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The chapter examines and describes the impact of the Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA-DR) environmental provisions and the UN Global Compact initiatives on environmental sustainability of member countries at a national level and at a firm level.

Composite indexes (Human Development Index, Ecological Footprint Index, and Biocapacity) are used to determine CAFTA-DR country level sustainability. Firm level sustainability is based on a qualitative survey of companies using the Global Reporting Initiative framework and UN Global Compact participation.

Based on the methodology used CAFTA-DR member countries cannot be considered environmentally sustainable. Despite the lack of integration between initiatives proposed by different institutions, firm level sustainability trends are positive and encouraging.

Free access to Ecological Footprint and Biocapacity scores is limited. The research focused on surveying CAFTA-DR and UN Global Compact sustainability initiatives. However, there are many other entities and institutions not included in this research that also encourage sustainability.

The need of a concerted effort to align different organizations and institutions regarding sustainability initiatives in the CAFTA-DR region is apparent.

CAFTA-DR includes environmental provisions that are complementary to the UN Global Compact environmental principle. The synergies between these initiatives should be actively explored.

Drawing on the systems theory and the natural resource-based view, the purpose of this paper is to advance an integrated resource efficiency view (IREV) and derive a composite “integrated resource efficiency index” (IRE-index) for assessing the environmental, economic, and social resource efficiencies of production economies.

Using sub-national input-output data, the IRE-index builds on the human development index (HDI) and the OECD green growth indicators by including functions for environmental resource efficiency, energy, and material productivity. The study uses multiple regressions to examine and compare the IRE-index of 40 countries, including 34 OECD nations. The study further compares the IRE-index to similar composite indicators such as the human sustainable development index (HSDI) and the ecological footprint.

The IRE-index reveals a discrepancy between social development and resource efficiency in many of the world’s wealthiest production economies. Findings also show that material productivity has been the key driver for observed improvements in IRE over time. The index is a robust macro-level methodology for assessing resource efficiency and sustainability, with implications for production operations in global supply chains.

The IREV and IRE-index both contribute towards advancing green supply chain management and sustainability, and country-level resource efficiency accounting and reporting. The IRE-index is a useful composite for capturing aggregate environmental, economic, and social resource efficiencies of production economies. The paper clearly outlines the managerial, academic, and policy implications of the IREV and resulting index.

This paper aims to investigate the association between country-level sustainability scores and cross-border bank-to-non-bank flows within countries.

The authors analyze cross-border banking flows into the real sector firms of 26 developed countries from 2006 to 2017. The authors use a dynamic panel ordinary least square along with an instrumental variable and a generalized method of moments regressions to test the relationship between country-level sustainability scores and cross-border banking flows. Additionally, the authors apply Fama-MacBeth cross-sectional regression and non-parametric portfolio tests to obtain robust results.

The impact of country-level sustainability scores on cross-border banking flows is positive and significant. This finding is consistent with the signaling theory, which states that a country’s sustainability score is a signal to attract more international fund flows. Notably, the authors deduce that environmental sustainability is more important than the social and governance pillars.

The findings indicate that the real sector firms located in countries having higher sustainability scores can receive more international bank flows. Consequently, policymakers should focus more on country-level sustainability investments to improve the financing of resident firms.

Policymakers should focus more on country-level sustainability investments to improve the financing of resident firms.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, no existing study has investigated the signaling function of country-level sustainability scores in the cross-border banking flow conjecture. By investigating this relationship for real sector firms, this study portrays how the non-banking sector can benefit from such a policy that promotes sustainable practices at the country level.

This study aims to understand New Zealand sheep farmers’ readiness toward sustainability transition by assessing their intentions of transition and adoption of sustainability tools, with information collection considered to mediate the intention–adoption relationship.

Based on the data collected from a survey of New Zealand sheep farmers in 2021, the empirical analysis was developed to investigate farmers’ perceptions of and attitudes toward readiness to move toward a sustainability transition. Structural equation modeling associated with principal component analysis was used to empirically test the theory of planned behavior constructs.

The results show that pressure from the public and the sheep industry, and the perceived controls of transition drive the intention of sustainability transition; farmers with higher intention of sustainability transition are found to be more likely to adopt sustainability tools. However, there is an attitude–behavior gap, wherein positive attitudes toward sustainability transition may not lead to a higher likelihood of adopting sustainability tools. There is no evidence of the mediating role of information collection on the intention–adoption relationship, while a positive effect was found in information collection on the adoption of sustainability tools.

The empirical evidence indicates that policymakers need to help increase the awareness of sustainable production and help farmers overcome barriers to achieving sustainable production by finding ways to turn intentions into adoption.

Being the first attempt to empirically assess farmers’ readiness toward sustainability transition, the study fills the gap of limited understanding of the link between sustainability transition intention and sustainable tools adoption in sustainability transition.

The purpose of this study is to examine the impact of country-level governance on sustainability performance, taking into account the effect of sustainable development goals (SDGs) and board characteristics.

This study uses panel data analysis using fixed effect models to investigate the influence of country-level governance on sustainability performance while considering the effect of SDGs and board characteristics. The sample comprises 8,273 firms across 41 countries during the period spanning from 2016 to 2021. The sample is divided into two categories based on the score of SDGs.

The findings of this study show that countries with high SDGs score have better overall country-level governance and board attributes which have a statistically significant positive impact on sustainability performance. However, for those countries with low SDGs, political stability shows a statistically insignificant and negative impact on sustainability performance, while government effectiveness indicates a statistically insignificant positive impact on sustainability performance.

This study contributes to the literature by providing empirical evidence on the relationship between country-level governance, SDGs, board characteristics and sustainability performance. The study also highlights the importance of considering the effect of SDGs on the relationship between country-level governance and sustainability performance. The findings of this study could be useful for policymakers and firms in improving their sustainability performance and contributing to sustainable development.

The purpose of the study is to investigate whether the relationship between financial development/investor protection and corporate commitment to sustainability is related to social contagion, neighborhood effect, and community effect.

The study applies correlation analysis, difference tests, and regression model to a sample comprised of 369 large firms listed on FTSE Global 500 covering 11 industries, located in 31 countries. This paper examines three country‐level variables, financial development index, shareholder rights index, and strength of investor protection, and five corporate commitment to sustainability measures, Carbon Disclosure Leadership Index, Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions (direct, electricity indirect, and other indirect GHG emissions), and the corresponding carbon intensity.

The results support the view that the relationship between financial development/investor protection and corporate commitment to sustainability is associated with social contagion, neighborhood effect, and community effect. Companies are more willing to commit to carbon disclosure for countries with higher financial development. Corporate commitment to sustainability is lower if neighbor countries' financial development or shareholder rights are high. Similarly, companies place less strategic importance on climate change issues if their community countries protect investors better, notwithstanding their relatively low level of other indirect GHG emissions.

Future research may build on this research by supplementing the current data with more variables such as domestic financial sector liberalization or measures, such as business environment, financial stability, and size, depth, and access. The negative relationship between commitment to sustainability and investor rights suggests that investor rights and commitment to sustainability are singing different tunes. Corporate commitment to sustainability does not keep pace with investor rights especially for countries with better shareholder rights or investor protection.

This study provides a new perspective on the relationship between financial development/investor protection and commitment to sustainability. This study contributes to the existing literature by using five measures of corporate commitment to sustainability based on firm‐specific data using a sample of the FTSE Global 500. This paper provides a better understanding of the relationship between country‐level characteristics and commitment to sustainability in an environment where global integration is relatively high.

Based on a sample of 1,872 firm-year observations for 573 global firms over the period 2013–2016, this study aims to provide empirical evidence on how environmental, social and governance (ESG) performance affects corporate creditworthiness as measured by credit default swap (CDS) spreads.

The authors use a regression model that accounts for country, industry and time-fixed effects as well as the instrumental-based Generalized Method of Moments (GMM) approach to dynamic panel modeling.

This study finds that improvements in ESG performance, especially in its governance pillar, reduce credit risk. Further, the authors uncover evidence suggesting the complementarity between ESG performance and country-level sustainability. The results indicate a stronger risk-mitigating impact of ESG performance in countries with higher sustainability scores.

In terms of practical implications, the findings suggest that corporations should strengthen governance frameworks and procedures to reduce credit risk, prior to embarking on environmental and social objectives. Further, the finding that country sustainability is an important determinant of CDS spreads suggests that country-level sustainability initiatives would not only help to preserve natural capital and promote social capital but also be beneficial to businesses and financial stability.

The study adds to the literature on the effects of ESG performance on credit risk by (1) utilizing a measure of ESG performance that considers the financial materiality of ESG issues across different industries; (2) utilizing a market-based measure of credit risk and CDS spreads; (3) examining the relative importance of ESG components to credit risk, rather than just the aggregate measure; and (4) assessing the influence of country sustainability on the relationship between ESG and credit risk.

This paper aims to provide empirical evidence on formal stakeholder participation (or “lobbying”) in the early phase of the International Sustainability Standards Board’s (ISSB’s) standard-setting.

Drawing on a rational-choice framework, this paper conducts a content analysis of comment letters (CLs) submitted to the ISSB in response to its first two exposure drafts (published in 2022) to investigate stakeholder participation across different groups and jurisdictional origins. The analyses examine participation in terms of frequency (measured using the number of participating stakeholders) and intensity (measured using the length of CLs).

Preparers and users of sustainability reports emerge as the largest participating stakeholder groups, while the accounting/sustainability profession participates with high average intensity. Surprisingly, preparers do not outweigh users in terms of participation frequency and intensity; and large preparers outweigh smaller ones in terms of participation intensity but not participation frequency. Internationally, stakeholders from countries with a private financial accounting standard-setting system participate more frequently and intensively than others. In addition, country-level economic wealth and sustainability performance are positively associated with more participating stakeholders.

This study is of interest for organizations and stakeholders involved in or affected by standard-setting in the field of sustainability reporting. The finding of limited participation by investors and from developing countries suggests the ISSB take actions to enhance the voice of those stakeholders.

The imbalances in stakeholder participation that were found pose potential threats to an important aspect of the input legitimacy of the ISSB’s standard-setting process.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this paper is the first to explore stakeholder participation by means of CLs with the ISSB in terms of frequency and intensity.

The Sharing Economy (SE) has turned around the concepts of ownership and access, promoting not only an alternative consumption method, but also a more sustainable one. Using digital platforms, this phenomenon expects to achieve a better use of the idle capacity of resources, promote meaningful and trusting communities and contribute to reducing the environmental harm. The huge increase of popularity of this model has lined up with the Sustainable Development Goals proclamation, and the commitment from governments with the search for more sustainable models. This study analyzes the relationship of the SE with sustainability in general, and the Sustainable Development Goals in specific.

Through the analysis of the action plans proposed by governments and the expected contributions of sharing platforms to sustainability, the authors analyze the improvements and assistance that the Sharing Economy could offer to countries.

The main findings suggest that the SE can assist countries to achieve their sustainability goals and to further advance towards a more sustainable consumption and living model in order to fulfill the Sustainable Development Goals.

Although this topic is still to be further developed, the SE seems to be fulfilling the expectations as the path towards sustainability.

This paper aims to unite firm- and country-level drivers of the disclosure of integrated reports. It creates a synopsis of voluntary disclosure, signaling, proprietary cost, legitimacy, stakeholder and institutional theory.

The empirical analyses build on a logistic regression model examining the disclosure decisions for integrated reports published between 2012 and 2016 by the 2,000 largest listed companies worldwide.

The results indicate that the disclosure of integrated reports by large listed companies is explained in parallel by multiple theories, operationalized by the firm-level characteristics of lower profitability, a higher market-to-book value, lower leverage, lower level of industry concentration and higher social performance. Additionally, the country-level characteristics of civil law setting and lower investor protection, lower power distance and lower masculinity coincide with the disclosure of integrated reports.

The inferences emphasize that a single theoretical framework cannot explain the decision to disclose an integrated report. Rather, a set of economic firm characteristics may lead to different disclosure decisions in different socio-economic and institutional environments.