Sustainability reporting in smart cities: a multidimensional performance measures

Abstract

This study investigates the relationship between the level of sustainability reporting and firm's performance (operational, financial and market) in the top worldwide 20 smart cities. Using data culled from 3536 observations from 20 different smart cities for ten years (2008–2017), an independent variable derived from ESG score are regressed against dependent manufacture performance indicator variables [Return on Assets (ROA), Return on Equity (ROE) and Tobin's Q (TQ)]. Two types of control variables complete the regression analysis in this study: firm-specific and macroeconomic. The findings elicited from the empirical results demonstrate that there is a positive significant relationship between ESG and operational performance (ROA), financial performance (ROE). However, there is a negative significant relationship between ESG and market performance (TQ). The model in this study presents a valuable analytical framework for exploring sustainability reporting as driver of performance in firms in different smart cities.