2024/03/30 by Rafał Buła, Monika Foltyn-Zarychta, Dominika Krawczyńska
Business, Management and Accounting · #Accounting #Business #Corporate Social Responsibility Reporting #Corporate governance #Corporate social responsibility #Environmental reporting #Finance #Political science #Public relations
paper · pdf · doi:10.14746/rpeis.2024.86.1.09
crossref issued 2024/03/30 · crossref published 2024/03/30 · crossref published-online 2024/03/30 · openalex publication_date 2024/03/30 · crossref created 2024/04/04 · crossref deposited 2024/04/04 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · crossref indexed 2026/08/01 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
Socially responsible investments are a significant element of the global capital market and are becoming increasingly important also in the eyes of Polish investors. ESG ratings are a crucial decisive criterion, as they provide information on the corporate governance (G), and social (S) and environmental (E) activities, of companies. Even though the abovementioned areas differ significantly, the use of ESG ratings by investors is often narrowed down to the total ESG score. Additionally, the literature does not provide unambiguous results on whether the impact of total score as well as the individual pillars of E, S and G on the accounting-based financial performance of companies is statistically significant, and positive or negative. Sparse academic studies concentrate mainly on highly developed markets and accounting-based measures of profitability, leaving aside emerging markets, like Poland, and the other main characteristics of financial performance, like liquidity, efficiency, or leverage. The aim of this paper is therefore to fill the above gap by identifying the dependence of ratings in E, S and G areas and the accounting-based financial performance of companies listed on the Warsaw Stock Exchange. Selected financial parameters and company quotations were taken from the Notoria Serwis SA database, while data on ESG ratings from Refinitiv Eikon were used to perform correlation analysis. The analysis covers the years 2013–2022. The findings indicate a significant positive bi-directional impact of corporate governance (G) and efficiency, as well as of controversies score and efficiency. A linkage has also been revealed between controversies score and profitability. However, the hypothesis of an unequivocally positive impact of ESG factors on financial results, or conversely of financial results on ESG aspects, should be rejected.