SUSTAINABILITY DISCLOSURE AND CORPORATE PERFORMANCE: A EUROPEAN EVIDENCE FROM AGRICULTURE INDUSTRY

This paper investigates the relationship between sustainability disclosure, measured by environmental, social, and governance (ESG) combined and individual scores on corporate performance of the agricultural companies from Europe. The main reason of this study is that on 15 November 2022 the worldwide population is more than 8 bn and is expected to increase at 9.6 bn in 2050, which will increase the pressure on agricultural industry to produce food and goods to serve the people needs. In this context and due to the new European regulation, companies must adopt strategies regarding the concerns for environment, social, and governance activities, developing an integrated report to show to investors how they are involved in social issues and environmental concerns. This study uses a multiple linear regression, data being collected from Thomson Reuters database for the period 2017-2021. The results indicate that companies with higher ESG scores have higher performance. This study may help investors and other stakeholders to have an overview as to which sector to orient their investment strategies.