In context of the forthcoming Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive, this study examines how scope 3 emissions and the reporting thereof affect the cost of debt. Further, it investigates how scope 1 emissions affect the cost of debt and how the two scopes differ in materiality. As a theoretical foundation, this thesis uses previous research on environmental risk management, carbon risk premium, scope 3 emissions and cost of capital. By collecting a sample of 1710 firm-year observations for publicly listed European companies during the period 2019-2022, this quantitative study utilizes fixed effect regression models to find the relationship between scope 3 emission and cost of debt. No evidence of a relationship between scope 3 emissions and cost of debt is found. When looking at scope 1 emissions, the results show that companies with lower scope 1 emissions are rewarded by creditors with a reduced cost of debt. Regarding reporting of scope 3 emissions, we find no evidence suggesting that scope 3 disclosure lowers the cost of debt.

To redirect capital flows towards sustainable investments, the European Union (EU) has implemented the EU Taxonomy, a classification system with definitions for sustainable economic activities. The Taxonomy constitutes a part of the European Green Deal, which is an initiative to transition the EU towards sustainability and competitiveness. The EU Taxonomy is intended to be used by investors when assessing companies to identify sustainable investment opportunities. Investors have great significance in what impacts the EU Taxonomy will have since the regulation relies on investors using it as a tool when assessing whether to invest in a company or not. Additionally, many companies rely on investors for financial support, and it is therefore essential for companies to have information about to what degree investors will integrate the EU Taxonomy in their investment decisions. There is an information gap between companies and investors where companies lack knowledge about how investors will use the Taxonomy to select which companies to invest in.   The aim of the study is to investigate how the EU Taxonomy is affecting investment decisions of Nordic investment firms and institutional investors. Furthermore, the aim is to examine in what ways the EU Taxonomy will shape the future of sustainable investments and how companies utilize the EU Taxonomy to enhance their attractiveness to investors. A qualitative approach has been used in the thesis, and data constituting the results was collected through 12 semi-structured interviews with investors. In conclusion, all interviewed investors have an interest in promoting sustainable investments. The EU Taxonomy has, moreover, been positively received by investors since many of them have been requesting a tool to define sustainable economic activities. 11 of 12 investors in the study, use the EU Taxonomy when evaluating companies to make investment decisions. However, investors are currently evaluating a variety of factors when assessing companies, such as additional ESG performance indicators. Further, investors consider that the Taxonomy cannot exclusively be used when analyzing companies since it is a narrow tool, excluding multiple economic activities and sectors. A high Taxonomy alignment will be a considerable factor for some investors as they believe that companies with high alignment will be more successful. Other investors will continue to invest in companies with low alignment because these companies have potential to become more sustainable over time. All investors are, however, united in that the most important thing is that companies have an ambition to reach a higher alignment. Further, investors have varying approaches when it comes to prioritizing the environmental objectives when assessing companies' sustainability performance. Some investors value how many and which environmental objectives a company contributes to depending on the company´s operations, while others have not yet considered it. The EU Taxonomy´s significance in the future for sustainable investments will depend on different factors, for example the reporting of alignment. Provided that investors integrate the Taxonomy in their decision making, the framework will likely increase the share of investments which take sustainability aspects into account. However, since the EU Taxonomy only covers companies in the EU and exclude sectors, it is questionable how great significance the regulation will have for sustainable investments on a global scale. Lastly, there are several opportunities for companies to become more attractive to investors by working strategically with the EU Taxonomy and communicate ambitions to reach a higher alignment. The results highlight the importance of companies adapting their business model to the Taxonomy and establishing long-term plans for how to reach a higher share of alignment. Companies can, moreover, improve their attractiveness to investors by improving their Taxonomy data collection and presenting the data in an easily accessible way.

As Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) reports become more prevalent and systematised, there is a strong need to develop approaches that seek to analyse the contents of these reports. In this thesis, we present two valuable contributions. Firstly, we share a rule-based approach that can be a foundation for future supervised learning methods to examine CSR reports and generate predictions. Secondly, we focus on analysing CSR reports topic distributions across developing regions which are hardly covered in the existing literature. The analysis was conducted on a large corpus of 500+ million words over a sample of ~2500 CSR reports gathered from the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) database for 2012-17. Using reliable CSR business dictionaries, we determined the absolute and relative frequencies for four topics – Employee, Social Community, Environment and Human Rights. We noticed that the four topics studied had a declining trend in the percentage frequencies by 2017. In most cases, the Employee topic was reported the highest among the four topics, followed by Social Community, Environment and Human Rights. This trend was primarily maintained, barring a few exceptions, even when analysed from different dimensions based on company sizes, regions, and sectors. We also compared our derived results with the works of a few previous studies. To know if the reports became easy or hard to understand, we checked the readability through two indices but could not get any clear trend. In the end, we investigated that though there was more attention in the media on the Environment topic around 2016, we did not observe any heightened frequency percentage in the CSR reporting. We believe dictionary-based text mining on CSR reports can be a powerful way to generate insights for different stakeholders. Companies and their management can use this approach to review their CSR communication strategies. Many Government and Non-Government agencies can utilise this approach to check on their policies' effectiveness and future decision-making.

Sedan flera år tillbaka har det diskuterats hur samt vilket ansvar som företag bör ta inom samhället. Idag är det en självklarhet att företag bör arbeta för hållbarhet samt med Corporate Social Responsibility samtidigt som de måste redovisa sitt arbete enligt lag. Lagen specificerar dock inte hur eller på vilken detaljnivå hållbarhetsarbete ska kommuniceras på ett transparent sätt. I denna studie undersöks hur Corporate Social Responsibility samt hållbarhetsarbete kommuniceras i hållbarhetsredovisningar från sex svenska företag inom dryckesbranschen. Studien har konceptualiserat olika teman genom en innehållsanalys av hållbarhetsredovisningar från Kiviks Musteri, Spendrups, The Absolut Company, Carlsberg Group, Åbro och Kopparbergs Bryggeri som täcker en period om fyra år. Studiens resultat tyder på att hållbarhet kommuniceras på olika sätt av företagen samt att alla företag knyter an globala mål för hållbar utveckling och den svenska årsredovisningslagen till sin verksamhet. Det återfinns även en skillnad gällande detaljnivå och abstraktion i kommunikationen från företagen trots att alla följer samma juridiska redovisningskrav gällande hållbarhet. Anledningen till att företagens hållbarhetskommunikation skiljer sig åt är för att företagen försöker nå en högre grad av legitimitet, arbeta utifrån fler hållbarhetsdimensioner samt inkorporera fler intressentgrupper. Genom en mer detaljerad kommunikation mot flera intressentgrupper anses företagen försöka ta hänsyn till ”själen av lagen” och skapa en högre legitimitetsuppfyllnad istället för att endast följa lagen. / During many years it has been discussed how and which responsibilities businesses should undertake in the society where they operate. Today it is obvious that businesses should work towards sustainability and with Corporate Social Responsibility at the same time as they need to account and present their social and sustainability work in accordance with existing legislations. However, the law does not specify the level of detail at which the sustainability work should be communicated in a transparent way which thus creates a problem. This study examines how Corporate Social Responsibility and sustainability work is communicated in the sustainability reports from six Swedish companies in the brewing industry. The study has conceptualized different themes, by using a qualitative content analysis, from the communication in the sustainability reports of Kiviks Musteri, Spendrups, The Absolut Company, Carlsberg Group, Åbro and Kopparbergs Bryggeri during a period of four years. The results from the study implies that sustainability is communicated in different ways by the companies and that all the companies align their operations to global goals for sustainable development and the Swedish annual accounting act. It has also been found that there seems to be a difference in levels of detail and abstraction in the communication from companies even though they all follow and are bound to the Swedish annual accounting act. The reason as why the communication regarding sustainability differs between the companies is explained through the goal of achieving a higher level of legitimacy, working through more sustainability dimensions, and trying to incorporate more stakeholdergroups. Through a more detailed communication towards more stakeholdergroups it is believed that the companies are trying to take “the soul of the law” into consideration, to reach a higher legitimacy fulfillment, instead of only following the law.

Date: 2023-05-31 Level: Bachelor thesis in Business Administration, 15 credits Institution:School of Business, Society and Engineering, Mälardalen University Authors: Josef Andehaymanot (01/03/03) Jonas Höggren (99/03/05) Nicholas Malki (00/11/13) Title: Assessing ESG Reporting Practices in Swedish Banks: Approaches, and Barriers. Supervisor: Edward Gillmore Keywords: Sustainability reporting, transparency, accountability, disclosure barriers, stakeholder theory, corporate social responsibility, environment social governance.  Research questions: 1. How do Swedish banks integrate ESG into reporting and disclosure? 2. What are the barriers to improving transparency and accountability into this process? Purpose: The purpose of this thesis is to explore the challenges Swedish banks are faced with in their sustainability reporting practices, as well as to deduce solutions and add potential contributions to the development of standardized frameworks in reporting practices by conducting interviews with sustainability experts, both in banks, and a consultancy firm. Method: Non-standardized semi-structured interviews was the main method adopted for this thesis’ exploratory qualitative research, the data was then comparatively analyzed, bank by bank. Conclusion: The challenges and barriers identified in this study emphasize the need for standardized reporting frameworks, enhanced data collection process, stakeholder engagement, and employee education in sustainable initiatives. By addressing these issues banks can improve transparency and accountability in their ESG reporting process, contributing to a more sustainable future.

Background: Sustainability reporting has become increasingly important for firms that want to appease their stakeholders and the society, whilst possibly increasing the corporate financial performance (CFP) of the firm. This is because sustainability disclosures currently work as the main channel for firms to inform their stakeholders of the CSR practices and environmental management carried out by the company. However, there have been various previous studies that examine the relation between corporate social performance (CSP) or the reported CSP, and CFP but not a study that would focus on GRI’s adherence level and its effect on Firm value (FV). The adherence level in the context of a GRI Report refers to the extent to which the GRI Sustainability Reporting Framework and GRI Standards have been applied to a company’s sustainability report (Global Reporting Initiative, n.d.). This study intends to examine if stakeholders can be affected by a sustainability report’s adherence ranking made by GRI, although there necessarily would not be a clear connection to a company’s actual environmental performance.  Purpose: The purpose of this study is to find out if the adherence level affects a firm’s value and how, although this classification of reports would not say anything about a company’s level of sustainability or a company’s sustainability performance. In short, the study wants to examine if stakeholders or the society surrounding a company are affected by the adherence level of a company’s GRI reporting and if this then can affect the value of the organization in any way. Aim: The aim of this research is to encourage organizations to become more transparent or elaborate regarding their sustainability practices if any significance between the adherence level and the FV can be found.  Method: This study was conducted by examining 98 European manufacturing firms’ GRI adherence levels for the years 2017 to 2019 and comparing them to respective Firm Values (Tobin’s Q) by the usage of panel data regression analysis.  Conclusion: The results show that no significant relationship between the GRI adherence level and FV can be found in the European manufacturing industry for the period 2017 to 2019.

Syftet med denna studie är att undersöka hur traditionella banker och fintech-banker använder retorik som ett inslag av ’impression management’ i sin hållbarhetsredovisning – för att presentera en hållbar företagsbild. Vidare ska studien undersöka skillnader mellan bankerna. Utgivna hållbarhetsrapporter av två banker från år 2017 och 2021 analyseras genom en retorisk analysmodell baserad på Aristoteles klassiska retorikram etos, patos, och logos. Studiens resultat visar att företagen använder sig av retorisk argumentation i sin hållbarhetsredovisning på ett övertygande sätt och på så vis förmedlar en hållbar bild av sig själva. Etos används för att öka trovärdighet hos företaget exempelvis genom association till andra trovärdiga aktörer på marknaden och genom att de informerar om att de följer lagar och regelverk. Patos används för att anspela på känsla och identifikation hos läsaren genom målande beskrivningar om en mer hållbar framtid och genom metaforer som knyter an till nutida samhällsvärderingar. Logos används i argumentation genom rationalitet som data, vetenskap och rationell argumentation och bidrar till att ge en företagsbild som ger ett logiskt intryck. En korsanalys av fallen visar att den traditionella banken använder retorisk argumentation som mer kan förenas med en konservativ natur. Studien visar hur traditionella banker och fintech-företag använder sig av argumentation i sin hållbarhetsredovisning: och hur bankerna därigenom kan förmedla en bild av sig själva som hållbara. Studien pekar också på att bankerna använder det frivilliga utrymmet i sin hållbarhetsredovisning som ett kommunikationsmedel där de presenterar en önskad företagsbild. / The purpose of this study is to investigate how traditional banks and fintech banks use rhetoric as an element of 'impression management' in their sustainability reports – to present a sustainable corporate image. Furthermore, differences between these banks will be analysed. Sustainability reports presented by two banks in 2017 and 2021 were analysed using a rhetorical analysis model based on Aristotle's classical rhetoric concept of ethos, pathos, and logos. It is found that the banks use rhetoric argumentation to convey a convincing image of their own organization’s sustainability. Ethos is used to support the credibility, for instance through association with other credible actors on the market, and by informing that they follow laws and regulations. Pathos is used to influence emotions and a sense of identification with the reader through illustrative descriptive social values. Logos is used for argumentation by rationality and reason which contributes to the logic appeal of the company. Logos is achieved through data, science, and logic argumentation. A cross case difference is that the traditional bank use rhetoric techniques more in line of a conservative nature. This study shows how traditional banks and fintech companies can use argumentation in their sustainability reports – and how banks can convey an image of themselves as sustainable. This study also imply that banks use the voluntary space in their sustainability reports as a means of communication where they present a desired corporate image.

The video games industry is taking more sustainability responsibilities since video games can reach a broad and tremendous audience. Apart from adopting sustainable business strategies, games companies also need to navigate various stakeholders’ expectations and draft strategies to communicate with them. However, despite an abundance of corporate social responsibility literature, there is no existing research specifically focusing on how the video games industry can contribute to this topic. The social and environmental responsibilities of games companies are usually discussed separately. Therefore, this project aims to explain, in the video games industry, how social and environmental impacts are addressed in the form of corporate social responsibility and how companies meet stakeholders’ needs as a part of their sustainable business strategies. Six companies in the Swedish games industry were selected and interviewed. Together with the published sustainability reports, a theory-based content analysis was applied. The results indicate that games companies have mature strategies to tackle social impacts. For environmental impacts, on the contrary, there are no united strategies. The measures used to address environmental impacts vary from corporate to corporate due to the significant differences in business models. Besides publishing documents to communicate with stakeholders, games companies can also communicate sustainability via their games, which can be done by integrating sustainability in game mechanics or as an add-on feature. In conclusion, achieving a competitive advantage is the ultimate goal in engaging corporate social responsibility. Also, stakeholders’ expectations push companies to be more sustainable. Communicating sustainability via games may raise environmental awareness among the players; however, it might only apply to a specific group of people. / Video game is a product that reaches millions of players worldwide. Therefore, it comes with responsibilities for the developers to ensure that the products do not result in negative impacts. Apart from social impacts, such as gender inequality and toxic player communities, there is also a rising environmental awareness among the games companies lately. However, existing research mainly discusses games companies’ social and environmental responsibilities separately. This project aims to explore how games companies address social and environmental issues in sustainability and how they communicate their sustainability efforts to their stakeholders. Six companies in the Swedish games industry were selected and interviewed. Together with the published sustainability reports, a theory-based content analysis was applied. The results show that games companies have a well-developed strategy to tackle social issues. In contrast, the measures to environmental issues vary due to differences in business models and their roles in the value chain. Games companies communicate their sustainability in two forms – through documentation and in-game features. To conclude, the main goal for companies to engage in sustainability is primarily to increase competitive advantage, and stakeholders’ expectations drive their sustainability engagement. Communicating sustainability via games may raise environmental awareness among the players; however, it might only apply to a specific group of people.

Spelbranschen är, enligt många, en kontroversiell bransch där företagens vinster motsvarar konsumenternas förluster. Spelandet kan även, till följd av spelberoende, leda till hälsoproblem. För att motverka dessa problem tog den svenska staten fram en ny lag som började gälla vid årsskiftet mellan 2018 och 2019. Huvudsyftet med lagen var att företagen skulle hjälpa till att skydda konsumenterna. En undersökning gjord av Sustainable Brand Index belyser spelbranschens stora problem gällande hållbarhet, då de flesta spelbolagen återfinns i botten på rankingen gällande hållbarhet. Vad som är än mer anmärkningsvärt är att de olika spelbolagen placerar sig väldigt olika på rankingen, trots att de verkar inom samma bransch. Denna studie har, med hjälp av en kvalitativ metod, studerat sex olika spelbolag verksamma på den svenska spelmarknaden. Studien har utgått från spelbolagens hållbarhetsredovisningar för att skapa en förståelse för varför företag som verkar inom samma bransch kan uppfattas så olika gällande hållbarhet av konsumenterna. Ett annat syfte med studien var att undersöka hur spelbolagens hållbarhetsredovisning påverkas av ett ökat externt tryck från staten. Studien kommer fram till att företagens val av legitimitetsstrategi i deras hållbarhetsredovisning inte kan förklara den stora skillnad i legitimitet som de får av konsumenter. Studien kunde inte heller identifiera någon direkt påverkan av det ökade externa trycket på spelbolagens hållbarhetsrapportering. Däremot fann studien mönster som indikerar att företagens val av strategi när det gäller utmaningen med att hantera sin legitimitet kan ha att göra med hur de betraktas av sina konsumenter. / The gambling industry is, according to many, a controversial industry where the companies' winnings equals the losses of their customers. Gambling may also lead to health issues for the gamblers following addiction. To counteract these problems, the Swedish state enacted a new law that came into force at the turn of the year 2018-2019. The main purpose of the law is for companies to protect their customers in different ways. A survey conducted by the Sustainable Brand Index highlights the gambling industry's major problems with sustainability, where most gambling companies are found in the absolute bottom tier of their ranking regarding sustainability. What is even more remarkable is that the different gambling companies are ranked very differently despite the fact that they operate in the same criticised industry. This study has, using a qualitative method, studied the sustainability reports from six companies operating in the Swedish gambling market to create an understanding of why companies in the same industry can be perceived so differently regarding sustainability by consumers. Another purpose of the study was to examine how the gambling companies' sustainability reporting was affected by increased external pressure from the state. The study has concluded that companies' choice of legitimacy strategy in their sustainability report cannot explain the large difference in legitimacy that they receive from their customers. The study also did not find any direct impact by the increased external pressure in the companies' sustainability reports. On the other hand, the study found patterns between how they handle the challenges of managing legitimacy and how they are perceived by consumers.

Syfte: Syftet med detta examensarbete är att skapa förståelse för hur det miljömässiga innehållet i mejerikooperativet Arlas hållbarhetsrapport för 2021 påverkar unga konsumenters uppfattning om företaget med utgångspunkt i legitimitetsteorin. Metod: Studien utgår från en kvalitativ forskningsmetod där datainsamling har skett genom semistrukturerade intervjuer med tolv mejerikonsumenter. Insamlade data har sedan sammanställts genom en tematisk analys vilken har följt Braun och Clarkes (2006) upplägg. Resultat och slutsats: Studien visar att mejerikonsumenter påverkas positivt av den miljömässiga informationen som avslöjas i Arlas hållbarhetsrapport 2021. Ett flertal respondenter förändrade sina uppfattningar om företaget till det bättre efter upplästa citat. Några konsumenter ifrågasatte dock vissa måls rimlighet och trovärdighet då efterlevnad av hållbarhetsmål ansågs vara väsentligt. Samtliga nämnda slutsatser går i linje med vad som beskrivs i legitimitetsteorin.  Examensarbetets bidrag: Studien bidrar med ökad förståelse kring hur unga konsumenter upplever mejerikooperativet Arla utifrån företagets hållbarhetsrapport för 2021 och om den miljömässiga informationen därifrån bidrar till ökad legitimitet. Undersökningens resultat bidrar även med teoretisk kunskap vilken kan vidareutvecklas och ligga till grund för fortsatt forskning inom området. Förslag till fortsatt forskning: Ett förslag till fortsatt forskning är att applicera samma tillvägagångssätt som använts i denna studie på andra branscher utanför mejeriindustrin. Det kan även vara av intresse att studera andra intressentgrupper för att sedan jämföra resultaten. Vidare kan studien breddas genom att ta hänsyn till fler perspektiv i hållbarhetsrapporten för att få in fler aspekter. / Aim: The purpose of this thesis is to create an understanding of how the environmental content of the dairy cooperative Arla’s sustainability report affects young consumers’ perceptions of the company based on the legitimacy theory.   Method: The study is based on a qualitative research method where data collection has taken place through semi-structured interviews with twelve dairy consumers. The collected data has then been compiled through a thematic analysis which has followed Braun and Clarke’s (2006) approach.   Result and Conclusions: The study shows that dairy consumers are positively affected by the environmental information revealed in Arla’s sustainability report 2021. Respondents emphasized that their perception of the company changed for the better after hearing the quotes. Some consumers questioned the reasonableness and credibility of certain goals, compliance with sustainability goals was considered essential. All conclusions relate to what is described in legitimacy theory.  Contribution of the thesis: The study contributes to an increased understanding of how young consumers experience the dairy cooperative Arla based on their sustainability report for 2021 and whether the environmental information from it contributes to increased legitimacy. The results from the study provided theoretical knowledge, which can be further developed in continued research. Suggestions for future research: A proposal for further research is to apply the same approach used in this study to other companies outside the dairy industry. It may also be of interest to study other stakeholder groups and compare the results. Furthermore, the study can be broadened by including more perspectives in the sustainability report to include more aspects.