Stakeholder engagement and corporate performances: Empirical evidence from an emerging economy

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Abstract

From inception to execution, United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are based on multi-stakeholder partnerships. Therefore, SDGs can be described as a pragmatic stakeholder engagement model. In this research article, the impact of the adoption of SDGs by firms on their financial, environmental, and social performance is examined. Based on the publication of sustainability reporting by firms in compliance with GRI standards, 89 selected Indian firms from the NSE 500 were included in the content analysis for data collection. In addition, multiple linear regression was used to analyse secondary data to establish an empirical relationship between SDGs adoption and corporate performance. The findings of this study revealed that the adoption of SDGs by firms is significantly and positively associated with their financial, environmental, and social performances. This article contributes to academic knowledge on sustainable development and provides important implications for researchers, practitioners, and policymakers. This article contributes to academic knowledge of sustainable development and corporate performance and provides important implications for researchers, practitioners, and policymakers.

Keywords: Corporate Financial Performance, Corporate Environmental Performance, Corporate Social Performance, GRI Standards, Stakeholder Engagement, Sustainability Reporting, Sustainable Development Goals

Authors’ individual contribution: Conceptualization — A.P.S.; Methodology — A.P.S. and Z.R.; Investigation — A.P.S.; Writing — Original Draft — A.P.S.; Writing — Review & Editing — Z.R.; Supervision — Z.R.

Declaration of conflicting interests: The Authors declare that there is no conflict of interest.

JEL Classification: G34, M48, O16

Received: 13.07.2022
Accepted: 26.09.2022
Published online: 29.09.2022

How to cite this paper: Singh, A. P., & Rahman, Z. (2022). Stakeholder engagement and corporate performances: Empirical evidence from an emerging economy. Corporate Ownership & Control, 19(4), 141–152. https://doi.org/10.22495/cocv19i4art12