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PurposeThe purpose of the paper is to examine empirically Granger causality relationships between corporate social performance (CSP) and corporate financial performance (CFP) in four different industries.Design/methodology/approachThe paper uses the Granger causality test to analyse the causality relationships between CSP and CFP in clothing, energy, food and forest industries in the USA. The panel data used combined CSP and CFP measures over the years 1991-2009. CSP strengths and concerns are handled as distinct constructs.FindingsThere is some evidence of bidirectional causality between CSP and CFP in the clothing, energy and forest industries; but in the food industry, CSP appears not to Granger-cause CFP. The results encourage accounting for the industry in empirical analyses, as well as the use of more than one measure for CFP in the analyses.Originality/valueThe direction of causality between CSP and CFP has been specifically addressed in only a few studies. Because the causality relationship may, in addition, be concealed when multi-industry data are used, this paper contributes to the literature by examining the Granger causality between CSP and CFP in four different industry contexts using two different measures of CFP.

ABSTRACTThe relationship between a firm's sustainability efforts and its financial performance has gained increasing interest among academia and in the press in recent years. In this study we focus on the energy industry in which sustainability issues are of special interest, but in which context the association between firm performance and sustainable development has not yet been studied. The data for this study consists of two groups of firms: firms that are included in the Dow Jones Sustainability Indexes (DJSI), and the biggest firms from the global energy sector. The financial performance of the companies is analyzed from different perspectives, and the data is gathered from years 2000, 2005, and 2009. The empirical analysis finds evidence of a positive association between sustainable development and firms' financial performance, especially when performance is measured as the market capitalization value. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment

It is uncertain how the traditional forest sector can respond to the changing political environment, evolving markets, and global environmental problems. This study focuses on the development of forest-based bioeconomy (BE) in Finland from the perspective of three forest-based value networks (wooden multistory construction, fiber-based packaging, and biorefining) and thus breaks the tendency of siloed discussions. The study of expert opinions applies a collaborative interdisciplinary research method that combines group discussions and follow-up survey data. The results indicate that transformational regulation, proper incentives, and ways of increasing interaction at the business-consumer interface are required to support the creation of new practices and the destruction of old practices in the industry renewal. (C) 2021 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. ; Peer reviewed

While climate change and biodiversity loss have exposed humanity to major systemic risks, policymakers in more than 40 countries have proposed the transition from a fossil-based to a bio-based economy as a solution to curb the risks. In the boreal region, forests have a prominent role in contributing to bioeconomy development; however, forest-based bioeconomy transition pathways towards sustainability and the required actions have not yet been identified. Participatory backcasting was employed in this study to 'negotiate' such pathways among Finnish stakeholders by 2060 in three forest-based value networks: forest biorefineries, fibre-based packaging and wooden multistorey construction. There are many alternative pathways, ranging from incremental to more radical, to a forest-based bioeconomy within a framework of ambitious climate and biodiversity targets. Path dependence can support incremental development on bioeconomy transition pathways, and this should be considered when planning transition towards sustainability. Orchestration of the more radical changes requires actions from legislators, raw material producers, consumers and researchers, because the possibilities for business development vary between different companies and value networks. The envisioned actions between the pathways in and across the networks, such as forest diversification and diverse wood utilisation, can offer cobenefits in climate change mitigation and biodiversity protection. ; Peer reviewed