Authors

Hope Clark

Document Type

Honors Thesis

Abstract

Firms prepare sustainability reports along with their financial statements to disclose their non-financial information, such as their environmental, social, and governance (ESG) activities. The practice of sustainability reporting is growing as stakeholders care more about ESG issues. Researchers have studied the financial performance and sustainability reports of non-U.S. firms to determine if engaging in sustainability reporting is related to firm financial performance. To further understand this relationship, numerous measures of financial performance were used along with a calculated sustainability disclosure score for 2,367 North American firms to run a correlation and regression. Three of the nine financial performance indicators produced relevant results in the correlation, two negative and one positive. The regression analysis provides similar findings; however, the coefficient of determination, R2, was only 0.019. Unlike prior studies, this study finds only limited evidence of a relationship between the financial performance indicators and the sustainability disclosure score.

Publication Date

5-1-2017

Language

English

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