Introduction of sustainability reporting reforms has increased awareness in Indian companies regarding the social and environmental disclosures. In the absence of standardized reporting norms, comp...

Sustainability Reporting in India: Exploring Sectoral Differences and Linkages with Financial Performance:

Strategies for Small Business Sustainability by Victor Adoukonou MBA, Strayer University, 2012 MSc, University Montesquieu Bordeaux IV, 2007 MPS, University of Reduit/IFE, 2007 BA, University of Lomé, 2003 Doctoral Study Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Business Administration Walden University March 2019 Abstract Small businesses represent more than 99% of all employers in the United States, but more than 50% of small businesses have failed before 5 years. Climate change, digitization, and social media contribute to a paradigm shift in consumers’ habits, as more consumers have become environmentally and social justice conscious. Business leaders who are unable to follow the consumers’ trends and changes of habit may notSmall businesses represent more than 99% of all employers in the United States, but more than 50% of small businesses have failed before 5 years. Climate change, digitization, and social media contribute to a paradigm shift in consumers’ habits, as more consumers have become environmentally and social justice conscious. Business leaders who are unable to follow the consumers’ trends and changes of habit may not succeed in sustaining their businesses. The purpose of this multiple case study was to explore strategies owners of small businesses in the District of Columbia use to sustain their businesses for longer than 5 years while fulfilling their firms’ social responsibility obligations. The conceptual framework was the sustainability development theory. Data were collected from 5 small retailers through face-to-face, semistructured interviews, observations, field notes, and reviews of documents related to business sustainability. Data analysis was based on the thematic analysis model, which involved a process of organizing, coding, arranging data into common themes relevant to the research question and interpreting of the information. Member checking was used to enhance the credibility and validity of the data. Emerging themes included business establishment planning, sustainability planning, and sustainability factors use. The results of this study may contribute to positive social change by providing information to entrepreneurs about successful strategies for small business sustainability, which can lead to business owners, employees, and communities living and working in a human-oriented, prosperous, and healthy environment. Strategies for Small Business Sustainability by Victor Adoukonou MBA, Strayer University, 2012 MSc, University Montesquieu Bordeaux IV, 2007 MPS, University of Reduit/IFE, 2007 BA, University of Lomé, 2003 Doctoral Study Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Business Administration Walden University March 2019 Dedication I dedicate this doctoral study to my mother, Comfort Kossiwa Alagbe, and late father, Ognandon Adoukonou, for being my heroes and my inspirers who taught me to dream big and the sky is not the limit but another step. I also dedicate this study to my family, especially my children. To my children, I urge you to put God first in everything, surround yourselves with positivity, love knowledge, and strive for excellence. Trust in God but believe in yourself. Dream big, chase your dream with hard work and know that you are limitless. May the Lord guide you, bless you, make his face shine upon you, and be gracious to you always. Acknowledgments I am grateful to the Lord for his unending mercy and immeasurable grace. I am very thankful to my chair, Dr. Isabel Wan for the support, patience, and guidance toward the successful completion of this study. I owe a moral debt to Dr. Greg Uche who boosted my confidence at a critical moment of this study. I use this opportunity to thank my URR, Dr. Peter Anthony, my program director, Dr. Susan Davis, and my assigned editor, Ms. Angie Drennen for reviews, corrections, instructions, and words of encouragement. To others not mentioned here, the memories of all your contributions remain in my heart forever. Finally, I pay a special tribute to the Togolese community for giving me the opportunity to lead the Togolese Diaspora in the United States (DTUSA) to the historic milestone of Congressional Recognition. Together, we saved lives, provided jobs, housing, scholarships, and healthcare opportunities and contributed to our community well-being.

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Strategies for Small Business Sustainability

This review article intends to bring a better understanding to the field of corporate sustainability as studied by previous scholars. Since the end of the 1990s, corporate sustainability has become a growing interest theme in business and academia. However, literature is still limited in quantity. This review paper provides a review of 50 articles dating from 2002 to 2016 from journals related to accounting, business, and management. The paper summarizes the corporate sustainability evolution, different definitions, measures and applied theories throughout the literature. The findings highlight that corporate sustainability field is still evolving and then different approaches have been used to define, measure and theorize corporate sustainability. Overall, review evidences that a commonly agreed definition of sustainability is lacking. Thus, concepts of corporate sustainability and corporate social responsibility have been used simultaneously in many contemporary studies since they are precisely indistinguishable.

Corporate sustainability: A Literature Review

Purpose




The increasing awareness among the stakeholders demands the companies to be more transparent in their annual reporting. In the absence of standardized reporting norms, companies are free to structure sustainability report as per their understanding, willingness and intent. Although some voluntary guidelines have been issued by the regulatory authorities in India, the norms are still not clear as to what to report and how to report. This paper aims to look in to sustainability reporting practices by top companies listed in Bombay stock exchange and its impact on financial performance.




Design/methodology/approach




Using this sample of 68 companies from top 100 in the list of ET500 for 2016, self-constructed sustainability reporting score has been computed for each company for the financial year 2012-2013 and 2015-2016. The two periods represent pre- and post-disclosure reform periods in India. A sustainability reporting scale has been constructed using 16 parameters of sustainable performance based on social, environment and governance aspects as reported in the annual report, sustainability report and business responsibility report.




Findings




It has been found that there is a significant improvement in sustainability reporting by Indian companies after the introduction of disclosure reforms. Different sectors show significant difference in the sustainability reporting during pre-reform period but as the sustainability reporting improves after the reforms, sector difference reduces. Sustainability reporting is a significant predictor of financial parameters of return on sales, return on equity and Tobin’s Q in pre-reform period, but in the post-reform period, no significant impact was found on financial performance.




Practical implications




Disclosure reforms have made a significant impact on sustainability reporting by Indian companies. Companies need to identify the core areas of social responsibility, to implement Indian model of mandatory 2 per cent spending on corporate social responsibility. Disclosure of carbon foot prints should be mandatory and more number of independent directors should be appointed for successful implementation of these reforms. Market regulators should be made more powerful and given a free hand to prosecute the companies involved in frauds and high penalties should be imposed for non-compliance.




Originality/value




Sustainability reporting has drawn increased strategic attention in India to make reporting more transparent and responsible toward society and environment. The structural changes and introduction of disclosure reforms make an interesting case to investigate their implications on Indian companies. Accordingly, this research studies the sustainability reporting by Indian companies before and after the introduction of disclosure reforms. No previous research has investigated the impact of these reforms considering two different periods.

Rising standards of sustainability reporting in India: A study of impact of reforms in disclosure norms on corporate performance

This study maps the General Reporting Initiative (GRI) relations for a set of global enterprises. Enterprise interrelationships are built using the Mutual Information (MI) of the data reported by enterprises. From the MI topology, we describe interrelationships among the enterprises using chord diagrams to represent the inter- and intra-connectivity between geographical regions and economic sectors globally
, by continent and country. Detailed maps are presented for European and Asian regions/sectors, including the relationship between Europe and Asia’s top reporting countries. Our findings reinforce previous research regarding the role of Europe as a driver of sustainability and its influence worldwide. We also determined that Spain is a major player in Europe and that Northern Europe does not have the assumed leading role mentioned in related studies. Eastern Asia is, by far, the leader of the region, and the GRI maps demonstrate the preponderant role of China in the region and the minimal role of India. MI topology maps outline the behavior of the economic sectors, for all the studied regions. Furthermore, a measure that relates the inter- to intra-connections is presented to describe the internal an external relationships among regions/sectors.

Mapping global sustainability report scoring: a detailed analysis of Europe and Asia

Sustainable development implies development that meets the need of the present generation without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. As a result of the global u...

Prerna Jain

Papers

Sustainability Reporting Trend in Indian Companies as per GRI Framework: A Comparative Study