International Journal of Sustainability Management and Information Technologies

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Progress Toward Business Sustainability in Asia in the Aftermath of 2015 Hong Kong Stock Exchange Requirements

Received: 20 September 2017    Accepted: 20 October 2017    Published: 10 November 2017
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Abstract

This paper examines the progress toward business sustainability in Asia in recent years. There are five dimensions of sustainability performance: Economic, Governance, Social, Ethical, and Environmental (EGSEE) and they collectively play an important role in the overall long-term success of business organizations. The role of business corporations in our society has evolved from profit maximization to creating shareholder value and in recent years to create shared value to protect interests of all stakeholders including investors, creditors, employees, customers, suppliers, government, the environment, and society. In today’s business environment, global businesses are under close scrutiny and profound pressure from lawmakers, regulators, the investment community, and their various stakeholders to focus on sustainability measures and accept accountability and responsibility for the five EGSEE dimensions of their performance. Corporate performance is measured not only by the economic sustainability performance but also by a set of non-financial sustainability key performance indicators pertaining to environmental, social, governance, and ethical activities. In this paper, we investigate opportunities and challenges in implementing business sustainability in Asia and the progress toward integrated sustainability performance reporting and assurance. We conclude that much progress has been made in promoting business sustainability performance, reporting and assurance in Asia in recent years. However, much more needs to done in integrating business sustainability performance into business culture and corporate models in Asia. Integrated sustainability reporting and assurance also should be standardized in effectively, consistently, accurately, and reliably communicating all five dimensions of sustainability performance to all stakeholders.

DOI 10.11648/j.ijsmit.20170304.12
Published in International Journal of Sustainability Management and Information Technologies (Volume 3, Issue 4, August 2017)
Page(s) 40-45
Creative Commons

This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, provided the original work is properly cited.

Copyright

Copyright © The Author(s), 2024. Published by Science Publishing Group

Keywords

Governance, Environmental, Sustainability, Assurance, Reporting

References
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[3] Brockett, A., & Rezaee, Z. (2012). Corporate sustainability: integrating performance and reporting. John Wiley & Sons, Hoboken, NJ, USA.
[4] Hong Kong Stock Exchange (HKEx). (2015). Appendix 27 Environmental, Social, and Governance Reporting Guide Introduction, 1.
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[6] Rezaee, Z. 2015. Business sustainability: Performance, Compliance, Accountability and Integrated Reporting. Greenleaf Publishing Limited, October 2015.
[7] Ng, A. C. and Z. Rezaee. 2015, Business sustainability performance and cost of equity capital. Journal of Corporate Finance, Vol. 34 (October): 128-149.
[8] Jain, P. K., Jain, A., & Rezaee, Z. (2016). Value-relevance of corporate social performance: Evidence from Short Selling. Journal of Management Accounting Research. Vol. 28, No 2: 29-52.
[9] KPMG. 2013. Beyond Quarterly Earnings: Is the Company on Track for long-term success? Spring 2013 Audit Committee Roundtable Report. Available at auditcommittee@kpmg.com.
[10] United Nations Principles of Responsible Investing (UN PRI). 2005. The Fresh fields Report. Available at www.unepfi.org/fileadmin/documents/freshfields_legal_resp_20051123.pdf.
[11] Social Investment Forum (SIF). 2012. 2012 Report on sustainable and responsible investing trends in the United States, US SIF foundation: The forum for sustainable and responsible investment (November 2012). http://www.ussif.org/files/Publications/USSIF_2012AnnualReport_F.pdf.
[12] United Nations (UN) Sustainable Development Goals report (UNSDGs). (2015), “Indicators and a Monitoring Framework for the Sustainable Development Goals Launching a data revolution for the SDGs”, available at: http://unsdsn.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/150320-SDSN-Indicator-Report.pdf (accessed 10 August 2017).
[13] European Commission. 2014. Disclosure of non-financial information: Europe information: Europe Council, the European Economic and Social, environmental issues. Available online at http://ec.europa.eu/internal_market/accounting/non-financial_reporting/index_en.htm, retrieved March 29, 2016.
[14] International Integrated Reporting Council (IIRC) (2015), “Assurance on Integrated Reporting (IR): Overview of Feedback and Call to Action, July 2015”, available at: http://integratedreporting.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/IIRC-Assurance-Overview-July-2015.pdf (accessed 10 August 2017).
[15] Ernst and Young (EY). 2016. Value of Sustainability Reporting. Available at http://www.ey.com/us/en/services/specialty-services/climate-change-and-sustainability-services/value-of-sustainability-reporting.
[16] Lee, C. J. 2001. Financial Restructuring of State Owned Enterprises in China: The Case of Shanghai Sunve Pharmaceutical Corporation. Accounting, Organization and Society, Vol. 26, Issues 7-8: 263-280.
[17] Wang, X., Cao, F., & Ye, K. 2016. Mandatory Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Reporting and Financial Reporting Quality: Evidence from a Quasi-Natural Experiment. Journal of Business Ethics, 1-22.
Author Information
  • School of Accountancy, Fogelman College of Business and Economics, The University of Memphis, TN, USA

  • Sino-US College, Beijing Institute of Technology, Zhuhai, China

  • Department of Computer Science & Technology, Sino-US College, Beijing Institute of Technology, Zhuhai, China

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  • APA Style

    Zabihollah Rezaee, Kevin Zhen, Michael Ha. (2017). Progress Toward Business Sustainability in Asia in the Aftermath of 2015 Hong Kong Stock Exchange Requirements. International Journal of Sustainability Management and Information Technologies, 3(4), 40-45. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijsmit.20170304.12

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    ACS Style

    Zabihollah Rezaee; Kevin Zhen; Michael Ha. Progress Toward Business Sustainability in Asia in the Aftermath of 2015 Hong Kong Stock Exchange Requirements. Int. J. Sustain. Manag. Inf. Technol. 2017, 3(4), 40-45. doi: 10.11648/j.ijsmit.20170304.12

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    AMA Style

    Zabihollah Rezaee, Kevin Zhen, Michael Ha. Progress Toward Business Sustainability in Asia in the Aftermath of 2015 Hong Kong Stock Exchange Requirements. Int J Sustain Manag Inf Technol. 2017;3(4):40-45. doi: 10.11648/j.ijsmit.20170304.12

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  • @article{10.11648/j.ijsmit.20170304.12,
      author = {Zabihollah Rezaee and Kevin Zhen and Michael Ha},
      title = {Progress Toward Business Sustainability in Asia in the Aftermath of 2015 Hong Kong Stock Exchange Requirements},
      journal = {International Journal of Sustainability Management and Information Technologies},
      volume = {3},
      number = {4},
      pages = {40-45},
      doi = {10.11648/j.ijsmit.20170304.12},
      url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijsmit.20170304.12},
      eprint = {https://download.sciencepg.com/pdf/10.11648.j.ijsmit.20170304.12},
      abstract = {This paper examines the progress toward business sustainability in Asia in recent years. There are five dimensions of sustainability performance: Economic, Governance, Social, Ethical, and Environmental (EGSEE) and they collectively play an important role in the overall long-term success of business organizations. The role of business corporations in our society has evolved from profit maximization to creating shareholder value and in recent years to create shared value to protect interests of all stakeholders including investors, creditors, employees, customers, suppliers, government, the environment, and society. In today’s business environment, global businesses are under close scrutiny and profound pressure from lawmakers, regulators, the investment community, and their various stakeholders to focus on sustainability measures and accept accountability and responsibility for the five EGSEE dimensions of their performance. Corporate performance is measured not only by the economic sustainability performance but also by a set of non-financial sustainability key performance indicators pertaining to environmental, social, governance, and ethical activities. In this paper, we investigate opportunities and challenges in implementing business sustainability in Asia and the progress toward integrated sustainability performance reporting and assurance. We conclude that much progress has been made in promoting business sustainability performance, reporting and assurance in Asia in recent years. However, much more needs to done in integrating business sustainability performance into business culture and corporate models in Asia. Integrated sustainability reporting and assurance also should be standardized in effectively, consistently, accurately, and reliably communicating all five dimensions of sustainability performance to all stakeholders.},
     year = {2017}
    }
    

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    AU  - Zabihollah Rezaee
    AU  - Kevin Zhen
    AU  - Michael Ha
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    AB  - This paper examines the progress toward business sustainability in Asia in recent years. There are five dimensions of sustainability performance: Economic, Governance, Social, Ethical, and Environmental (EGSEE) and they collectively play an important role in the overall long-term success of business organizations. The role of business corporations in our society has evolved from profit maximization to creating shareholder value and in recent years to create shared value to protect interests of all stakeholders including investors, creditors, employees, customers, suppliers, government, the environment, and society. In today’s business environment, global businesses are under close scrutiny and profound pressure from lawmakers, regulators, the investment community, and their various stakeholders to focus on sustainability measures and accept accountability and responsibility for the five EGSEE dimensions of their performance. Corporate performance is measured not only by the economic sustainability performance but also by a set of non-financial sustainability key performance indicators pertaining to environmental, social, governance, and ethical activities. In this paper, we investigate opportunities and challenges in implementing business sustainability in Asia and the progress toward integrated sustainability performance reporting and assurance. We conclude that much progress has been made in promoting business sustainability performance, reporting and assurance in Asia in recent years. However, much more needs to done in integrating business sustainability performance into business culture and corporate models in Asia. Integrated sustainability reporting and assurance also should be standardized in effectively, consistently, accurately, and reliably communicating all five dimensions of sustainability performance to all stakeholders.
    VL  - 3
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