Firm Sustainable Development Goals and Firm Financial Performance through the Lens of Green Innovation Practices and Reporting: A Proactive Approach

Abstract

The current global economy demands synergy between ecological responsiveness and proactive business models. To analyze these dynamics, the objective of this study is to simultaneously investigate the effects of green innovation practices concerning the sustainable development goals (SDG) and financial performance of firms. This study also advocates for the injection of green innovation reporting into sustainable reporting for greater disclosure. Data from sixty-seven companies from five continents and the top five blue chip firms for each country are collected through content analysis, with the generalized least squares (GLS) approach used to test a causal relationship hypothesis. The results indicate mixed findings, with green product innovation showing positive relationships with returns on equity (ROE) and returns on investments (ROI). At the same time, green process innovation shows negative relationships with returns on assets (ROA) but shows a positive impact on returns on investments (ROI) and firm SDGs. In contrast, green service innovation shows an insignificant relationship with financial performance and SDGs. On the other hand, non-operational green innovation variables and green marketing positively affect returns on assets and investment, showing significant negative impacts on returns on equity. However, green organizational innovation shows an insignificant relationship with firm financial performance and SDGs. In addition, this study also shows that the Australia/New Zealand region is the leader in green innovation reporting, followed by Europe, Asia, Africa, and lastly, North America.

Assessing the implementation of sustainable development goals: does integrated reporting matter?

“…The dependent variable in our study is the SDGs’ performance in determining whether a company contributes to these goals and has an actual performance. Following the literature (Bose and Khan, 2022; Fonseca and Carvalho, 2019; Gunawan et al , 2020; Khan et al , 2021), we measure SDGs’ performance using the average score of goals a company contributes toward the total of 17 development goals as follows: If a company has SDGs activities and disclosures in the reports toward one goal, it will take a value of “1”; otherwise, it will take “0.” In this case, each company will score “1” for each goal found in its reports. Therefore, the minimum score for a company would be equal to 0 points (if it did not support any of 17 SGDs), and the maximum score that a company can achieve would be equal to 17 points (1*17 SDGs).…”

“…In addition, firm age reflects the reputation and stability of firms in the market. Firms that were established long ago tend to have more environmental, social and governance practices (Baraibar-Diez and Odriozola, 2019) and therefore put more effort into SDGs disclosure in their reporting (Khan et al , 2021). The natural log (current year − firm incorporation year) was used to measure company age (C_AGE).…”

“…The dependent variable in our study is the SDGs' performance in determining whether a company contributes to these goals and has an actual performance. Following the literature (Bose and Khan, 2022;Fonseca and Carvalho, 2019;Gunawan et al, 2020;Khan et al, 2021), we measure SDGs' performance using the average score of goals a company contributes toward the total of 17 development goals as follows:…”

Green procurement and green innovation for green organizational legitimacy and access to green finance: The mediating role of total quality management

“…Thus, firms that adopt innovation and TQM practices would boost quality from procurement of resources to ultimate product delivery (Khan et al., 2021). Green process innovation and TQM drive long‐term green initiatives aligned with stakeholder interests.…”

Vegetable Oil–Ionic Liquid-Based Emulsion Liquid Membrane for the Removal of Lactic Acid from Aqueous Streams: Emulsion Size, Membrane Breakage, and Stability Study

“…Since thousands of ILs are available, and data on ILs are scarce, experimentally selecting an IL for the target molecule is difficult . Thus, a conductor-like screening model for real solvents would be an ideal approach for the selection of an effective IL. , With the introduction to sustainable development goals (SDGs), green innovative practices (GIPs)and thus more environmentally friendly diluentsneed to be explored . Vegetable oils are a suitable alternative for use in greener ELM development.…”