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The impact of direct environmental, social, and governance reporting: Empirical evidence in European‐listed companies in the agri‐food sector
Author(s) -
Conca Lavinia,
Manta Francesco,
Morrone Domenico,
Toma Pierluigi
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
business strategy and the environment
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.123
H-Index - 105
eISSN - 1099-0836
pISSN - 0964-4733
DOI - 10.1002/bse.2672
Subject(s) - profitability index , accounting , business , corporate governance , transparency (behavior) , empirical evidence , corporate social responsibility , sustainability reporting , sustainability , accountability , value (mathematics) , quality (philosophy) , finance , public relations , ecology , philosophy , epistemology , machine learning , political science , computer science , law , biology
Companies are continuously pressured for the dissemination of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) information, because of the constant debate on the issue of corporate sustainability, considered a critical and very important topic for society; despite this pressure, ESG's disclosure practices vary considerably from company to company, both in quantity and quality. The study aims to address the issue and verify the effectiveness of ESG reporting through the influence that the ESG disclosure has on profitability and value of listed European agri‐food companies. The results obtained, studying a sample of 57 European‐listed companies (EU28) in the agri‐food sector observed in the period 2010–2018, show that the ESG disclosure practices of the companies impact corporate profitability; specifically, evidence is provided for the existence of a positive relationship between profitability and disclosure practices of strictly environmental and social information and a negative effect between company market value and disclosure practices relating to governance. These results suggest that greater transparency and accountability help to improve business profitability.