The effect of sustainability reporting on the profitability of listed industrial companies in the Philippines

• Main Authors: Trinidad, Editha O., Bendo, Mark Vincent B.
• Format: text
• Published: Animo Repository 2021
• Subjects: Sustainable development reporting—Philippines; Business enterprises—Philippines; Accounting
• Online Access: https://animorepository.dlsu.edu.ph/faculty_research/11252
• Institution: De La Salle University

The research aims to investigate the compliance of publicly listed industrial companies to the SEC memorandum on sustainability reporting which was submitted together with the company’s report (SEC Form 17-A) for 2019 and submitted in 2020. In particular, the paper aims to investigate the relationship of Sustainability Reporting on the profitability of listed holding firms in the Philippines. Content analysis was employed using the 2019 Sustainability Reports submitted by the holding firms to the Securities and Exchange Commissions (SEC). The SEC template on Sustainability Reporting was used as an index in determining the compliance level of sustainability disclosures in the dimensions of economic sustainability, environmental sustainability, and social sustainability. ROA and ROE were directly pulled out from the published audited annual report of the firms. Thereafter, a test was conducted to determine the effects of these variables on the profitability of listed industrial firms in the Philippines. Results showed that preparation of sustainability reports seems to affect the profitability of listed industrial firms. Implications to both theory and practice were discussed in the paper. Since the sustainability reports using the comply or explain approach for sustainability reports was implemented for the year 2019, this paper can serve as a baseline study for other industries.