United Nations Global Compact Research Articles

Determinants and convergence of biodiversity or extinction disclosures of mining firms in Africa

This study probes into the biodiversity disclosure practices of mining firms in Africa, the determinants and the evidence of convergence using information economics analysis. Data was sourced from 21 mining firms covering the period 2006 to 2019 operating in Morocco and South Africa with various mine sites owned in other countries like Ghana. Using a combination of panel-corrected standard errors regression, logistic regression and the test of beta and sigma-convergence, the study found that there is a moderate level of biodiversity disclosure across African mining firms and there is both beta and sigma-convergence. The study found that board size enhances disclosures on all biodiversity indicators, viz, biodiversity disclosure index, 304-1 (proximity of sites to biodiversity hotspots) being the most disclosed, followed by 304-3 (habitats protected or restored), 304-4 (IUCN Red List Species) and 304-2 (impact of activities on biodiversity). Generally, board size drives biodiversity disclosures but board independence does not. Additionally, the membership of the United Nations Global Compact, a multistakeholder initiative significantly affects every disclosure indicator. Financial leverage drives the disclosure of 3 indicators. Other factors like firm size, multinational enterprise status, profitability, cross-listing, human capital development, and gross domestic product were explored. The results of the analyses are relevant for practitioners, policymakers, regulators and academics alike.

The Impact of Social Responsibility on the Performance of European Listed Companies

This research aims to analyze the impact of social responsibility (SR) on the performance of 216 European companies from 2017 to 2021. The objective of this research is to determine how the operational, financial, and market performance of companies is influenced by social responsibility practices. The methodology adopted is quantitative in nature, using the estimation of models for panel data. To quantify corporate performance, this study uses the return on assets (ROA), the return on equity (ROE), and finally Tobin’s Q ratio. Additionally, environment, social, and governance (ESG) and United Nations Global Compact (GC) scores are used to quantify SR. Our findings indicate a complex relationship between SR and corporate performance. While SR positively impacts market performance, it negatively affects operational and financial performance. This disparity becomes more pronounced when comparing companies with the highest and lowest SR scores. Further analysis reveals that the environment, social, and governance dimensions of ESG negatively correlate with ROA and ROE, but positively correlate with Tobin’s Q. The GC’s anti-corruption and environment scores exhibit a negative relationship with Tobin’s Q, the human rights dimension negatively correlates with ROE and ROA, and the labor law dimension positively influences ROE. Notably, firm size amplifies these relationships, whereas firm age has a dampening effect. This research offers significant contributions to the literature by providing a comprehensive analysis of the impact of social responsibility on corporate performance based on ESG and GC scores.

Sustainability reporting and assurance practices contribution to SDG disclosure: evidence from communication on progress (CoP)

PurposeThis study aims to investigate the impact of diverse practices in sustainability reporting and assurance on the disclosure of sustainable development goals (SDGs). Specifically, the authors examine the disclosure of SDGs along two dimensions: disclosure breadth, denoting the number of goals mentioned, and disclosure depth, encompassing the extent of actions disclosed to advance these goals.Design/methodology/approachUsing a panel Tobit regression analysis, the authors analyse the communication on progress questionnaires from 299 companies (resulting in 1,015 firm-year observations) participating in the United Nations Global Compact from 2017 to 2021.FindingsThe findings revealed that greater adherence to Global Reporting Initiative standards increases SDG disclosure breadth; external assurance using publicly recognised standards, more than proprietary methods, is associated with SDG disclosure breadth and depth; and the review of information by multiple stakeholders improves the depth of SDG disclosure more than evaluation by a panel of peers.Originality/valueThe originality of this study lies in its examination of the intricate interplay between sustainability disclosure and assurance practices, on the one hand, and the disclosure of SDGs, on the other. Uniquely, the authors consider the various levels of implementation of these practices, allowing for a comprehensive assessment of their influence on SDG disclosure.

Communicating Global Governmentality: The United Nations Global Compact, BP, and the Implicit Violence of Human Rights Discourse

ABSTRACT The reports the United Nations Global Compact (UNGC) requires of its members provide an opportunity to study the shifting role of the private sector within the regime of human rights discourse. Using British Petroleum as a case study, I combine technical communication theories of power with Foucault’s concept of governmentality to examine the rhetorical strategies in UNGC-BP communications, finding a disconnect between human rights principles and company reporting that validates rather than rejects corporate violence.

Membership duration of tourism firms in the United Nations Global Compact Programme

This study examines the membership duration of travel and leisure (tourism) firms in the United Nations Global Compact Sustainability Reporting Programme between 2007 and 2020. Important factors of duration include firm characteristics (such as size and ownership) as well as contextual country-specific elements relating to environmental progress and control of corruption. Data originate from 693 member firms entering the programme at any point during the analysis period. Estimation results, based on the Cox proportional hazard model, show that tourism firms in countries that decouple emissions from economic growth are more likely to endure in the programme. A high level of corruption control in the home country is also associated with a significantly higher probability of membership duration. Larger firms, publicly listed firms and members of local Global Compact networks are also more likely to remain in the programme. Control of corruption is only important for duration outside the OECD; meanwhile, environmental performance at the country level is crucial independent of location. Environmental performance is particularly significant in more recent years, in parallel with an accelerated green transition in many countries.

Anti-corruption reporting: a review empirical literature

Purpose This review summarizes the empirical literature dealing with anti-corruption disclosure as this specific type of disclosure has attracted a great deal of attention in accounting literature. Design/methodology/approach Keywords used to collect relevant papers from numerous electronic databases (e.g. Science Direct, Emerald, Wiley-Blackwell, Springer and Taylor and Francis) include “anti-corruption reporting” “anti-corruption disclosure”. The final sample encompasses a set of 35 empirical studies published between 2015 and the beginning of 2024. Findings The summary of reviewed studies suggests that anti-corruption empirical studies are mainly cross-country investigations. Two streams of research are identified: (i) the determinants of anti-corruption disclosure and (ii) the economic consequences of anti-corruption reporting. With respect to the first stream of research, six main categories of determinants are identified (corporate characteristics, corporate governance attributes, informal institutions, stakeholders’ pressures, country institutional effect and regulation effect). With respect to the second stream of research, findings show that anti-corruption reporting is negatively associated with profitability, reduces earnings management and enhances corporate social reputation. Practical implications With respect to regulators, this review sheds light on the importance of anti-corruption disclosure in the fight against corruption. It also suggests that the adoption of some regulations like the Directive 2014/95/EU in the European Union or the 2010 UK Bribery Act have contributed to more transparency. With respect to investors, the existence of some determinants of anti-corruption reporting (e.g. United Nations Global Compact membership, cross-listing, multinationality, board independence) may signal the adequacy of corporate reporting policy and that management is following an adequate strategy to fight corruption and enhance transparency. Originality/value This review offers future research avenues for accounting scholars with respect anti-corruption disclosure literature.

Tourism and the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals

Contemporary society has experienced a significant evolution in its engagement with sustainability, driven by various factors, including global initiatives such as the United Nations (UN) Global Compact (2000), further energized by the 2030 Agenda and its Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). This study explores the interplay between tourism and these UN’s Sustainable Development Goals, employing a bibliometric analysis of scholarly literature, with findings processed through Iramuteq software. The investigation reveals that academic discourse connects tourism to 13 of the 17 SDGs outlined in the UN’s 2030 Agenda, with a predominant focus on SDG 8 – decent work and economic growth. Notably, the analysis uncovers a discrepancy in the scholarly treatment of SDG 14 – life below water, which, despite being earmarked by the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) as a critical area for tourism, receives limited attention, in contrast to SDG 11 – sustainable cities and communities. The study concludes that the academic exploration of the nexus between tourism and the SDGs has been relatively superficial, lacking depth in the context of the broader tourism and sustainability discourse.

Commitment of travel and leisure firms to sustainable development goals

This study investigates the interdependencies of commitments to Sustainable Development Goals as reported by travel and leisure firms active in the United Nations Global Compact Programme. Descriptive statistics reveal that SDG 8 ‘economic growth and decent jobs’ (88%), SDG 13 ‘climate action’ and SDG 5 ‘gender equality’ (SDG 5) (78% each) as well as SDG 12 sustainable production and consumption (75%) are the goals most commonly committed to. Estimation results from the multivariate probit model show that a firm committing to one SDG will likely also dedicate itself to another. Thus, there is a strong positive correlation between the commitments to SDGs 8 and 13, as well as between the SDGs 5 and 8. This indicates that SDG 8 and SDG 13, on the one hand and SDG 5 and SDG 8, on the other, are not seen as contradictory by the firms.

Environmental Management of Ecuador’s Business Sector in the Fight against Climate Change

The private sector is part of the United Nations Global Compact, which promotes the voluntary participation of organizations to implement environmental care strategies. The purpose of this article is to examine the performance of Ecuadorian companies in regard to environmental management, especially in the fight against climate change, considering the economic sectors (manufacturing, mining, commerce, construction and services). Figures from the National Institute of Statistics and the Census of Ecuador (2020) are used, including descriptive statistics and cross-tabulations with Cramer’s V index. The results show that approximately 5% of companies had the ISO 14001:2015 certification. In the seven actions against climate change considered, the proportion of companies that did not consider them to be current expenses predominated. Cramer’s V index, for associating the economic sector and the environmental spend, revealed that certain economic sectors (manufacturing and mining) are contributing significantly to environmental management spending in the areas of air, soil, wastewater and waste treatment, while no economic sector dominates the others in areas such as radiation treatment, the use of mineral or energy resources and water resources.

Human Resource Management Practices and Decent Work in UN Global Compact: A Qualitative Analysis of Participants’ Reports

This study aims at describing and characterizing the Human Resources practices (HRPs), as reported by organizations within the framework of the United Nations Global Compact (UNGC). That endeavor was undertaken considering the concept of decent work (DW). Specifically, we intended to analyze and verify to what extent those practices translate and incorporate the concept of DW to build a typology of commitment levels by organizations regarding the values behind UNGC. We conducted a documentary analysis on 40 annual reports of Portuguese organizations’ participants of the UNGC. A qualitative content analysis using NVivo and a descriptive and cluster analysis based on coding similarity were performed. One output of this research is the design of a maturity typology of adhesion to the UNCG. Four levels were identified, reflecting expressed concerns with DW concepts and the UNGC Ten Principles and its integration into HRP. This research reflects the concerns of Human Resources Management (HRM) with the wellbeing, development, and conditions of employees and may support the design of future research and interventions, leading to more responsible and ethical HRM practices.

Unlocking the Sustainable Workplace Equality Policy (SWEP): Evidence from an Emerging Country

Businesses are actively integrating sustainability principles into their operations by pursuing goals that go beyond reputation management, which all help companies capture value through growth and return on investment. This study aimed to investigate the current status of the Sustainable Workplace Equality Policy (SWEP) in an emerging country—Kuwait—and how it impacts firms’ financial and market performance. This study included companies listed in the Kuwait Boursa (Boursa Kuwait is the operator of the Kuwait Stock Exchange) in the period between 2016 and 2021. A disclosure index was prepared for SWEP based on guidelines provided by a combination of various sources and standards such as the Global Reporting Initiatives (GRI) Standard, S&P Global Corporate Sustainability Assessment, Dow Jones Sustainability Index, United Nations Global Compact, and KPMG Sustainability Reporting Standards. Time series regression analysis was used to examine the hypotheses of this study which were developed using Rawls’ Theory of Justice (1971). The results revealed a strong positive relationship between SWEP disclosure and firm measures of financial performance. The results also indicate that SWEP is value-relevant and affects firms’ market value, suggesting that investors consider firms’ disclosure of SWEP when making investment decisions in Kuwait. The results of the current study are of interest to several stakeholders, especially investors and policymakers. Specifically, this study is relevant to the Kuwaiti Government, which has defined a clear path for sustainable growth with the Vision 2035/New Kuwait initiative that is aimed at transforming the country into a financial and commercial hub for the region by 2035.

The Comparison of Impact of UNGC and the Paris Agreement on the financial sustainability of Various Industries globally

This study researches the impact of the Paris Agreement and the United Nations Global Compact (UNGC) on financial sustainability across various industries and states worldwide, a topic of significant global discourse. As sustainable development goals increasingly shape the modern economy, actors at different levels of the global community are ensuring Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) standards. However, the economic crises of the past decade have intensified competition among states. By using an event study model, specifically the Cumulative Average Abnormal Returns (CAAR) approach, this research analyzes the diverse impacts of the Paris Agreement and the UNGC on financial sustainability. It examines how these agreements affect developed versus developing states, and ecologically sensitive versus non-sensitive industries, and assesses whether the Paris Agreement has a stronger impact than the UNGC. Furthermore, this paper engages in a discourse on the influence of ESG on financial sustainability, highlighting associated challenges and potential solutions.

An Attempt to Understand Stock Market Investors’ Behaviour: The Case of Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) Forces in the Pakistani Stock Market

The present study investigates the decision-making process of investors on the Pakistan Stock Exchange with regard to portfolio construction, explicitly focusing on the incorporation of ESG concerns. A quantitative research approach has been implemented for this paper. The hypotheses have been developed and tested through the adapted questionnaires. The data were collected from individual Pakistani investors. The present study employed SmartPLS-SEM to quantitatively assess data received from a sample of 421 out of 500 respondents. Based on the available data, investors participating in the Pakistan Stock Exchange are notably impacted by ESG aspects. The findings of this study hold significance for emerging economy firms, regulators, and investors, in terms of both theoretical and practical ramifications. The study’s findings demonstrate a clear indication of investors’ significant emphasis on ESG matters. This research made a significant contribution to the field of behavioural finance with a focus on ESG-related issues. This work contributes to the literature on ESG elements by using the Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB) to adapt the ESG components from the United Nations Global Compact (UNGC) and Thomson Reuters Corporate Responsibility Index (TRCRI). Furthermore, it provides valuable insights for stakeholders who are involved in the ever-evolving realm of sustainable finance within developing countries.

Assessing the impact of the sustainable development goals on corporate philanthropy: A study of Canada's leading private sector companies

AbstractThis paper examines the impact of the United Nations sustainable development goals (SDGs) on community investment (CI), otherwise known as corporate philanthropic expenditures, among Canada's leading private sector companies. The study investigates whether there have been discernible shifts in CI relative to net profit after tax (NPAT) before and after the introduction of the SDGs in 2015, and whether corporations' commitment to the SDGs and/or membership in the United Nations Global Compact (UNGC) have resulted in material increases to CI expenditures. The analysis is based on descriptive statistics, comparing the mean and standard deviation of CI as a percentage of NPAT across 58 firms included in our study. The findings reveal a minor decrease in CI as a percentage of NPAT following the introduction of the SDGs and lower average CI amounts among corporations committed to the SDGs and firms with UNGC membership. This paper offers an interpretive analysis of the results, highlighting the implications of potential greenwashing and the importance of corporate transparency. Further, we emphasize the need for policies to ensure genuine corporate financial commitment to socioeconomic and environmental causes.

Does SDG disclosure reflect corporate underlying sustainability performance? Evidence from UN Global Compact participants

AbstractThe 2030 United Nations (UN) Agenda for Sustainable Development has posed unprecedented challenges to businesses to integrate Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) concerns into their core operations and strategies and improve their transparency on SDG commitment toward investors and other stakeholders. However, prior studies have questioned the significance of firms' SDG disclosure practices, evidencing their inadequacy. Nevertheless, despite the burgeoning SDG disclosure literature, the extent to which SDG disclosure effectively reflects corporate sustainability performance is still unclear. Accordingly, using data from a large panel data set comprising 635 companies from 45 world countries and 8 industry sectors over the period 2016–2020, this study investigates the relationship between corporate environmental, social and governance (ESG) performance and sustainable development goals (SDGs) disclosure. Voluntary SDG disclosure has been measured using a disclosure index based on each company's response to the uniform and well‐designed communication on progress (CoP) questionnaire drafted annually by business participants in the United Nations Global Compact (UNGC). Several panel Tobit regressions have been estimated to examine whether the level of SDG disclosure retrieved from the CoPs reflects underlying corporate sustainability performance measured by total and individual ESG scores provided by the Refinitiv Eikon database. The study's findings provide robust empirical evidence that sustainability performance positively affects SDG disclosure, especially through environmental and social channels. Therefore, in line with the voluntary disclosure theory's arguments, this study highlights that superior sustainability performers provide more SDG disclosure to prove their high performance and distinguish themselves in the eyes of investors and other stakeholders.

The Powerpoint Imagination: visualization and managerial vocabularies in sustainability reports

Sustainability reporting has been established as a dominant but problematic communication practice in global sustainability management. In this paper, we challenge the commonplace view of reporting as the simple and textual transmission of information, by interpreting corporate sustainability reports as visual artefacts that encourage particular views of environmental issues. We discuss visualization as a key practice in communication and rhetoric, asking what visual managerialism looks like in corporate reports, focusing on a corpus drawn from the Swedish United Nations Global Compact. We engage in a three-stage rhetorical critique to identify three kinds of visualizations: numerical, diagrammatic, and pictorial, establishing how they emphasize communicative characteristics such as logic, simplicity, and clarity. We consolidate these characteristics with the term ‘Powerpoint Imagination,’ arguing that they construct environmental problems in terms of a technocratic solutionism, i.e., efficiency, standardization and control. We discuss some issues with the Powerpoint Imagination by contrasting it with other images from sustainability reports, concluding with implications for future research.

Transparency and information asymmetry in the financial market: Strategic dependencies between sustainability disclosure, SDG achievement and financial and information efficiency

In today’s financial world, the pursuit of sustainable development has evolved from an ethical imperative to a strategic necessity. It has spurred corporations to enhance transparency regarding their non-financial and responsible or ESG practices. This paper aims to formalize the strategic dependencies between sustainability disclosure, SDG achievement, and the financial and information efficiency of the financial market. The research methods are normality tests, canonical correlation analysis, and multivariate multiple and univariate regression analysis. The object of the study is 137 countries. The time period is 2022. The results confirmed that a positive strong correlation was found between sustainability disclosure and the achievement of the SDGs on the one hand and financial and information efficiency of the financial market on the other. Identifying the direction of the relationship also confirmed two-way positive dependencies between the indicators, in particular, the SDG Index will have the most significant impact on the growth of GDP per capita, the change in the Economic Sustainability Competitiveness Index on the growth of the United Nations Global Compact participants. The specified connection can be used as the basis for the formation of the concept of ensuring transparency and leveling information asymmetry in the activities of enterprises.

The private sector's role in Colombia to achieving the circular economy and the Sustainable Development Goals

The circular economy (CE) and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are two well-known initiatives to address issues like social injustice, environmental pollution, and resource scarcity. While these two initiatives have received the support of the Colombian government through plans and strategies, little is known about the involvement of private companies. The aim of this study was to examine the CE and SDGs' implementation in the Colombian private sector. The entities linked with the United Nations Global Compact served as the study population, which was assessed by a semi-structured survey whose data was handled by descriptive and non-parametric statistics. Findings indicate that 75% of the entities are supporting the SDGs and adopting the CE model simultaneously. The food and transportation sectors show the highest levels of alignment towards CE, followed by mining and manufacturing. Waste management is the most implemented type of CE practice (65%), while supply chain management is the least (20%). The SDGs that receive the most attention are SDG 17, SDG 6, SDG 16, and SDG 12. Conversely, SDG 2 and SDG 5 receive the least support.

Application of ISO standards in hospitality industry and challenges of Georgia

The United Nations Global Compact (hereinafter referred to as the UN Global Compact) obliges countries to create a sustainable and inclusive business economy. Today, the tourism and hospitality industry accounts for 30-35% of world service exports. The reliability of the hotel sector, proper functioning, and strength of development depend on the implementation of the best practices of international standards in practice. Quality standards of the International Organization for Standardization (hereinafter ISO) help the tourism sector to introduce high-quality services and create an image of sustainability. The main goal of the topic is to study and investigate the problematic issues of the introduction of ISO standards for the service management system of Georgian hotels, the importance of standardization of services in the hotel business in the face of global changes, the lack of consideration, the existing negative indicators and the search for solutions in the service industry.

Firms’ characteristics, corporate governance, and the adoption of sustainability reporting: evidence from Gulf Cooperation Council countries

PurposeThe purpose of the study is to investigate the factors that influence the adoption of new sustainability reporting (SDG) and external assurance (EXTA) practices. This study also examines the relationship between sustainability reporting activity and corporate economic performance for a sample of 99 companies in Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries that addressed SDGs in their sustainability reports published in 2019.Design/methodology/approachUsing a two-stage analysis, this study examines how firms’ characteristics and corporate governance variables affect SDG and economic performance, as well as the firm’s decision to adopt EXTA statements for a sample of companies in that addressed SDGs in their sustainability reports published in 2019. The authors collected data from the Global Reporting Initiative’s (GRI) Sustainability Disclosure database and the Bureau van Dijk for Orbis database.FindingsThe results show that the variables firm size, profitability, big 4 auditors and government ownership significantly affect SDG and economic performance. The results also reveal that firms operating in the manufacturing sector are positively correlated with SDG and the firm’s decision to adopt EXTA statements. Furthermore, the results indicate that board independence positively affects SDGs and EXTA.Research limitations/implicationsThe results can be particularly relevant and timely in helping large GCC companies promote their engagement to sustainable development practices by adopting more sustainable long-term strategies and policies. The findings could also guide managers in the strategic direction to identify firms’ characteristics and corporate governance features essential to promote sustainability reporting, an increasingly important performance indicator for investors and to enhance their confidence in the capital market. The results may also have practical implications to policymakers and other regulators in GCC countries to define effective frameworks that promote sustainable development reports and the use of EXTA.Originality/valueThe results make significant contributions by providing new insights to the existing literature on sustainability reporting in emerging markets by examining a unique perspective on the influence of firms’ characteristics and corporate governance features on the adoption of new sustainability reporting practices. The authors further add to the previous literature on the relationship between a firm’s economic performance and sustainable reporting by providing evidence from large companies in GCC countries, which might benefit from the adoption of multiple conceptual lenses, in this case, legitimacy and stakeholder theories. Lastly, through the empirical findings, this study provides economic validity to the 2018 joint initiative of the GRI and the United Nations Global Compact to strengthen corporate actions to achieve the United Nations SDGs.