ANNOUNCEMENTS
As the awareness regarding issues like climate change, social inequality, human rights and corruption is rising, the companies are encouraged to disclose certain Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) data in their business reports. This non-financial data gives an idea about how responsibly a company operates. So, the primary objective of this study is to analyze the influence of ESG practices on the Economic performance of top Indian steel and cement companies. Steel and cement help in infrastructural development and hence in industrialization of a country but contribute a lot to the environmental degradation.
It is a panel data study for the time period 2017-2021, and uses Hausman test and F-test for its analysis. The data has been fetched from the yearly business reports of the companies, reporting as per GRI framework. The study is based on stakeholder’s theory, legitimacy theory and agency theory.
The study shows that individually ESG variables do not significantly influence the economic performance of steel and cement companies. But these ESG variables jointly significantly influence the economic performance of the Indian steel and cement companies. The results of this study are anticipated to motivate consumers, producers and investors to make more responsible choices towards the environment and society. It will also assist policy makers to bring their attention to the parameters that are influencing the economic performance significantly, so that appropriate policies can be formulated in that direction.
Key words: ESG, Economic performance, panel data regression, disclosures, materiality assessment.
