Dissertação
Environmental, social, governance (ESG) e desempenho corporativo: uma análise na perspectiva da folga financeira e da remuneração dos executivos
Fecha
2022-09-22Autor
Piccinin, Yvelise Giacomello
Institución
Resumen
The growing attention given to issues linked to sustainability led to an increase in the
dissemination of information related to environmental, social and governance initiatives. In this
context, has much discussed in the literature on whether ESG disclosures contribute to or
burden corporative performance and assess the possible intermediates. Financial slack can bring
greater flexibility with the application of resources, being able to use them in ESG activities. In
turn, executive compensation can act as an alignment mechanism in suppressing conflict of
interest between agent and principal, promoting sustainable activities. Thus, this research aims
to analyze the moderating effect of financial slack and executive compensation on the
relationship between ESG and economic-financial and market performance in Brazilian
companies. The unbalanced sample consisted of 107 companies listed in Brasil, Bolsa, Balcão
(B3), from 2016 to 2021, totaling 483 annual observations. For data analysis, linear regression
by Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) was performed. Overall, the results indicated that ESG
activities (general and environmental, social and governance pillars) positively impact
corporate performance (economic-financial: ROA and ROE; and, market: Tobin's Q and
Market to Book) in Brazilian companies, in addition to financial slack and executive
compensation, driving the relationship between ESG and corporate performance. These results
indicate that organizations with surplus resources and adequate compensation mechanisms
drive environmental, social and governance actions and, consequently, generate positive returns
in corporate performance. However, two possibilities can be assumed: the existence of surplus
resources is more relevant than a consolidated remuneration policy, or the practices performed
by the analyzed companies are not to meet all aspects of salary incentives capable of boosting
the relationship between ESG and corporate performance. Such presumption is due to the most
predominant effects of the variable financial slack in the analyzed relationships. Furthermore,
due to the low significance obtained in the relationship with the governance score, it can be
assumed that this pillar lacks implementation points or those already applied are not being
properly executed. The findings of this research encourage sustainable investments and seeks
to promote the continuity of Brazilian companies, given the beneficial effects of ESG practices
on corporate performance. In addition, the results contribute to investors and shareholders by
revealing that they must consider the business characteristics when deciding on their
investments, to analyze with greater caution for contexts of the scarcity of resources, lower ESG
indexes, and executive remunerations that they do not generate congruence between the
executive's organizational and personal objectives.