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Corporate Sustainability and Firm Performance: Models, Practices and Policy Perspective

A special issue of Journal of Risk and Financial Management (ISSN 1911-8074). This special issue belongs to the section "Business and Entrepreneurship".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 October 2024 | Viewed by 6281

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
Associate Professor, Accounting & Finance, Faculty of Arts and Society, Charles Darwin University, Darwin 0800, Australia
Interests: emerging markets; portfolio construction; asset allocation; market integration; volatility transmission
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

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Guest Editor
Center for Sustainable Development (CSD), FORE School of Management, New Delhi 110016, India
Interests: corporate social responsibility; ESG; corporate social responsibility; sustainable development

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The world has experienced many socioeconomic and environmental challenges over the past few decades. Since the 1980s, various efforts have been made to address these challenges. The most remarkable one is the Brundtland report on ‘Our Common Future’. The report focused on the need to prioritize sustainable development in the present context to ensure that current and future generations can meet their demands. In the year 2015, the United Nations (UN) presented 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) to be achieved—the Agenda 2030. The goals were set following a wide-scale consultation with various stakeholders such as governments, private firms, and academic institutions, among others. Companies are facing immense pressure to pay increasing attention to environmental, social, and governance (ESG) issues while creating value for their key stakeholders. As a result, businesses are incorporating sustainable business practices into their business models as their key stakeholders expect them to be responsible corporate citizens that create less harm to the environment. Corporate social responsibility (CSR) through community development initiatives is the primary step to build a relationship with the communities around them. To counter these challenges and building a cordial relationship, organizations are on a journey for new and improved sustainable practices to become more competitive and sensitive and create innovative business excellence frameworks in the long run. 

This Special Issue aims to contribute to informing action toward achieving corporate sustainability through innovative and solution-oriented research articles, review articles and case studies that elaborate on the linkages between sustainability and the firm performance for achieving business excellence. We call for original research on the crossroads of corporate social responsibility, ESG reporting, social performance, stakeholder management, innovative social models, and firm performance. We intend to provide new avenues to reflect and reimagine the challenges, opportunities, and sustainable outcomes of business practices in the light of the UNSDGs. Theoretical and empirical contributions, either qualitative or quantitative, are therefore welcome. 

Potential topics include but are not limited to the following: 

  • Innovative CSR and sustainability practices;
  • CSR practices and firm performance;
  • Sustainable business practices and models;
  • Barriers to adoption of sustainable business practices;
  • Drivers of sustainable business practices;
  • Sustainable business practices and firm performance;
  • Sustainable business practices and competitive advantage;
  • CSR, sustainability, and SDG’s;
  • Corporate governance for sustainable development;
  • ESG reporting and assessment;
  • ESG investing and performance;
  • Stakeholders management and sustainability. 

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously or be under consideration for publication elsewhere. All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. Submitted papers should be well formatted as per the Journal’s guidelines. 

Dr. Rakesh Gupta
Dr. Shallini Taneja
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Journal of Risk and Financial Management is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • CSR disclosure
  • sustainability reporting
  • ESG
  • sustainable development
  • social performance

Published Papers (5 papers)

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Research

19 pages, 324 KiB  
Article
Impact of Diversity and Inclusion on Firm Performance: Moderating Role of Institutional Ownership
by Rubel Saha, Md Nurul Kabir, Syed Asif Hossain and Sheikh Mohammad Rabby
J. Risk Financial Manag. 2024, 17(8), 344; https://doi.org/10.3390/jrfm17080344 - 8 Aug 2024
Viewed by 255
Abstract
We investigate the impact of diversity and inclusion (D&I) on firm performance for the period 2017–2021. While the existing literature examines the relationship between diversity and firm performance, little is known about the combined effects of D&I on firm performance. This study aims [...] Read more.
We investigate the impact of diversity and inclusion (D&I) on firm performance for the period 2017–2021. While the existing literature examines the relationship between diversity and firm performance, little is known about the combined effects of D&I on firm performance. This study aims to utilize the most widely used data source, the Global Diversity and Inclusion (D&I) Index, provided by the LSEG workspace. Using 8089 firm-year observations from a sample of globally listed firms and an OLS regression model, we find that firms with a higher D&I score have better firm performance, as measured by Tobin’s Q. Our moderating analysis shows that the impact of D&I on firm performance is more pronounced for firms with higher institutional ownership. We also split institutional ownership into domestic and foreign institutional ownership and show that the influence of D&I on firm performance differs between domestic and foreign institutional ownership. Our result is robust when we use an alternative proxy for firm performance and consider the findings without US firms in the sample. The overall findings indicate that considering a diverse and inclusive workforce is worthwhile for key stakeholders when making policy decisions. Full article
26 pages, 3317 KiB  
Article
Mapping Corporate Sustainability and Firm Performance Research: A Scientometric and Bibliometric Examination
by Akshat Chopra, Ashima Singh, Rajarshi Debnath and Majdi Anwar Quttainah
J. Risk Financial Manag. 2024, 17(7), 304; https://doi.org/10.3390/jrfm17070304 - 15 Jul 2024
Viewed by 653
Abstract
Corporate sustainability has garnered increasing attention within the business community as corporations communicate to influence their stakeholders to build sustainable relationships. There has been a surge in research exploring its connection to firm performance, but existing studies lack a cohesive and concentrated approach. [...] Read more.
Corporate sustainability has garnered increasing attention within the business community as corporations communicate to influence their stakeholders to build sustainable relationships. There has been a surge in research exploring its connection to firm performance, but existing studies lack a cohesive and concentrated approach. The aim of this study is to explore the trends of growth of publications; gauge the annual growth rate, annual ratio of growth, relative growth rate, doubling time, and scientific production index; predict future production levels; and look at the relationship between corporate sustainability and firm performance by analysing the literature as well as identifying clusters and links with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The top countries contributing to the research were China, India, and the United States, accounting for over 45% of the global publications. The study analysed a focused corpus of 65 documents from the Scopus database on specific subfields of corporate sustainability and firm performance, identifying five main thematic clusters related to environmental performance, financial performance, corporate sustainability reporting, corporate social performance, and green supply chain management, with significant citations related to 17 SDGs. The annual growth rate (AGR) of publications was found to be −2.88%, with an average of 4.06 publications per year. The relative growth rate (RGR) decreased from 0.69 in 2010 to 0.36 in 2023, and the doubling time (Dt.) increased from 1.00 in 2010 to 1.93 in 2023. Employing structured methods and the PRISMA protocol, this scientifically rigorous study points towards identification of research themes linking sustainability practices to firm performance. Exponential smoothing (Holt’s linear trend model) is employed to project future research output within the field. The significant trends include an increase in publication frequency since 2017, indicating a growth phase in the research field. The findings highlight the need for greater investigation from developing countries and the importance of integrating sustainability considerations into business strategies. Full article
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<p>PRISMA protocol for the study (from <a href="#B65-jrfm-17-00304" class="html-bibr">Page et al. 2021</a>).</p>
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<p>The number of documents and cumulative share on a year-by-year basis. Source: Authors.</p>
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<p>Percentage share of subjects covered by the publications. Source: Authors.</p>
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<p>Scatter plot of h and g index for top authors in corporate sustainability and firm performance. Source: Authors.</p>
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<p>Mapped clusters with SDGs. Source: Authors.</p>
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<p>Distribution of SDGs within each cluster. Source: Authors.</p>
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<p>Density visualisation of keyword co-occurrence. Source: Authors.</p>
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15 pages, 1364 KiB  
Article
Application of the New Importance–Performance Analysis Method to Explore the Strategies of Rural Outdoor Dining Experiences in Taiwan
by Shang-Pin Li
J. Risk Financial Manag. 2024, 17(5), 208; https://doi.org/10.3390/jrfm17050208 - 15 May 2024
Viewed by 648
Abstract
Taiwan is an island where the city and nature combine to become the most beautiful open-air museum in the world, known as Formosa. With climate change and industrial development as the main changes in consumption behavior, the integration of ecology, the environment, and [...] Read more.
Taiwan is an island where the city and nature combine to become the most beautiful open-air museum in the world, known as Formosa. With climate change and industrial development as the main changes in consumption behavior, the integration of ecology, the environment, and agriculture into food culture is gradually becoming valued in Taiwan. This study explores the quality of the rural outdoor dining experience in Taiwan; therefore, questionnaires were distributed to outdoor dining attendees from the north, central, south, and east, and we obtained 396 valid questionnaires. The rural outdoor dining satisfaction experience can be improved using the innovative New Importance–Performance Analysis (NIPA) model, which is based on the original IPA methodology but modified by the performance of the risk management judge. Additionally, we applied the zone of tolerance (ZOT) to evaluate the quality of priority and the importance–performance analysis (IPA) to make innovation decisions. The model also encourages decision-makers to consider environmental factors and customer feedback. It has not only been used to measure customer satisfaction, assess customer behavior, identify customer needs, and determine areas where quality needs to be improved, but it can also be used to measure the success of business decisions and identify potential areas for improvement. The results show that rural outdoor dining experiences in Taiwan have led to the development of a low carbon economy and a new business model for operators in order to follow the result of NIPA and develop service marketing strategies. Full article
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<p>Research model.</p>
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<p>NIPA model.</p>
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<p>NIPA of satisfaction with service.</p>
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17 pages, 546 KiB  
Article
Corporate Social Responsibility: Impact on Firm Performance for an Emerging Economy
by Neeraj Singhal, Pinku Paul, Sunil Giri and Shallini Taneja
J. Risk Financial Manag. 2024, 17(4), 171; https://doi.org/10.3390/jrfm17040171 - 22 Apr 2024
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 2224
Abstract
Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) was usually referred to as a concept where companies initiate voluntary action towards social and environmental concerns in the context of business operations related to the stakeholders of the company prior to the CSR Act 2013 in India. Post-2013, [...] Read more.
Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) was usually referred to as a concept where companies initiate voluntary action towards social and environmental concerns in the context of business operations related to the stakeholders of the company prior to the CSR Act 2013 in India. Post-2013, the voluntary initiative was replaced by regulatory guidelines to address social and environmental concerns. The CSR applicability–investment gap was used as a base concept in this study with instrumental theory; the study offers a strategic perspective of CSR and how organizations emphasized maximizing stakeholders’ value. In order to further investigate the effect of CSR on corporate financial performance (CFP) through the measure of shareholders’ value, i.e., the return on equity (ROE), the study used the sample from the National Stock Exchange (NSE)-Nifty-100 indexed companies of Emerging Economy—India for a span of fourteen years (2009–2023). The vast majority of research in this domain is conducted in developed countries; the research gap is filled by this study by considering India and drawing samples from multiple industries. The empirical model was developed by using panel data regression, where the dependent variable was ROE, and the independent variables were earning per share (EPS), log total income (LTI), CSR applicability/profit after tax (CRSAPPPAT), and CSR investment/profit after tax (CSRIPAT). The findings also highlighted the CSR applicability and investment of the firms during pre- and post-Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) periods. The same was also analyzed for the firms committed to CSR and not committed to CSR. The results indicated that there is no significant impact of the CSR/ESG initiatives (applicability and investment) on the ROE of the firms. The performance could be better if the companies minimize the CSR/ESG promise–performance gap through effective communication with stakeholders. Full article
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<p>Proposed Model, Authors’ Compilation, Y<sub>it</sub>—Dependent variable with “i” as firms and “t” as years, R1, R2, R3, and R4—Independent variables with “i” as firms and “t” as years, β<sub>1</sub>, β<sub>2</sub>, β<sub>3</sub>, β<sub>4</sub>, and β<sub>5</sub>—Coefficient of independent variables, and ε<sub>it</sub>—Error term.</p>
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19 pages, 320 KiB  
Article
Unveiling the Nexus: Exploring the Impact of Corporate Governance on the Financial Performance of Acquiring Companies in the Indian Context
by Debi Prasad Satapathy, Tarun Kumar Soni and Pramod Kumar Patjoshi
J. Risk Financial Manag. 2024, 17(1), 13; https://doi.org/10.3390/jrfm17010013 - 27 Dec 2023
Viewed by 1618
Abstract
This study investigates the effect of corporate governance characteristics on the financial performance of 124 listed Indian companies that have undergone mergers and acquisitions between 2014 and 2020. It employs several performance measures, such as short-term capital market performance, long-term capital market performance, [...] Read more.
This study investigates the effect of corporate governance characteristics on the financial performance of 124 listed Indian companies that have undergone mergers and acquisitions between 2014 and 2020. It employs several performance measures, such as short-term capital market performance, long-term capital market performance, accounting- and market-based measures, and firm-level control factors. The study finds board size to be a positive and significant factor affecting short-term market performance. Furthermore, it also documents weak linkages with other corporate governance variables, such as board independence and CEO duality. Regarding control variables, leverage, company age, price-to-book ratio, and research and development expenses significantly impact acquiring companies’ financial returns. The findings add to our understanding of corporate governance’s impact on performance in cases such as mergers and acquisitions. Full article
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