An Empirical Study on the Impact of Sustainability Reporting on Firm Value

Value relevance is an attractive exploratory topic for firms due to its influence on a firm’s competitiveness. Investigating potential factors that have an impact on firm value can provide management with the insights in how to enhance value. The aim of this paper is to explore the association between sustainability reporting and firm value to gain an awareness of the value relevance of sustainability disclosures. The study concentrates on large listed German firms as research objects to reduce the influence of firm size, legislation and geographic differences. Moreover, instead of observing diverse sustainability reporting guidelines in one research, this paper focuses on the current most popular guidance, the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI). With this focus, it is more likely to achieve a relevant comparability among the firms’ sustainability reporting. This concentration also leads to the main research question of whether large listed German firms which have a higher adherent level to GRI guidance tend to have greater firm value. The research applies Multiple Regression to test the above relationship by involving 485 observations from 97 large listed German firms within the research period from 2013 to 2017. Along with the main model, a robustness test was performed to explore the connection in the context of a four-month period after the year-end deadline to issue sustainability reports in accordance with German Law. The findings indicate a significant negative relation between firm value and a firm’s GRI adherent level of sustainability reporting.

Institutional Governance Perspectives of Carbon Emission Disclosures among Electricity Companies in Asia

On the basis of institutional governance perspectives, it examines internal and state factors influencing the carbon emission disclosures among 75 electricity companies in Asia. It content analysed the annual reports and stand-alone sustainability reports for the year 2013. Overall, the findings suggested that the adoption of GRI Sustainability Reporting Guidelines and a country’s strength of law enforcement and commitment towards the environment had a significant influence on the extent of carbon emission disclosures. Other variables – environmental management system, environmental committee, voluntary participation in CDP programmme, corporate governance, and country’s legal origin – are not significant. Considering electricity industry and Asian region are among the main contributors to the global carbon emissions, there is a pressing need for the leaders within the industry and across the countries to institute mechanisms to combat climate change including through making corporate disclosures mandatory.

Influence of Quality of Disclosure and Enviromental Performance Toward Companies Value in Manufacture and Mining Industries Listed on the Indonesia Stock Exchange

This study aims to analyze the effect of quality disclosure and environmental performance on the value of companies in manufacturing and mining companies using the GRI G4 sustainability reporting guidelines. The sample in this study were 8 companies selected using purposive sampling technique. The research method used is quantitative with explanatory methods. The analysis technique used is using multiple linear regression analysis. The results of the study indicate that the variable quality of disclosure and environmental performance has no influence on the value of the company. Both variables show a significance value greater than 0.05 with a confident level of 95%.

INDIKATOR SOSIAL – EKONOMI UNTUK PENGUKURAN KINERJA LINGKUNGAN KAWASAN INDUSTRI BERBASIS KELAPA SAWIT KEK SEI MANGKEI (IDENTIFICATION OF SOCIAL – ECONOMIC INDICATORS FOR ENVIRONMENTAL PERFORMANCE MEASUREMENT INDUSTRIAL AREAS BASED ON PALM OIL)

KEK Sei Mangkei merupakan perwujudan dari program MP3EI, dengan mengembangkan industri hilir kelapa sawit di Indonesia. Keistimewaan KEK Sei Mangkei yaitu berada pada centra bahan baku dan lokasinya yang strategis untuk mendukung pengembangan KEK Sei Mangkei di masa mendatang. Untuk dapat mewujudkan keberlanjutan industri, perusahaan diminta untuk melakukan penilaian kinerja lingkungan, dengan melihat berbagai indikator. Penelitian ini fokus pada identifikasi indikator sosial dan ekonomi yang mempengaruhi kinerja lingkungan di kawasan industri Sei Mangkei berbasis klaster kelapa sawit. Penelitian dilakukan dengan metode survey dengan teknik pengumpulan data melalui wawancara dan kuesioner. Analisis data dilakukan secara kuantitatif deskriptif dan kualitatif. Berdasarkan hasil penelitian disimpulkan bahwa identifikasi variabel indikator sosial dan ekonomi di KEK Sei Mangkei yang mengacu pada Sustainability Reporting Guidelines (2011), yang didasarkan pada GRI Reporting Framework (2010) dapat dilaksanakan di KEK Sei Mangkei, walaupun ada beberapa variabel yang belum dilaksanakan dengan baik, dikarenakan masih sedikitnya industri yang beroperasional di KEK Sei Mangkei. Kata kunci: KEK Sei Mangkei, kelapa sawit, kinerja lingkungan, GRI 2010, indikator sosial – ekonomi

Issues in Sustainability Accounting Reporting

In the U.S., sustainability accounting reporting is developing and becoming more prevalent in public companies. This paper reviews accounting literature and Dow 30 companies’ websites, presents a comprehensive view of the landscape of sustainability accounting reporting, and identifies seven issues of the reporting frameworks of sustainability accounting, i.e., (1) definitions, (2) measurements and disclosures, (3) motivations, (4) compliance, (5) enforcement, (6) standardization, and (7) the ultimate effect on reliability and comparability.An archival analysis approach is used to summarize and compare Dow 30 sustainability accounting reporting frameworks and information disclosed in 2015 annual reports and websites. The most popular framework is the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) G4 Sustainability Reporting Guidelines. Some companies developed sustainability accounting reporting frameworks and others did not disclose any information regarding sustainability accounting reporting. Although the GRI framework is the most used, external assurance is present in only a few companies.

Promoting Sustainability Transparency in European Local Governments: An Empirical Analysis Based on Administrative Cultures

Nowadays, the transparency of governments with respect to the sustainability of public services is a very interesting issue for stakeholders and academics. It has led to previous research and international organisations (EU, IMF, OECD, United Nations, IFAC, G-20, World Bank) to recommend promotion of the online dissemination of economic, social and environmental information. Based on previous studies about e-government and the influence of administrative cultures on governmental accountability, this paper seeks to identify political actions useful to improve the practices of transparency on economic, social and environmental sustainability in European local governments. We perform a comparative analysis of sustainability information published on the websites of 72 local governments in 10 European countries grouped into main three cultural contexts (Anglo-Saxon, Southern European and Nordic). Using international sustainability reporting guidelines, our results reveal significant differences in local government transparency in each context. The most transparent local governments are the Anglo-Saxon ones, followed by Southern European and Nordic governments. Based on individualized empirical results for each administrative style, our conclusions propose useful policy interventions to enhance sustainability transparency within each cultural tradition, such as development of legal rules on transparency and sustainability, tools to motivate local managers for online diffusion of sustainability information and analysis of information needs of stakeholders.

SUSTAINABILITY REPORTING - A CHALLENGE FOR SERBIAN COMPANIES/ИЗВЕШТАВАЊЕ О ОДРЖИВОМ ПОСЛОВАЊУ – ИЗАЗОВ ЗА СРПСКЕ КОМПАНИЈЕ

The purpose of this paper is to point out that sustainability reporting is also important for companies which are operating in developing countries, such as Serbia, but they have a lot of challenges on the road to sustainability reporting. The aim of the conducted research is to determine the level of sustainability reporting by the companies based in Serbia, to consider to which extent they are familiar with the sustainability reporting guidelines and to identify the application level of the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) Guidelines in the preparation of sustainability reports. The research is realized by the method of descriptive statistics and correlation analysis. The results of the study show that the level of sustainability reporting by Serbian companies included in the sample is low and not satisfactory.