Dzomonda Obey, Fatoki Olawale
Department of Business Management, Turfloop Campus, University of Limpopo, Private Bag X1106, Sovenga 0727, South Africa.
Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2020 Oct 15;17(20):7504. doi: 10.3390/ijerph17207504.
The importance of heeding the environmental sustainability commitment call cannot be underestimated. Laggards in terms of environmental sustainability commitment are likely to face fines and penalties as talks to tighten environmental legislation are now at an advanced stage globally. The current work assessed the link between environmental sustainability commitment and financial performance of firms listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE). The study was quantitative in nature with a case study research design. The longitudinal design was adopted where the researcher collected panel data from 2011-2018. The population of the study included all firms listed on the JSE Responsible Investment Index in South Africa. The sample constituted of 32 firms listed on the Financial Times Stock Exchange FTSE/JSE Responsible Investment Index in South Africa. The researchers employed the panel regression analysis model to analyze the data. Specifically, the Feasible Generalized Least Squares regression model was used in this study. Financial performance was treated as the dependent variable as measured by earnings per share and share price. The independent variables of the study included components of environmental sustainability such as carbon emission reduction and environmental compliance. Control variables such as firm size and liquidity were used in the study. The findings indicated that carbon emission reduction was positively and significantly related to earnings per share and share price. The findings further exhibited that environmental compliance was positively related to earnings per share and share price. It was concluded that firms can enhance their financial performance from environmental investment as all the hypotheses were supported. This study contributes practically towards shaping environmental policies and it also serves as motivation to listed companies that they can enhance both their profitability and market value from environmental investments.
重视环境可持续发展承诺呼声的重要性不容小觑。在环境可持续发展承诺方面行动迟缓的企业可能会面临罚款和处罚，因为目前全球范围内加强环境立法的谈判已进入后期阶段。当前的研究评估了环境可持续发展承诺与在约翰内斯堡证券交易所（JSE）上市的公司财务绩效之间的联系。该研究本质上是定量研究，采用案例研究设计。采用纵向设计，研究人员收集了2011年至2018年的面板数据。研究总体包括在南非JSE责任投资指数上市的所有公司。样本由在南非金融时报股票交易所富时/JSE责任投资指数上市的32家公司组成。研究人员采用面板回归分析模型来分析数据。具体而言，本研究使用了可行广义最小二乘法回归模型。财务绩效作为因变量，通过每股收益和股价来衡量。研究的自变量包括环境可持续发展的组成部分，如碳排放减少和环境合规。研究中还使用了公司规模和流动性等控制变量。研究结果表明，碳排放减少与每股收益和股价呈正相关且具有显著性。研究结果还表明，环境合规与每股收益和股价呈正相关。研究得出结论，由于所有假设均得到支持，企业可以通过环境投资提高其财务绩效。本研究在实际层面为制定环境政策做出了贡献，同时也激励上市公司通过环境投资提高盈利能力和市场价值。
