Abstract
The concept of sustainability reporting has been addressed by experts worldwide and is defined as the process of communicating the social and environmental effects of the economic actions of organizations to special interest groups within society in general. The main purpose of this research was to identify and analyze the opinions of the real benefits obtained by large companies in Romania following the elaboration of sustainability reports and their contribution to the development of a sustainable economy. A quantitative marketing research was carried out on the sample randomly extracted from a target community of the largest 5750 companies across 35 counties that were active in strategic priority areas of Romania. Both explicitly and implicitly, the research resulted in essential aspects related to the correlation of the sustainability strategy with sustainability reporting, how sustainable development goals contribute to improving all of the processes included in the integrated company management system, how the internal and external benefits can contribute to increasing economic, social, and environmental performance, and building sustainable relationships with shareholders, employees, and stakeholders. In addition, the findings show that aligning a sustainability strategy with a global business strategy and including sustainability reporting requirements (non-financial) are important concerns at the level of the top companies in Romania.
Highlights
Considered by many specialists as a goal and by others as an instrument, sustainability reporting has been integrated into the business model of companies due to its positive impact on stakeholder relations, measuring and communicating progress, and favoring better positions in the markets where they act [1,2,3,4]
This study focused on the benefits of sustainability reporting by building strong and long-lasting relationships between stakeholders and top companies in Romania, a country that has transitioned to a market economy in the last three decades
Managers from more than 122 companies from the counties IF (34), TM (20), PH (16), AG (12), BV (11), SB (10), AR (10), and CJ (9) identified other external benefits, such as the inclusion in the sustainability strategies of new objectives related to building loyalty programs and increasing customer loyalty (12.6%), and meeting the expectations and wishes of the stakeholders by annually reviewing the issues they consider relevant for inclusion in the sustainability report, ensuring that all reported information is anchored in the present organizational context (16%) (Table A4)
Summary
Considered by many specialists as a goal and by others as an instrument, sustainability reporting has been integrated into the business model of companies due to its positive impact on stakeholder relations, measuring and communicating progress, and favoring better positions in the markets where they act [1,2,3,4]. Most investors consider that sustainability is a long-term goal that will establish a viable business model and will be assessed by other competitors from an environmental point of view [8]. Sustainability reporting is (1) an important factor to improve the company’s environmental initiatives, as well as its dealings with customers and investors; and (2) a necessary trump card to certify and guarantee new investors by ensuring responsibility and transparency of the provided information [9,10,11]
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