future. The idea of CSR appears to be
interconnected with that of sustainable development, as social responsibility is
nothing more than the contribution that companies make to sustainable develop-
ment.Leadingbusinessestowardssustainabilityrequireachangeinconceivingand
measuring one’s performance. “The transition to a circular economy is a step
towards sustainability” (Aboulamer, 2018). To do this, it is necessary to think in
termsoftriplebottomlines,thatis,toadoptmanagementmethodsaimedatjointly
maximizing the three economic, social, and environmental dimensions (Eccles &
Krzus, 2010). Millar et al. (2019) believe that the CE approach is central to the
debateonsustainabilitypolicy.TheCE,infact,helpstoattainthethreedimensions
(economic,social,andenvironmental)ofsustainabledevelopment(Korhonenetal.,
2018; Schroeder et al., 2019). CE innovations are seen as a component in compa-
nies’ broader attempt to move towards CSR and sustainability (Reif & Rexhäuser,
2018).Forthesereasons,theCEhasgainedincreasingattention(Lieder&Rashid,
2016)andacademicarticlesandpracticalproposalsaroundtheconceptofCEhave
increasedsignificantly(Geisendorf&Pietrulla,2018).