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Sustainability, Business Risk and ESG Rating - Empirical Evidence from the European Stock Markets
No full textCorporate social strategies develop socially responsible actions with the goal of
improving business performance and creating value for all stakeholders. These days,
environmental, social, and governance (ESG) objectives play a crucial role within
companies, which are faced with the imperative to pursue social, environmental, and
financial performance at the same time, leading to improved corporate sustainability.
It is now evident that ESG issues have an influence not only on profitability but also
on the financial strength of various companies.
Beginning in 2004 with the publication of the Who Cares Wins report by the United
Nations Global Compact Initiative (UN, 2004), the importance of grouping three of
the main pillars of ethical finance together has emerged, namely ESG.
The environmental pillar assesses a company's efforts in terms of energy efficiency,
greenhouse gas emissions, waste, water, and resource management. The social pillar
refers to aspects related to gender policies, human rights protection, labour standards,
workplace and product safety, public health, and income distribution, which affect
employee satisfaction. Finally, the governance pillar covers aspects related to board
independence, shareholder rights, manager compensation, control procedures and anti-
competitive practices, and compliance with the law.
It is an approach that follows a multidimensional logic with a view to improving
quality of life expectations, innovation, and business competitiveness without
neglecting the well-being of all human generations. Entrepreneurs, investors, and
people in general have begun to become aware of this and be more sensitive in making
decisions. More and more sustainable companies are striving to improve their ESG
investments, and there is now a growing trend for investors to invest in socially
responsible and sustainable companies. The concept of ESG performance is intended
to provide an assessment of the degree to which a company manages ESG risks and
opportunities (MSCI 2018).
ESG scores make companies comparable in terms of actual risk factors that impact the
cost of capital. In recent years, many studies have analysed the relationship between
the ESG profiles of companies and their financial risk and performance characteristics
by distinguishing, with respect to risk, between systematic and idiosyncratic stock risk.
Systematic risk is macroeconomic in nature and describes the general market risk to
which all companies are exposed, such as the risk of shocks in commodity prices,
interest rates, or inflation rates. Systematic risk also includes industry-wide issues,
such as regulatory changes and technological developments. Firm-specific risk, on the
other hand, is specific to a firm. The distinction between systematic and firm-specific
risk is important in analysing the impact of ESG characteristics on firm valuation
because investors can typically diversify away from firm-specific risk; therefore, it is only the systematic risk component that determines the rate of return required by
shareholders to offset the risk they are exposed to.
Companies with sound ESG practices exhibit lower cost of capital, lower volatility,
and fewer cases of corruption and corporate fraud (Bank of Italy, 2019). In this regard,
several empirical studies highlight that "good practices" from an ESG perspective
allow companies to benefit from competitive advantages, lower cost of capital, and
better operational and market performance. The academic literature is unanimous in
supporting the positive effect that ESG factors have on decreasing the cost of capital,
pointing out that the main reasons for this contraction can be attributed to the reduction
of information asymmetry. Sharfman and Fernando (2008), analysing a sample of 267
U.S. companies, have tested whether better environmental risk management is
rewarded by financial markets in terms of lowering the cost of capital. In relation to
the cost of capital, the results suggest a negative association between the latter and
environmental risk management, due to the lower beta, an expression of the volatility
of the company's stock.
These results are confirmed by subsequent studies showing the negative association
between sustainable business practices and the cost of capital, such that an increase in
socially responsible actions implies a decrease in the cost of capital. Studies that, on
the other hand, analyse sustainable financial and non-financial performance (again in
relation to the cost of capital) have shown that each sustainable approach has an impact
on the cost of capital, confirming the results of previous studies (El Ghoul et al., 2011;
Matthiesen and Salzmann 2017; Cuadrado-Ballesteros et al., 2016).
Nonetheless, the integration of critical perspectives within ESG finance literature is
essential for advancing scholarly rigour and fostering a more nuanced understanding
of the field, one better capable of fully realizing the hoped for "investor revolution"
(Eccles and Klimenko, 2019) in the transition to a more sustainable economy. Existing
critiques—such as portraying ESG practices as "ethical window dressing" (Muñoz et
al., 2022) or highlighting the limitations of over-reliance on rating metrics (Berg et al.,
2022)—serve a vital role in scrutinizing the efficacy and authenticity of ESG
commitments. Incorporating these critical viewpoints can mitigate potential biases and
promote a more balanced discourse, thereby enhancing the credibility and robustness
of academic research. Studies that systematically address these critiques could provide
deeper insights into the normative and practical implications of ESG integration,
ultimately contributing to more rigorous and comprehensive scholarship in the field of
sustainable finance (UNEP-FI, 2018).
This study, considering these theoretical premises, investigates whether the
relationship between ESG merit and systematic risk has changed because of specific
events that have steered the economy and financial markets towards an increased focus
on ESG aspects, including the establishment of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable
Development on September 25, 2015, and the subsequent stipulation of the Paris
Agreement on December 12 of the same year. The analysis is carried out using a methodological framework based, in line with
previous literature, on econometric techniques traceable to the Capital Asset Pricing
Model model declined by Sharpe in 1964 and the five-factor model developed by Fama
and French in 2015. The analysis sample consists of 596 of the 600 companies
included in the STOXX Europe 600 stock index in 2023, whose ESG scores are
provided by Refinitiv. The market indices considered in the analysis are represented
by both the MSCI world and the STOXX Europe 600 itself. For the purposes of the
above verification, the sample is divided into quartiles based on the distribution of the
relevant scores to verify any different impact on systematic risk after the specific event
identified as being relevant to the path towards a more sustainability-based economy.
The analysis focuses attention on both the overall ESG score and the three pillars (E,
S, and G) considered individually.
The empirical evidence obtained shows a reduction in systematic risk, following the
stipulation of Agenda 2030 in September 2015, of greater significance in terms of both
the size of the impacts and the statistical significance associated with them for equity
indices constructed considering companies with higher ESG merit. The evidence
provides interesting new functional elements for the study of the relationship between
ESG merit and systematic risk, providing useful implications for decisions not only by
policymakers but also by regulators regarding the integration of ESG factors into the
risk measurement, monitoring, and management procedures of financial and non-
financial firms.
The study is structured as follows.
The first chapter aims to provide a sufficiently comprehensive overview of the concept
of sustainability and the strategic contribution made by businesses to the community,
even with respect to the different legislative interventions aimed at focusing the
attention of individuals and legal entities on sustainability and achievement of the 17
Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) signed by 193 states and outlined in the 2030
Agenda.
The second chapter delves into the concept of corporate risk through a review of
prevailing national and international literature on the subject, from which it emerges
that any organization, regardless of its size or sector, is called upon to manage its risks,
whether they are related to economic aspects, ESG aspects, or both, ensuring that they
are kept within acceptable levels over time. Risk management, and in particular the
emerging ESG risks, has become a must-have practice to be applied by following a
systematic and organized approach, with constant recourse to discipline-specific
methodologies and techniques, including the provision of an effective Enterprise Risk
Management Framework, which is a fundamental cornerstone of a good governance
system.
The third chapter initially looks at the recent development of ESG rating agencies and,
consequently, ESG ratings. These are scores that encompass not only the quality of
corporate governance systems but also environmental, social and, more generally, sustainability issues. After highlighting the main peculiarities of but also critical issues
in such sustainability indicators, the chapter focuses on the relationship between ESG
factors, systematic risk, and performance. About the first relationship, i.e. between
ESG ratings and systematic risk, the literature agrees that firms with higher ESG
ratings have lower systematic risk (a lower beta) and, consequently, a lower cost of
equity than firms with lower ESG ratings.
Regarding the relationship between ESG factors and performance, the literature shows
mixed results. According to some studies, companies with high ESG ratings have
higher returns especially during recessionary periods, thus showing themselves to be
more resilient. However, in some circumstances, it has been found that non-proprietary
managers often use the funds allocated for carrying out socially responsible activities
for purely personal purposes. Such an attitude, in the long run, could undermine
profitability and, therefore, business continuity.
The fourth and final chapter, following the outlining of the research objectives,
provides a description of the sample under investigation and the methodology used. In
the last part of the chapter, the econometric model is presented, and then the results
obtained from the analysis are discussed
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Get PDFThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Variations on the Author
Get PDF“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
Appropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis
Get PDFWe provide a number of new insights into the methodological discussion about author cocitation analysis. We first argue that the use of the Pearson correlation for measuring the similarity between authors’ cocitation profiles is not very satisfactory. We then discuss what kind of similarity measures may be used as an alternative to the Pearson correlation. We consider three similarity measures in particular. One is the well-known cosine. The other two similarity measures have not been used before in the bibliometric literature. Finally, we show by means of an example that our findings have a high practical relevance.information science;Pearson correlation;cosine;similarity measure;author cocitation analysis
Dispelling the Myths Behind First-author Citation Counts
Get PDFWe conducted a full-scale evaluative citation analysis study of scholars in the XML research field to explore just how different from each other author rankings resulting from different citation counting methods actually are, and to demonstrate the capability of emerging data and tools on the Web in supporting more realistic citation counting methods. Our results contest some common arguments for the continued
use of first-author citation counts in the evaluation of scholars, such as high correlations between author rankings by first-author citation counts and other citation
counting methods, and high costs of using more realistic citation counting methods that are not well-supported by the ISI databases. It is argued that increasingly available digital full text research papers make it possible for citation analysis studies to go beyond what the ISI databases have directly supported and to employ more
sophisticated methods
koamabayili/VECTRON-author-checklist: VECTRON author checklist
No full textWe have done our best to complete the author checklist relating to the use of animals in the hut study. Note that the objective for the hut study was to evaluate the IRS treatment applications for residual efficacy against Anopheles mosquitoes, including the local An. coluzzii mosquito population. Cows were only used to attract mosquitoes into the huts and no tests were carried out directly on the cows. The author checklist is intended for use with studies where experiments are carried out on animals, which is why we have had such difficulty in completing this for the hut study, as many of the questions do not relate to how the cows were used
Author-wise bibliometric analysis based on entropy.
No full textAuthor-wise bibliometric analysis based on entropy.</p
Author Under Sail The Imagination of Jack London, 1893-1902
No full textIn Author Under Sail, Jay Williams offers the first complete literary biography of Jack London as a professional writer engaged in the labor of writing. It examines the authorial imagination in London's work, the use of imagination in both his fiction and nonfiction, and the ways he defined imagination in the creative process in his business dealings with his publishers, editors, and agents. In this first volume of a two-volume biography, Williams traverses the years 1893 to 1902, from London's "Story of a Typhoon" to The People of the Abyss. The Jack London who emerges in the pages of Author Under Sail is a writer whose partnership with publishers, most notably his productive alliance with George Brett of Macmillan, was one of the most formative in American literary history. London pioneered many author models during the heyday of realism and naturalism, blurring the boundaries of these popular genres by focusing on absorption and theatricality and the representation of the seen and unseen. London created an impassioned, sincere, and extremely personal realism unlike that of other American writers of the time. Author Under Sail is a literary tour de force that reveals the full range of London as writer, creative citizen, and entrepreneur at the same time it sheds light on the maverick side of machine-age literature.Intro -- Title Page -- Copyright Page -- Dedication -- Contents -- Acknowledgments -- Introduction -- 1. Spirit Truth -- 2. From Absorption to Theatricality and Back Again -- 3. "I Will Build a New Present" -- 4. Sons as Authors -- 5. Fathers as Publishers -- 6. The Daughter as Author -- 7. Lovers as Authors -- 8. At Sea with the Family -- 9. Yellow News, Yellow Stories -- 10. The Return Home -- Notes -- Bibliography -- Index -- About Jay WilliamsIn Author Under Sail, Jay Williams offers the first complete literary biography of Jack London as a professional writer engaged in the labor of writing. It examines the authorial imagination in London's work, the use of imagination in both his fiction and nonfiction, and the ways he defined imagination in the creative process in his business dealings with his publishers, editors, and agents. In this first volume of a two-volume biography, Williams traverses the years 1893 to 1902, from London's "Story of a Typhoon" to The People of the Abyss. The Jack London who emerges in the pages of Author Under Sail is a writer whose partnership with publishers, most notably his productive alliance with George Brett of Macmillan, was one of the most formative in American literary history. London pioneered many author models during the heyday of realism and naturalism, blurring the boundaries of these popular genres by focusing on absorption and theatricality and the representation of the seen and unseen. London created an impassioned, sincere, and extremely personal realism unlike that of other American writers of the time. Author Under Sail is a literary tour de force that reveals the full range of London as writer, creative citizen, and entrepreneur at the same time it sheds light on the maverick side of machine-age literature.Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.Electronic reproduction. Ann Arbor, Michigan : ProQuest Ebook Central, YYYY. Available via World Wide Web. Access may be limited to ProQuest Ebook Central affiliated libraries
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