The Connectivity Between Content Elements and SDGs in the South African Banking Industry

Integrated thinking and connectivity have recently attracted particular attention in sustainability reporting. A firm’s reporting on its Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) practices should be connected to the other business functions to optimize the ESG information provided through integrated reports. Academic research on the connectivity between ESG information and other business functions is limited. Hence, the main aim of this study is to analyze and characterize the reporting connectivity between the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and other business functions of South African retail banks. This is done using a thematic content analysis of the integrated reports of each bank in the sample from 2016 to 2023. The sample consists of the top five retail banks in South Africa that are listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE). Specifically, the researchers determine the number of occurrences where the SDGs are linked to other business functions through an iterative process. Furthermore, several Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) models are implemented to identify which content elements have the strongest connectivity to the SDGs as well as to identify which elements have the strongest linkage to the various content elements. The results show that SDGs are primarily linked to stakeholders, the business model, and performance. Furthermore, it was found that this sample of South African banks most prominently links these business functions to SDG 8, which aligns with the banks’ purpose of furthering economic development.