This thesis aims to investigate the relationship between social sustainability and financial performance in Nordic large and mid-cap firms. Lately, there has been an increasing focus on ESG factors, however previous studies of the ESG factors’ relationship to financial performance have given mixed results. Moreover, in previous studies, the focus on social sustainability has fallen behind compared to the environmental and governance pillars. Therefore, the study analyses the relationship between the social pillar of ESG and financial performance, as well as the 4 social subcategories making up the social pillar. Thereby making the study a multi-ESG level study during the period 2018-2022. The study relies on a sample of 136 Nordic firms (123 for the ROE models) extracted from the LSEG database and tests the relationship between social sustainability and financial performance using nine panel regression models. Our findings are mixed, some showcasing negative, positive, and insignificant results. We find the social pillar of ESG to be a negative predictor of ROE, the social category of product responsibility was found to be a positive predictor of Tobin’s Q, and finally, the category of human rights was found to be a negative predictor of ROE. The other ESG variables were found to be insignificant as predictors of financial performance. The study thereby contributes to the research by investigating the under-researched pillar of sustainability, i.e. social sustainability, as well as shedding a light on the relationship in a Nordic context.

Real estate professionals, such as investors, owner-occupants, and lenders who are involved in the investment decision-making process are increasingly interested in sustainability and energy efficiency investment. However, current tools and techniques, both technical and financial, typically used for assessing sustainability on their own are unable to provide comprehensive and reliable financial information required for making high-quality investment decisions. Sustainability investment often includes non-cost benefits, value implications, as well as substantial risk and uncertainty that current methods do not simultaneously incorporate in their assessment process. Through a combined quantitative and qualitative approach, this research creates a new systematic assessment process to consider both cost and non-cost savings and therefore the true financial performance of a set of sustainable options in the context of value and risk, while explicitly deriving and including various uncertainties inherent in the process. The framework integrates assessment tools of technical decision-makers with those of investment decision-makers into a single platform to improve the quality of financial performance projections, and therefore, investment decisions concerning sustainable options in real estate. A case study is then conducted to test and demonstrate the numeric application of the proposed framework in the context of a non-green office building. The case study presents how to connect the technical outcomes to financial inputs, present the information, and estimate the true financial performance of a green retrofit option, where incremental value and uncertainty have been modeled and included. Three levels of financial analysis are performed to estimate the distribution of financial outcomes including: 1) Cost-based level-1: only energy related costs savings were considered; 2) Cost-based level-2: the non-energy cost savings, including heath and productivity, were also considered; and 3) Value-based level: the value implications of the green retrofit option were considered in addition to items in level 2. As a result of applying the proposed framework when evaluating sustainability investment options, many investment opportunities that were otherwise ignored may be realized, and therefore, the breadth and depth of sustainability investment in real estate will increase. / Ph. D.

The concept, sustainability, has developed throughout the years and has become an important part for different actors around the world. Due to many organizations like the United Nations acknowledging this aspect together with governments, initiatives and laws have been implemented for businesses to follow. This forms the basis of what is now called ESG which includes three individual aspects: environment, social responsibility and governance. One of the actors includes investors who have now started to shift their focus onto sustainable investments. In order for them to make decisions about the company's way of working towards a sustainable business, analytics began to measure both each individual aspect of ESG and as a whole. Therefore, ESG rating has become a well-known way of measuring how companies perform when it comes to environment, social responsibility and governance. The pharmaceutical industry in Europe is the second largest in the world and has become acknowledged due to the covid-19 pandemic. It has not only faced criticism and uncertainties both during and after the pandemic, but also faces problems in each individual aspect of ESG. When it comes to environmental issues, the pharmaceutical industry stands for 55% more of carbon emissions than the automotive sector due to non-sustainable supply chains. For the aspect, social responsibility, their main problems include addiction, antibiotic resistance and accessibility of pharmaceuticals. Further, governance issues include illegal marketing and fraud. Due to this, governments and organizations have put pressure on businesses to work towards a sustainable industry. Therefore, ESG ratings have become an important measurement for investors. The aim of the study is to analyze the relationship between ESG and financial performance in the pharmaceutical industry in Europe with a time period of 2018-2022. The results will indicate if the Shareholder’s theory or the Stakeholder’s theory is more applicable for this industry. The result shows a negative significant relationship between the overall rating of ESG and Tobin’s. When it comes to the individual aspect, governance is statically proved to have a negative significant relationship with Tobin’s Q. This concludes that the Shareholder’s theory is more aligned with the results meaning that the pharmaceutical industry may focus on profit maximization for shareholders. Since there was a non-statically proven relationship between ESG and ROA, the study suggests further research within this topic.

ost companies adhere to corporate governance, which is a generally recognized governingstructure in order to enhance the financial performance of their business. This studyinvestigates the relationship between corporate governance and the financial performanceof Sri Lanka's licensed banks using this scenario as a basis. The research question raised bythis study was “Does Corporate Governance impact on Financial Performance of BankingSector in Sri Lanka?”. The independence variables were corporate governance and it wasmeasured from five dimensions board size ,gender diversity , number of board meetings,and board independence, number of board committees. The dependent variables wasfinancial performance and it was measured from return on assets and return on equity. Thecontrol variables used for study were firm size, leverage, and firm age. The non-randomconvenience sampling methods was used and selected 19 banks out of 30 licensed banks inSri Lanka. The data was collected from secondary sources, that is, annual reports of 2018-2022.The collected data were analyzed through regression analysis using SPSS statistical methodto ascertain the developed hypothesis of this study. The findings of the study revealed thatboard independence was statistically significant with both ROA and ROE indicating that anegative and positive linear relationship respectively. Board size and number of femaledirectors were statistically significant with ROA while board size and number of femaledirectors were not statistically significant with ROE. However, number of board meetingsand number of board committees were not statistically significant with both ROA and ROE.These results revealed that in overall, corporate governance dimensions were moreimpacted on return on assets compared to return on equity in the Sri Lankan banking sector.

Any mitigation action will neglect climate change impacts (CCI) (Gillett et al., 2011: 83; Parry et al., 2009: 1102) occurring in a change of average weather patterns as well as in an increase in frequency and magnitude of extreme weather events (EWE) (IPCC, 2007: 8 and 52 f.; IPCC, 2012: 119 f.). For this thesis of special interest are businesses of the construction industry. Construction activities are carried out in an open environment which makes the construction companies´ highly impacted on weather conditions compared to many other sectors (Wedawatta et al., 2010: 364). Furthermore, the construction sector is a fundamental part in any economy (Wedawatta, et al. 2010: 365; Squicciarini and Asikainen, 2011: 672). In mitigation literature a sound amount of studies researches on the relation of corporate fi-nancial performance (CFP) and emissions. Guenther et al. (2012) analyzed empirical studies with regard to their connection between environmental and financial performance of corpo-rations whereby the majority of results implement a positive as well as negative relation. Therefore, this thesis investigates a possible association of implemented measures as re-sponse to the CC and the financial performance on a corporate level. In particular, the aim of this thesis is to analyze the association between corporate financial performance (CFP) and implemented climate change adaptation measures (CCAM) especially for companies of the construction industry. For providing a solid base for this point of interest the affection for construction businesses by CC and the response to the CCI of construction businesses is in-vestigated in addition. For the investigation of an association between CCAM and CFP the statistical methodology of regression was applied. The results clearly support the raised hypothesizes by computing a relationship between these variables in both directions. The results gained in this thesis stress adaptation to CC as a crucial proxy to handle CCI by mitigating risks and exploiting oppor-tunities. Nevertheless, still a reluctant attitude of businesses exists for the implementation of CCAM. This was found in literature and could be reassured by the results of the content analysis since businesses connote CCAM often with increasing cost and expenses and do not draw back on the effect on financial performance. This thesis found a positive effect of im-plemented CCAM on ROA on the short-run. These findings do refer to appropriate CCAM in terms of the right amount. For the opposite direction it was investigated, that if a construc-tion business is financially impacted by CC, an increase in slack causes the implementation of adaptation measures. By the implementation of adaptation measures the dependency from environmental changes is increased (RDT) and the companies´ structure becomes more het-erogenic (RBV). Financial slack is proved to be important to keep the company flexible in taking action. Especially, if a company is financially impacted by CCI financial slack is used for implementing measures.:1 Introduction 2 Theory 2.1 Resource Dependence Theory 2.2 Resource Based View 2.3 Organizational Slack 3 State of Research 3.1 Introduction to Climate Change Adaptation 3.2 Climate Change Mitigation and Adaptation Literature dealing with CFP 3.3 Financial Implication of CCI and CCAM 3.4 Climate Change Impacts and Adaptations Measures on Construction Enterprises 3.4.1 Construction Enterprises and their specific Value Chain 3.4.2 CCI on Construction Enterprises 3.4.3 CCAM for Construction Enterprises 3.5 Hypothesis development 4 Methodology 4.1 Content Analysis 4.2 Regression Analysis 4.2.1 Multiple Linear Regression Analysis 4.2.2 Poisson and Negative Binominal Regression Analysis 4.3 Model description 4.3.1 Operationalization of the Content Analysis 4.3.2 Operationalization of the Regression Analysis 5 Results 5.1 Results of the Content Analysis 5.2 Results of the Regression Analysis 5.2.1 Results of the Multiple Linear Regression 5.2.2 Results of the Negative Binomial Regression 6 Discussion, Limitation, and Further Research 6.1 Discussion of Results for the Association between CFP and CCAM 6.2 Limitations and Further Research 7 Conclusion

Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) contribute substantially in economies around the world and in South Africa in particular. This study aimed to explore and describe the financial performance measures currently used by manufacturing SMEs in Pretoria. Semi-structured interviews were conducted at the participant SMEs’ premises in order to gather the information. It was found that most of the respondents use financial ratios, but to a limited extent, when measuring their financial performance. The use of bankruptcy prediction models is totally absent among the participants. It has been recommended that SMEs use more ratios from the literature that have been proven to be the best financial measures, and the six ratios that have worked well for some of the participants in the study. It is also recommended that SME owners enrol their financial staff for training in bankruptcy prediction models, and use financial software packages if they can afford them. / Graduate School for Business Leadership / (M.Tech. (Business Administration))

Thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science in Agriculture (Agricultural Economics) at Stellenbosch University / Thesis (MScAgric (Agricultural Economics))--University of Stellenbosch, 2010. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The main objective of the research is to understand the concept of cooperative conversions and compare the performance of converted cooperatives to those that never converted using financial accounting analysis and organisational dynamism. Even though the differences were relatively small, companies had the strongest relative financial performance than cooperatives. Companies had the strongest performances in asset and revenue growth. Average revenue growth for companies from 2004 to 2007 was 29% as compared to 15% by cooperatives and asset growth was 25% for companies compared to 12.5% by cooperatives. Results further indicate that for the past two years, cooperatives seem to be reporting decreasing performance in most of the financial ratios analysed. Thus, based on results from the financial analysis, operating as a company or converting from a cooperative to a company could result in slight increases in financial performance. Rapid change presents various challenges and opportunities for businesses in today‘s dynamic environment. As a result, business dynamism is becoming an increasingly important aspect and factor in determining success. Based on a dynamism score card, the study shows that companies are by far much more dynamic than cooperatives, with a score of 83.75 compared to 62.33 out of 100 respectively. However, cooperatives compare relatively well to companies in as far as organisational strategy, management, organisational structure and culture. Their limitations come from their property rights framework which is by far less dynamic than that of companies owing to the limitations and constraints of the Cooperatives Act (Act 14 of 2005). The main shortcomings of cooperative property rights were that of not allowing external investors into the cooperative and the one member one vote principle for primary cooperatives or the 15% cap for secondary cooperatives. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Die vernaamste doelwit van hierdie navorsing was om die konsep van koöperatiewe omsettings te verstaan en die prestasie van omsette koöperasies te vergelyk met dié wat nog nooit deur middel van finansiële rekeningkundige analise en organisatoriese dinamisme omgesit is nie. Hoewel die verskille relatief klein was, het maatskappye die sterkste relatiewe finansiële prestasie gehad in vergelyking met koöperasies. Maatskappye het ook die sterkste prestasie in bate- en inkomstegroei getoon. Gemiddelde inkomstegroei vir maatskappye vanaf 2004 tot 2007 was 29%, in vergelyking met 15% vir koöperasies, terwyl bategroei vir maatskappye 25% was in vergelyking met 12.5% vir koöperasies. Die resultate toon verder dat koöperasies oor die afgelope twee jaar verminderde prestasie blyk te rapporteer in die meerderheid van die finansiële verhoudings wat geanaliseer is. Dus, op grond van die resultate van die finansiële analise, sal funksionering as ‘n maatskappy of omsetting van ‘n koöperasie na ‘n maatskappy kan lei tot ‘n effense verhoging in finansiële prestasie. Snelle verandering bied verskeie uitdagings en geleenthede vir maatskappye in die huidige dinamiese omgewing. Gevolglik is sakedinamisme besig om ‘n toenemend belangrike aspek en faktor in die bepaling van sukses te word. Op die basis van ‘n dinamisme-telkaart het hierdie studie getoon dat maatskappye baie meer dinamies is as koöperasies, met ‗n telling van 83.75 in vergelyking met 62.33 uit 100 onderskeidelik. Koöperasies vergelyk egter relatief goed met maatskappye in soverre dit organisatoriese strategie, bestuur, organisatoriese struktuur en kultuur behels. Hulle beperkings kom van hulle eiendomsregraamwerk, wat baie minder dinamies is as dié van maatskappye op grond van die beperkings van die Wet op Koöperasies (Wet 14 van 2005). Die vernaamste tekorte van koöperatiewe eiendomsregte is dat hulle nie eksterne beleggers in die koöperasie toelaat nie en die beginsel van een lid, een stem vir primêre koöperasies of die 15% perk op sekondêre koöperasies.

隨著知識經濟時代來臨，知識在組織經營中扮演日益重要的角色，知識擁有者對於組織而言即為人力資本。組織應瞭解知識擁有者能為組織創造多少效益，從而進行人力資源管理，以求長期競爭優勢。因此人力資本在組織中益顯重要，故本研究擬探討人力資本對組織市場價值與財務績效之影響情況。 本研究以我國上市及上櫃公司為研究對象，包含資訊電子（光電、半導體、資訊通訊服務、資訊家電）、生物科技、食品、化學材料、紡織等產業進行探討。研究期間為2001年至2003年，以複迴歸方式從事實證模型分析。 本研究主要探討議題共分為兩部分： 一、人力資本對組織市場價值之影響：本研究以市場價值及M/B Ratio當為應變數，研發人數、員工向心力為自變數。 二、人力資本對組織財務績效之影響：以每人營業收入、每人營業毛利、每人稅前營業利益為應變數，自變數為：研發人數、員工向心力等。 本研究之實證結果發現：研發人數對組織市場價值與組織財務績效有正向影響，而員工向心力對組織M/B Ratio也有正向影響。另外，智慧資本的投資通常會為企業帶來數年的效益，人力資本也不例外，因此本研究另外針對遞延一期之組織市值及財務績效進行分析，實證結果研究也發現：研發人數對組織財務績效具有部分遞延效益。 根據實證結果，本研究建議組織應加強對人力資本之重視，俾提升其市場價值及財務績效。另外，對於後續研究者而言，由於人力資本之指標因各文獻採用不一，故未來學者應再針對不同指標進行探討，並加以彙整，或許對組織市場價值與財務績效影響因子可能會有更深入及明確之瞭解。 / With the coming of the age of knowledge economy, knowledge plays a very important role in organizations. Knowledge-owners are regarded as “Human Capital” in organizations. Managers should understand how many benefits the knowledge-owners will bring to the organizations, and use their Human Resource Management (HRM) policies effectively to retain the long-term competition advantages. Human capital becomes more and more important, so this study is intent to examine the effect of human capital upon the market value and financial performance of the organizations. The two main themes of this study are: 1. The effect of human capital on market value of the organizations. The dependent variable are: market value and M/B Ratio; and the independent variable are: number of R&D workers and employee loyalty. 2. The effect of human capital on financial performance of the organizations. The dependent variable are: revenue per employee, gross profit per employee, and operating income per employee; and the independent variable are: number of R&D workers and employee loyalty. The results show that “R&D workers” has both positive effect on market value and financial performance of the organizations; “employee loyalty” has positive effect on M/B Ratio, too. In addition, human capital has partial lagged effects. According to the results, this study suggests that the organizations should pay more attention to their human capital to promote their market value and financial performance. Moreover, for future researchers, they could examine different human capital indexes. It may allow us to have a thorough understanding about the influence of human capital on market value and financial performance of the organizations.

本研究主要探討，企業社會責任這個議題，是否能跳脫傳統從企業道德﹝business ethics﹞的角度，以更實用性的思考，結合企業所最為關心的經濟利益考量，成功地說服企業用更主動積極的方式從事與企業社會責任相關的決策與投資活動。為了達成該研究目的，本研究採用由道瓊永續性北美指數2005-2007連續三年評選入榜的企業為研究標的，觀測其財務績效相關指標是否明顯優於其餘未入榜的企業。而在現今許多所有權與經營權分離的企業當中，如何成功地降低待理問題，使高階經理人能將組織長遠永續發展的目標結合自身利益，為股東與其他利害關係人帶來最大的利益是本研究第二個探討的議題。藉由分析S&P execucomp資料庫2005-2007年的資料，本研究從高階經理人的年度薪酬資料，去了解企業社會責任執行佳的企業是否在薪酬結構的設計上有不同的設計。資料分析結果顯示，連續三年評選進入道瓊永續性北美指數的企業，其公司成長性顯著優於未入榜的企業；而主要與企業短期績效表現連動的薪酬制度──紅利，其所佔比例越高，將誘使高階經理人挪用於其他能創造短期財務績效的投資活動，長遠來看，將不利於公司企業社會責任活動的執行與發展。 / The goal of this study is to examine whether business performance is affected by the adoption of practice included under the term of “Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR).”To achieve this goal, the relation between CSR and some accounting or market indicators are analyzed and the existence of significant difference in performance indicators between North American firms that have adopt CSR and others that have not is also examined. Besides, this study takes a further step to explore the extent to which Boards use executive compensation to incite firms to act in accordance with social and environmental objectives. The Dow Jones Sustainability Index- North America is used for distinguishing firms that constantly comply with CSR practice for 3 years (2005-2007) from the rest. Empirical analysis supports the conclusion that differences in performance exist between firms that belong to the DJSI-North America (doing CSR good) and the rest (not doing CSR good). Moreover, the bonus of executive compensation has significant negative relationship with CSR. This finding implies that the compensation linking to short-term performance provides no incentives to executives for doing CSR which has long-term benefit for firms. This in turn suggests that executive compensation can be an effective tool in aligning executives’ welfare with that of the “common good”, which results in more socially responsible firms.

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