Transformations  in
Business & Economics

THE IMPACT OF SUSTAINABILITY DISCLOSURE ON COMPANIES' PERFORMANCE IN HEALTHCARE INDUSTRY⁶
Maria Alina Caratas, Raluca Andreea Trandafir, Cristinel Iftene, Elena Cerasela Spatariu, Gabriela Gheorghiu

ABSTRACT. Corporate sustainability contributes to risk mitigation and value creation for companies. Nowadays it has a growing role in creating a conscious corporate environment, while most C-suite leaders think that sustainability is important for companies' success. Developing the performance indicators can bring indisputable added value to the corporate economic, social and environmental reports.
This study analyses the impact of sustainability quantified as governance, social and environmental practices on the corporate performance of 335 companies from the healthcare industry. The indicators used were selected from the Eikon Reuters ESG database and are composite scores.
The results of the statistical modelling shown that for analysed companies, environmental practices and governance positively impact return on assets, return on equity and liquidity of companies, while the social score and corporate social responsibility strategy negatively impact profitability and liquidity. The results contribute to the empirical literature on the corporate sustainability impact on performance .

KEYWORDS:  performance, corporate governance, sustainability disclosure, profitability, corporate social responsibility.

JEL classification:  G34, Q51, M14.

⁶Acknowledgement:  The present study is part of the post-doctoral project Research on the relationship between the cultural dimensions and the corporate governance policies, coordinated by the Postdoctoral Accounting School of Bucharest University of Economic Studies.