Reporting on sustainability and HRM: a comparative study of sustainability reporting practices by the world's largest companies

Figures & data

Table 1 Disclosures for GRI categories.

GRI categories	%^a
Economic (EC)	74.2
Environment (EN)^a	68.6
Labour (LA)	73.7
Human Rights (HR)	65.9
Society (SO)	71.9
Product responsibility (PR)	64.5

a Note: The percentage number of companies reporting on each category.

Table 2 Core performance indicators of GRI categories ‘Labour’ and ‘Human Rights’.

Social performance: labour practices & decent work (%)^a
Employment
LA1	Total workforce by employment type, employment contract and region	92
LA2	Total number and rate of employee turnover by age group, gender and region	67
Labour/management relations
LA4	Percentage of employees covered by collective bargaining agreements	67
LA5	Minimum notice period(s) regarding significant operational changes, including whether it is specified in collective agreements	53
Occupational health and safety
LA7	Rates of injury, occupational diseases, lost days and absenteeism, and number of work-related fatalities by region	83
LA8	Education, training, counselling, prevention and risk-control programs in place to assist workforce members, their families or community members regarding serious diseases	84
Training and education
LA10	Average hours of training per year per employee by employee category	79
Diversity and equal opportunity
LA13	Composition of governance bodies and breakdown of employees per category according to gender, age group, minority group membership and other indicators of diversity	90
LA14	Ratio of basic salary of men to women by employee category	48
Social performance: human rights (%)^a
Investment and procurement practices
HR1	Percentage and total number of significant investment agreements that include human rights clauses or that have undergone human rights screening	59
HR2	Percentage of significant suppliers and contractors that have undergone screening on human rights and actions taken	70
Non-discrimination
HR4	Total number of incidents of discrimination and actions taken	57
Freedom of association and collective bargaining
HR5	Operations identified in which the right to exercise freedom of association and collective bargaining may be at significant risk, and actions taken to support these rights	69
Child labour
HR6	Operations identified as having significant risk for incidents of child labour, and measures taken to contribute to the elimination of child labour	76
Forced and compulsory labour
HR7	Operations identified as having significant risk for incidents of forced or compulsory labour, and measures to contribute to the elimination of forced or compulsory labour	75

Note: The content of the above-mentioned description of categories is extracted from the GRI website.

a The percentage number of companies reporting on each information item.

Table 3 OLS Regression Model for Hypothesis H1: In comparison to companies headquartered in CMEs, companies headquartered in LMEs are less likely to report on labour-related indicators (LA) than on environmental indicators (EN).

Diff (EN–LA)	Coefficient estimate
Independent variables
Size (measured in terms of logged total assets)	− 0.039^**
Profitability (measured in terms of return on sales)	− 0.087
LME	0.215^***
CME	0.168^**
MME	0.055
BRIC	0.056
Primary industries	0.145^**
Manufacturing industries	0.125^***
Constant	0.071
R^2 (unadjusted): 0.2613
F value: 7.17^***
No. of observations: 137

Note: Significance levels: ^***p < 0.01, ^**p < 0.05, ^*p < 0.1 (two-tailed tests).

Table 4 OLS Regression Model for Hypothesis H2: Companies are more likely to report on human resource activities related to their internal workforce (LA) than to activities pertinent to employees in the supply chain (HR), regardless of whether the company is headquartered in a CME or LME.

Diff (LA–HR)	Coefficient estimate
Independent variables
Size (measured in terms of logged total assets)	0.039^*
Profitability (measured in terms of return on sales)	0.256
LME	− 0.216^**
CME	− 0.160
MME	− 0.198^*
BRIC	− 0.163
Primary Industries	− 0.104
Manufacturing Industries	− 0.077
Constant	0.069
R^2 (unadjusted): 0.913
F value: 1.76^*
No. of observations: 137

Note: Significance levels: ^***p < 0.01, ^**p < 0.05, ^*p < 0.1 (two-tailed tests).

Table 5 Binary Logit Regression Models for Hypothesis H3: Companies headquartered in CME countries are more likely to report on Sustainable HRM-related performance indicators (LA, HR) than companies headquartered in LME countries.

	Coefficient estimate
Independent variables	LA2	LA13	LA14	HR2	HR6
Size (logged total assets)	0.086	0.448	0.139	− 0.195	− 0.304^*
Profitability (return on sales)	− 0.517	− 7.407	− 2.200	− 6.111^*	− .0936
LME	− 1.364	− 0.233	− 2.261^**	0.430	− 0.942
CME	− 0.197	− 1.490	− 1.561^*	− 0.029	− 0.012
MME	0.943	− 0.316	− 0.351	1.181	0.422
BRIC	0.209	0 observations	0.979	0.062	0.729
Primary Industries	0.670	− 1.443^*	0.180	0.348	0.800
Manufacturing Industries	− 0.370	− 0.623	0.411	0.897^*	0.845^*
Constant	0.858	2.049	0.427	1.604	2.50^*
Pseudo-R^2	0.121	0.145	0.141	0.079	0.109
Wald χ^2 test	20.98^**	16.77^**	19.93^***	13.74^*	17.10^**
Log-likelihood	− 76.24	− 37.88	− 81.422	− 77.016	− 66.891
No. of observations	137	129	137	137	135
Test LME vs. CME coefficient (if coefficients significant)	Coefficients insignificant	Coefficients insignificant	χ^2 = 2.16, p = 0.14	Coefficients insignificant	Coefficients insignificant

Note: Significance levels: ^***p < 0.01, ^**p < 0.05, ^*p < 0.1 (two-tailed tests); minor deviations in estimation sample size for individual regressions result from missing data on single GRI indicators but were deemed acceptable under the maximum information principle.

Table A1 Descriptive statistics and correlations for estimation sample.

Variable	Min.	Max.	Mean	(1)	(2)	(3)	(4)	(5)	(6)	(7)	(8)
Logged total assets (1)	2.352	7.989	4.887	1
Return on sales (2)	− 0.302	0.302	0.064	− 0.146^*	1
LME country (3)	0	1	0.292	− 0.031	0.109	1
CME country (4)	0	1	0.401	− 0.022	− 0.317^***	− 0.526^***	1
MME country (5)	0	1	0.146	0.245^***	− 0.052	− 0.266^***	− 0.339^***	1
BRIC country (6)	0	1	0.102	− 0.056	0.330	0.217^**	− 0.276^***	− 0.140	1
Primary sector firm (7)	0	1	0.102	− 0.032	− 0.164^*	0.117	0.065	− 0.114	0.121	1
Manufacturing firm (8)	0	1	0.409	0.222^***	0.152^*	− 0.015	0.092	− 0.134	− 0.046	− 0.281^***	1

Note: Significance levels: ^*p < 0.1; ^**p < 0.05; ^***p < 0.01 (two-tailed tests).