중요성에 근거한 지속가능성 공시와 주가 정보성

Abstract

[Purpose] This study analyzes the relationship between the amount of materiality-based sustainability information and stock price informativeness for Korean listed companies. In addition, the study investigates whether this relationship appears differentially according to the company’s information demand (uncertainty of profit information and degree of growth opportunity).
 [Methodology] The amount of materiality-based sustainability information is calculated based on the importance identified by Sustainability Accounting Standards Board among the ESG information disclosure data of individual firms provided by Bloomberg. Stock price informativeness is defined as stock price variations reflecting firm-specific information excluding market and sector influences.
 [Findings] The empirical results for 2,932 listed firm-year samples from 2010 to 2020 are as follows. First, the amount of materiality-based sustainability information showed a positive association with stock price informativeness. This suggests that material-based sustainability information has a company-specific information usefulness in terms of stock price information, suggesting that the information is usefully used in the capital market. Second, this relationship was found to be significant the more uncertain the company’s profit information and the lower the growth opportunity.
 [Implications] This study suggests the usefulness of sustainability information based on materiality, and provides policy implications in terms of preliminarily examining the impact on domestic companies when the International Sustainability Standards Board are applied in the near future. In addition, it has policy implications in that material sustainability information could have a differential impact on companies depending on the information demand.