Protecting the spiritual environment, corporate social responsibility and the determinants of disclosure of sustainable development goals
Chihua Li
Master Sheng Yen introduced the Protecting Spiritual Environment (PSE), the core concept of Dharma Drum Mountain in 1992. The composition of Protecting the Four Environments, the Fivefold Spiritual Renaissance Campaign and the Six Ethics of the Mind is a sound system that includes concepts, practical guides and impacts. This system is in concert with the system of corporate social responsibility (CSR).
As the CSR receiving attention gradually, some firms are required to prepare and announce the CSR reports but more and more investors also invest in CSR-related index and firms that have good CSR performance. Although many research papers investigated the issues relative to CSR, there has not reached a consensus about measures of firms’ CSR performance in Taiwan. In 2015, the United Nations adopt the sustainable development goals (SDGs). This study hand-collected disclosure levels of SDGs from the CSR reports that announced in 2017 to measure firms’ CSR performance. Then this research investigates whether characteristics of the board of directors, ownership structure and responses of stakeholders affect the firms’ decision of the disclosure of SDGs.
This study indicated that when firms have higher independence of the board of directors, a lower rate of share collateralization by directors, more employees bigger firms’ size and better financial performance, they are more likely to prepare and announce the disclosure of SDGs and their levels of disclosure are higher. In addition, while firms have close relationships with suppliers, they usually disclosed more information about SDGs.