Corporate Governance, Sustainable Development and Value Creation—Some Evidences From Italian Listed Companies

Abstract

Modern corporate situations, characterized by the globalisation of the markets and of the information, highlight the need to link the potential of a not transient growth to the adequate reconciliation of all the expectations converging around the entrepreneurial formula and not only of those attributable to shareholders. In such a defined context, corporate governance tends to evolve from a situation of primary care for the expectations of shareholders (shareholder's view) and for the correlated financial responsibility, to a wide consideration of all the stakeholders (stakeholder's view) and related responsibilities (financial, environmental, social, administrative). The correct carrying out of governance processes requires, therefore, a clear focus on sustainable development and on the related assumption of a concept of global responsibility. The decisions made by the governing bodies must be driven by the purpose to create value in the long term according to conditions of fairness and sustainable development. To sum up, this research aims to deepen the existing connections between corporate governance, sustainable development and value creation on the basis of the empirical analysis of a limited number of listed Italian companies afferent to the public utilities sector. The paper, based on a deductive approach, is composed of two distinct but strictly connected parts: the first theoretical and the second empirical. The empirical research consists of a content analysis of the most recent documents (sustainability reports and annual reports) worked out by the selected companies. The results obtained about the degree respect of sustainable development conditions by each company are linked to the related value dimension (social, economic, competitive and environmental performance) aimed at verifying if the assumption of a corporate governance approach inspired by sustainability is susceptible of favouring the company development in a medium long term. From the delivered research it emerges how public utilities that promote behaviours in line with the sustainability conditions are marked out by stable growth paths. Conversely, the companies that assume a vision mainly addressed to the economic dimension, neglecting the other areas are generally compromised in the performance realized.