CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY E SVILUPPO AZIENDALE SOSTENIBILE: STRUMENTI DI RAPPRESENTAZIONE, DI ANALISI E DI INVESTIMENTO

After introducing the concept of corporate social responsibility (CSR), this research work focuses on the benefits that committing to such a concept can bring to the enterprise, on the instruments to represent such a committment (sustainability report and integrated report), to analyze it (sustainable finance) and to measure it (ethical rating and ESG analysis). In addition to this, an empirical analysis on a sample of 50 European organizations is undertaken, investigating the respective sustainability reports, with the aim of pinpointing their strengths and weaknesses. In the final part of the thesis, based on a sample of 200 European companies, the existence of a positive correlation between (environmental, social and governance) ESG performance as well as economic and financial performance is verified by means of statistical instruments, in order to demonstrate that organizations that actively commit to CSR also achieve economical benefits. Such a correlation seems to occur particularly in organizations that also exhibit a high degree of innovation, as Eccles and Serafeim hypothesized in May 2013 in the paper ‘The performance frontier: innovating for a sustainable strategy’. More in detail, Chapter I examines the evolution of the various definitions of Corporate Social Responsibility, starting from the proposals brought forward by the American literature, down to the more recent definitions proposed by the European institutions. An in-depth analysis is dedicated to the Union directives on non-financial disclosure and to the criticalities of its implementation. Chapter II illustrates the motivations for which a company finds it convenient to commit to CSR, showing the benefits both for companies and for the whole society that emerged from the European Union’s inquiries and from a meta-analysis led by Oxford University. Chapters III and IV examine the standard principles of process and content (GBS, AA1000, GRI). Also examined are the integrated report, the ‘King III’ South-African regulation and the fundamentals of the framework proposed by IIRC. Chapter V quantitatively analyses the sustainability reports related to the 2014 practice based on a sample of 50 European companies, in order to identify the strengths and weaknesses of the published reports. The evaluation, carried out using an analysis format developed specifically for the purpose by the author, and focused on seven key criteria, made it possible to seize the main characteristics, strengths and weaknesses of social reporting as it is currently adopted. From the analysis, it emerged that CSR reporting has reached remarkable depths for large European organizations, and that some of them can be considered as global best practices. Chapter VI describes the historical origins and the developments of sustainable finance, and particularly of ethical and sustainable mutual funds; it also presents the main reasons underlying ESG ratings and the innovative instruments to measure the social impact of enterprise venture. Chapter VII carries out a statistical analysis to verify whether there exists a correlation between ESG performance and economical-financial performance, in order to demonstrate that companies actively committed in CSR also achieve economical benefits. From the undertaken analysis, it emerges that - for the companies under exam considered with a “high degree of innovation” on the basis of the ratio between research and development costs and the net sales or revenue - a direct relation was found: an increase of commitment to ESG aspects results in an improvement of economical-financial performance. Indeed, negative correlations, related to the costs of implementing ESG policies, are counterbalanced in the long run by an equivalent amount of positive correlations. The latter are higher than the former and have been explained by the interpretation model proposed by the author.

Nel lavoro di ricerca, dopo aver introdotto il concetto di responsabilità sociale di impresa, mi sono soffermato sui benefici che l’impegno in tali tematiche può portare alla realtà aziendale, sugli strumenti di rappresentazione di tale impegno (bilancio di sostenibilità e report integrato) ed ho quindi svolto un’analisi empirica su un campione di 50 società europee analizzandone i rispettivi bilanci di sostenibilità, al fine di individuarne punti di forza e di debolezza. Nell’ultima parte della tesi, attraverso alcuni strumenti statistici e per un campione di 200 società europee, ho verificato l’esistenza di una correlazione positiva tra performance ESG (ambientali, sociali e di governance) e performance economico-finanziarie, al fine di dimostrare che le aziende che si impegnano attivamente nella CSR hanno anche dei benefici di carattere economico. Tale correlazione sembrerebbe verificata nel caso in cui le aziende abbiano anche un elevato grado di innovazione, così come ipotizzato da Eccles e Serafeim nel maggio 2013 nel paper “The performance frontier: innovating for a sustainable startegy”. Nell’ambito del programma di dottorato e con l’obiettivo di meglio definire il concetto di innovazione e i relativi strumenti di misurazione, nel luglio 2016 ho frequentato presso l’Università Ebraica di Gerusalemme un corso sull’Innovazione e sulle Start Up durante il quale ho potuto visitare ed approfondire l’attività di numerose start up israeliane operanti principalmente nel campo della cyber security, delle biotecnologie e della salute, dell’agricoltura e dell’intelligenza artificiale.