The sustainable development goals (SDGs) reflect grand challenges that the global community needs to address in order to ensure economic welfare, environmental quality, social cohesion and prosperity for future generations. In this respect, the role of the banking sector, among other critical business entities and key stakeholders, is vital. The purpose of our paper is to examine how comprehensively the reported performance of banks aligns with the endorsement of SDGs. We employ the well‐established framework of the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) performance indicators for a comparative assessment of the nonfinancial performance disclosed in the annual sustainability reports. Focusing on a small sample of leading European banks, we find an overall low contribution to SDGs. Furthermore, each bank's contribution remains particularly heterogeneous towards most individual SDG goals. Likewise, bank‐specific strategies drive the most extensively addressed SDGs, overlooking any critical importance of certain GRI indicators with multifaceted impact across several SDGs. The study sets forth managerial implications for improving effective reporting of SDG performance. It concludes with emerging opportunities for enhancing disclosure of SDGs contribution and highlights future research perspectives towards industry‐wide shared‐value appraisal under the scope of these pressing grand challenges.

The purpose of this study is to explore the relationship between corporate social responsibility (CSR) at the macro-level and well-established dimensions of national culture offered by Hofstede's framework. Design/methodology/approach: We employ a composite index for quantifying CSR proliferation and present new findings on the role of cultural specificity-proxied by Hofstede's dimensions-on CSR endorsement among national business sectors. Findings: Results indicate that cultural perspectives pertaining to 'long-term versus short-term orientation' as well as 'indulgence versus restraint' affect positively the composite CSR index, while 'uncertainty avoidance' has a negative impact. In contrast, the effect of 'power distance', 'individualism' and 'masculinity' is found to be insignificant. Originality/value: The study offers new insights to institutional and culture theorists and political economy researchers for a deeper investigation of informal institutions, such as culture, which shape national or regional specificities of CSR and retain a moderating effect on the voluntary/self-regulation activities of business entities.

The purpose of this article is twofold. First, evaluation scoring systems for triple bottom line (TBL) reports to date are examined and potential methodological weaknesses and problems are highlighted. In this context, a new assessment methodology is presented based explicitly on the most widely acknowledged standard on non-financial reporting worldwide, the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) guidelines. The set of GRI topics and performance indicators was converted into scoring criteria while the generic scoring devise was set from 0 to 4 points. Secondly, the proposed benchmark tool was applied to the TBL reports published by Greek companies. Results reveal major gaps in reporting practices, stressing the need for the further development of internal systems and processes in order to collect essential non-financial performance data. A critical overview of the structure and rationale of the evaluation tool in conjunction with the Greek case study is discussed while recommendations for future research on the field of this relatively new form of reporting are suggested.

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This study assesses the relationship between social, environmental and operational practices and performance with financial performance, focusing on small‐ and medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs). We seek to establish a relationship between the sustainability and the financial performance of SMEs in economic development, as expressed by the indicators of turnover and business growth. A dataset derived from 119 British, French and Indian firms is used and links between sustainability and the financial performance of SMEs are examined. Bayesian regression modeling was chosen and a model comparison approach was used to assess the robustness of the results to the specific choice of analysis with respect to the shape of the dependent variable's distribution. Overall findings indicate robust regression results especially for the highly significant covariates, but caution should be exercised when interpreting the borderline results. A significant positive association between certain items of sustainability and firms’ financial performance is identified as we found that different indicators of sustainability display associations with the two economic indicators and adoption of the former may influence SME performance.

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Corporate social responsibility (CSR) footprints in terms of relevant policies, plans and programs are evident at a global scale, but the level of national uptake and penetration differs, as countries differ considerably in terms of institutional efficiency. With this in mind, the purpose of this study is to investigate the relationship between CSR penetration and institutional conditions that shape and define the macroeconomic environment and development dynamics of countries. Building on Campbell's seminal propositions on institutional parameters that facilitate effective CSR management, the study's results lend partial support to his conceptual framework as it was operationalized in our assessment. Civic engagement, regulatory effectiveness and competitive conditions appear to be very significant factors influencing CSR penetration with macroeconomic conditions and industrial self-regulation to play a less significant role on national CSR penetration. These findings provide fertile ground to theorists and researchers for a deeper investigation of the impact of institutional arrangements that define the national specificity of CSR and act as moderators of responsible business behavior.

This study explores the link between macro (country-level) corporate social responsibility penetration and innovative capacity presenting new findings on the potential influence that various elements shaping innovation have on the endorsement of social responsibility among national business systems. Relying on cross-sectional data, a composite index for quantifying the proliferation of corporate social responsibility is employed and well-established innovation metrics are utilized. Findings do not contradict the preceding but limited evidence on corporate social responsibility practices considering innovation, nevertheless, the negative relationships found in our empirically supported and internally consistent proposed models merit supplementary consideration and examination. The paper offers new insights to innovation theorists and political economy researchers for more detailed investigations of critical drivers, such as innovation, which shape country-level corporate social responsibility specificities of and potentially encapsulate a critical parameter in the self-regulation agendasetting of business entities. In these lines the study indicates that innovation, as moderator of corporate social responsibility adoption, has to be included in empirical models where measures of corporate social responsibility penetration and innovative potential are employed.