IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v13y2021i9p5125-d548382.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Analyzing Sustainability Reports of Global, Public Corporations by Industrial Sectors and National Origins

Author

Listed:
  • Hyun-Duck Kim

    (Department of Sport Marketing, Keimyung University, Daegu 42601, Korea)

Abstract

Due to the demand by stakeholder groups of global public corporations for greater transparency in business operations, corporations have continuously tried to embody the concept of sustainability in their business strategies and operations. That is, they have collectively published sustainability reports to state their progress toward achieving sustainability goals. However, understanding of the thematic and conceptual structures of environmental and sustainability reports of the global public corporations is still limited. In this study, the author identified key thematic attributes through text data mining analysis: (a) sustainability, (b) energy, (c) approach, (d) environmental, and (e) people for industrial sectors. Additionally, themes of (a) business, (b) employees, (c) financial, (d) energy, and (e) suppliers appeared most frequently and were the top five compounding themes for overall national origins. In fact, the majority of findings pointed out that these themes and concepts have limited environmental and climatic relevance, as they only align with certain goals, such as UN SDGs 12, 13, and 14. That is, understanding key factors of their sustainability reports is crucial toward overcoming the challenges of achieving SDGs. Furthermore, these findings in accordance with industrial sectors and national origins of the global public corporations can help to derive a more in-depth understanding of current reports on environmental and sustainability-driven business operations.

Suggested Citation

  • Hyun-Duck Kim, 2021. "Analyzing Sustainability Reports of Global, Public Corporations by Industrial Sectors and National Origins," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(9), pages 1-14, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:13:y:2021:i:9:p:5125-:d:548382
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/13/9/5125/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/13/9/5125/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Markus Milne & Rob Gray, 2013. "W(h)ither Ecology? The Triple Bottom Line, the Global Reporting Initiative, and Corporate Sustainability Reporting," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 118(1), pages 13-29, November.
    2. Tobias Hahn & Mandy Scheermesser, 2006. "Approaches to corporate sustainability among German companies," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 13(3), pages 150-165, July.
    3. Dongwook Kim & Sungbum Kim, 2017. "Sustainable Supply Chain Based on News Articles and Sustainability Reports: Text Mining with Leximancer and DICTION," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 9(6), pages 1-44, June.
    4. Rosa Maria Dangelico & Devashish Pujari & Pierpaolo Pontrandolfo, 2017. "Green Product Innovation in Manufacturing Firms: A Sustainability‐Oriented Dynamic Capability Perspective," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 26(4), pages 490-506, May.
    5. Barkemeyer, Ralf & Preuss, Lutz & Lee, Lindsay, 2015. "On the effectiveness of private transnational governance regimes—Evaluating corporate sustainability reporting according to the Global Reporting Initiative," Journal of World Business, Elsevier, vol. 50(2), pages 312-325.
    6. Tulin Dzhengiz, 2020. "A Literature Review of Inter-Organizational Sustainability Learning," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(12), pages 1-52, June.
    7. Paul G. Bain & Pieter M. Kroonenberg & Lars-Olof Johansson & Taciano L. Milfont & Charlie R. Crimston & Tim Kurz & Ekaterina Bushina & Carolina Calligaro & Christophe Demarque & Yanjun Guan & Joonha P, 2019. "Public views of the Sustainable Development Goals across countries," Nature Sustainability, Nature, vol. 2(9), pages 819-825, September.
    8. Zhifu Mi & D’Maris Coffman, 2019. "The sharing economy promotes sustainable societies," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 10(1), pages 1-3, December.
    9. Giacomo Manetti, 2011. "The quality of stakeholder engagement in sustainability reporting: empirical evidence and critical points," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 18(2), pages 110-122, March.
    10. David Griggs & Mark Stafford-Smith & Owen Gaffney & Johan Rockström & Marcus C. Öhman & Priya Shyamsundar & Will Steffen & Gisbert Glaser & Norichika Kanie & Ian Noble, 2013. "Sustainable development goals for people and planet," Nature, Nature, vol. 495(7441), pages 305-307, March.
    11. Natalia Ortiz-de-Mandojana & Pratima Bansal, 2016. "The long-term benefits of organizational resilience through sustainable business practices," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 37(8), pages 1615-1631, August.
    12. Linnenluecke, Martina K. & Griffiths, Andrew, 2010. "Corporate sustainability and organizational culture," Journal of World Business, Elsevier, vol. 45(4), pages 357-366, October.
    13. Alla Kasych & Petr Suler & Zuzana Rowland, 2020. "Corporate Environmental Responsibility through the Prism of Strategic Management," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(22), pages 1-29, November.
    14. Renzo Junior & Peter Best & Julie Cotter, 2014. "Sustainability Reporting and Assurance: A Historical Analysis on a World-Wide Phenomenon," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 120(1), pages 1-11, March.
    15. Anita Jose & Shang-Mei Lee, 2007. "Environmental Reporting of Global Corporations: A Content Analysis based on Website Disclosures," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 72(4), pages 307-321, June.
    16. Constantin Belu, 2009. "Ranking corporations based on sustainable and socially responsible practices. A data envelopment analysis (DEA) approach," Sustainable Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 17(4), pages 257-268.
    17. Miralles Quirós, María Mar & Miralles Quirós, José Luis & Daza Izquierdo, Julio, 2021. "The assurance of sustainability reports and their impact on stock market prices," Cuadernos de Gestión, Universidad del País Vasco - Instituto de Economía Aplicada a la Empresa (IEAE).
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Wullianallur Raghupathi & Sarah Jinhui Wu & Viju Raghupathi, 2023. "Understanding Corporate Sustainability Disclosures from the Securities Exchange Commission Filings," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(5), pages 1-32, February.
    2. Bianca Alves Almeida Machado & Lívia Cristina Pinto Dias & Alberto Fonseca, 2021. "Transparency of materiality analysis in GRI‐based sustainability reports," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 28(2), pages 570-580, March.
    3. Viju Raghupathi & Jie Ren & Wullianallur Raghupathi, 2020. "Identifying Corporate Sustainability Issues by Analyzing Shareholder Resolutions: A Machine-Learning Text Analytics Approach," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(11), pages 1-24, June.
    4. Nadine Székely & Jan vom Brocke, 2017. "What can we learn from corporate sustainability reporting? Deriving propositions for research and practice from over 9,500 corporate sustainability reports published between 1999 and 2015 using topic ," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 12(4), pages 1-27, April.
    5. María Luisa Pajuelo Moreno & Teresa Duarte-Atoche, 2019. "Relationship between Sustainable Disclosure and Performance—An Extension of Ullmann’s Model," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(16), pages 1-33, August.
    6. Howard, Mickey & Böhm, Steffen & Eatherley, Dan, 2022. "Systems resilience and SME multilevel challenges: A place-based conceptualization of the circular economy," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 145(C), pages 757-768.
    7. Thomas A. Tsalis & Maria Terzaki & Dimitrios Koulouriotis & Konstantinos P. Tsagarakis & Ioannis E. Nikolaou, 2023. "The nexus of United Nations' 2030 Agenda and corporate sustainability reports," Sustainable Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 31(2), pages 784-796, April.
    8. Lee Roberts & Monomita Nandy & Abeer Hassan & Suman Lodh & Ahmed A. Elamer, 2022. "Corporate Accountability Towards Species Extinction Protection: Insights from Ecologically Forward-Thinking Companies," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 178(3), pages 571-595, July.
    9. Tsalis, Thomas A. & Nikolaou, Ioannis E. & Konstantakopoulou, Fotini & Zhang, Ying & Evangelinos, Konstantinos I., 2020. "Evaluating the corporate environmental profile by analyzing corporate social responsibility reports," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 66(C), pages 63-75.
    10. Brunella Arru, 2015. "Indagine sulla comunicazione della responsabilit? sociale delle societ? quotate italiane," MERCATI & COMPETITIVIT?, FrancoAngeli Editore, vol. 2015(4), pages 15-46.
    11. Rauter, Romana & Globocnik, Dietfried & Baumgartner, Rupert J., 2023. "The role of organizational controls to advance sustainability innovation performance," Technovation, Elsevier, vol. 128(C).
    12. José M. Moneva & Sabina Scarpellini & Alfonso Aranda‐Usón & Igor Alvarez Etxeberria, 2023. "Sustainability reporting in view of the European sustainable finance taxonomy: Is the financial sector ready to disclose circular economy?," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 30(3), pages 1336-1347, May.
    13. Ismail N.B. & Sébastien Alcouffe & Galy N & Ceulemans K, 2020. "The impact of international sustainability initiatives on Life Cycle Assessment voluntary disclosures: The case of France’s CAC40 listed companies," Post-Print hal-03082800, HAL.
    14. Inten Meutia & Shelly F. Kartasari & Zulnaidi Yaacob, 2022. "Stakeholder or Legitimacy Theory? The Rationale behind a Company’s Materiality Analysis: Evidence from Indonesia," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(13), pages 1-20, June.
    15. Jay Joseph & Marc Orlitzky & Bruce Gurd & Helen Borland & Adam Lindgreen, 2019. "Can business‐oriented managers be effective leaders for corporate sustainability? A study of integrative and instrumental logics," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 28(2), pages 339-352, February.
    16. Marta Vicente-Lama & Pilar Tirado-Valencia & Mercedes Ruiz-Lozano & Magdalena Cordobés-Madueño, 2023. "The impact of sectoral guidelines on sustainability reporting in ports: the case of the Spanish ports," Maritime Economics & Logistics, Palgrave Macmillan;International Association of Maritime Economists (IAME), vol. 25(3), pages 499-519, September.
    17. Su Jin Yang & Seyoon Jang, 2020. "How Does Corporate Sustainability Increase Financial Performance for Small- and Medium-Sized Fashion Companies: Roles of Organizational Values and Business Model Innovation," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(24), pages 1-21, December.
    18. Johann Meckenstock & Ana Paula Barbosa‐Póvoa & Ana Carvalho, 2016. "The Wicked Character of Sustainable Supply Chain Management: Evidence from Sustainability Reports," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 25(7), pages 449-477, November.
    19. Colin Higgins & Wendy Stubbs & Markus Milne, 2018. "Is Sustainability Reporting Becoming Institutionalised? The Role of an Issues-Based Field," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 147(2), pages 309-326, January.
    20. Carmen Isensee & Kai-Michael Griese & Frank Teuteberg, 2021. "Sustainable artificial intelligence: A corporate culture perspective [Sustainable artificial intelligence: Eine unternehmenskulturelle Perspektive]," NachhaltigkeitsManagementForum | Sustainability Management Forum, Springer, vol. 29(3), pages 217-230, December.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:13:y:2021:i:9:p:5125-:d:548382. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.