採SASB準則下ESG重大性議題與財務績效之探討

Abstract

在過去數十年已有許多企業社會責任、ESG以及財務績效間的相關研究。雖然許多研究已經探討了這個議題，但其結果仍不一致，而產生這些不同結果的其中一個潛在可能原因是，大部分先前的論文所採用的ESG資料並未依照產業區分對各公司而言哪些是較為重要的永續議題。故本研究以2012至2018年為樣本期間，先使用Bloomberg資料庫中的ESG揭露分數，探討ESG揭露分數與財務績效之關係，並以Bloomberg資料庫內的ESG項目，依照SASB準則分類對每個行業來說較為重要的ESG議題(即重大性議題)進行分類，重新計算出一個新的重大性議題分數(SASB分數)後，探討SASB分數對財務績效之關聯性。\n實證結果指出ESG揭露分數與財務績效無顯著關係，而SASB分數與財務績效（ROA、ROE以及Tobin’s Q）呈顯著正相關，與Khan et al.(2016)之結論一致，在重大性永續議題上表現良好的公司其財務績效明顯優於在這些議題上表現不佳的公司，這意味著公司以重大性議題為參考從事企業社會責任可提高公司的財務績效。

In the past decade, there have been many related studies on Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), ESG and financial performance. Although many studies have explored this issue, the results are still inconsistent. One potential reason for the mixed results is that the ESG data used in previous papers did not distinguish the sustainability issues that are critical to each company according to the industry. Therefore, our study uses the ESG disclosure scores in the Bloomberg ESG database as the sample for the period from 2012 to 2018 to explore the relationship between ESG disclosure scores and financial performance. We develop a material score (SASB Score) by hand-mapping data on Bloomberg ESG database classified as material for each industry into firm-specific performance data according to SASB standards to discuss the relationship of SASB scores and financial performance.\nWe find that ESG disclosure scores have no significant relationship with financial performance, while SASB scores are significantly positively correlated with financial performance (ROA, ROE, and Tobin`s Q), which are consistent with the conclusions of Khan et al. (2016). The financial performance of companies that perform well on material issues is significantly better than companies that perform poorly on these issues.It means that companies that use material issues as a reference to engage in CSR can improve company’s financial performance.