Enviromental, social and governance (ESG) reporting and financial performance: evidence from Southeast Asia / Miza Afiqah Idris

Environmental, social and governance reporting is gaining popularity as it has been practiced by many companies worldwide. Therefore, this study aimed to examine the relationship between environmental, social, and governance reporting and financial performance in Southeast Asia. Our sample consists of 23 financial institutions from five Southeast Asia for the period 2010 to 2019. The sample will make a total observation of 230. There are five Southeast Asian countries chosen, which are Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, the Philippines and Singapore. Therefore, multiple linear regression has been used in this research. This study's dependent variable is financial performance, proxied by the return on equity (ROE). This study has four independent variables, which are environmental disclosure, corporate social responsibility disclosure, corporate governance disclosure, and ESG disclosure. Other than that, there are four control variables, which are the size of the firm, capitalization, liquidity, and leverage. The results show that company debt level proxy by leverage positively affects financial performance. In contrast, ESG disclosure, environmental disclosure, corporate social responsibility disclosure and corporate governance disclosure negatively affect financial performance.