Seminar by Francesco Rosati

SALA SEMINARI – 1° PIANO, PALAZZO LEVI CASES, VIA DEL SANTO 33 - ORE 12.30

13.09.2018

Seminar by Francesco Rosati, Assistant Professor at the Department of Management Engineering, Technical University of Denmark.

Title: Factors associated with early adoption of SDG reporting

Abstract: Organizations worldwide can play a significant role for the advancement of the Sustainable Development Agenda. However, there might be various factors influencing organizations’ decisions to address sustainability issues. This study aims to explore and analyze the association existing between a series of organizational and institutional factors and the decision to address the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in the sustainability report published in 2016, the year after the announcement of the SDGs. The results suggest that early adoption of SDG reporting is associated with organizational factors such as larger size, higher commitment towards sustainability frameworks and external assurance, younger board of directors, higher share of female directors, and higher level of intangible assets. Furthermore, the results show a positive association between reporting on the Sustainable Development Goals and a series of country-level institutional factors such as climate change vulnerability, corporate social responsibility, company spending in tertiary education and individualism, and a negative association with market coordination, employment protection and long-term orientation. The study contributes to the understanding of factors associated with the decision to engage earlier in sustainability issues and frameworks, both for policymakers to target sustainability leaders and laggards and for practitioners to better understand their organization’s sustainability attitudes, and elaborate ad-hoc sustainability strategies.