Relationship Between Firm Sustainability Performance and Its Labor Productivity: An Empirical Study on Turkish Firms

This study aims to empirically investigate the relationships of economic, social, and environmental sustainability, calculated based on the scoring system in the United Nations Environment Program Sustainability Criteria report, on labor productivity. For this purpose, the relationships of the economic, social, and environmental sustainability scores of 32 firms in Türkiye in the 2015-2019 period on labor productivity are analyzed econometrically with the Multilevel Mixed Regression Model (MMR). The findings obtained in all models estimated in the study show that the economic, social, and environmental sustainability scores of 32 firms operating in Türkiye have a positive and statistically significant relation with labor productivity during the study period. In this context, the widespread use of sustainability reporting, the economic, social, and environmental reflection of the concept of sustainable development at the firm level, would enable firms to operate as sensitive and solution-producing entities to the problems of society and increase their competitiveness and profitability with the increase in labor productivity.