THE EFFECTS OF DIGITALISATION ON ESG PERFORMANCE: THE CASE STUDY OF NIS A.D. NOVI SAD

In recent years, digitalisation has become a key factor of companies’ growth and development, as it enables optimal allocation of resources, effective control of costs and the realization of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDG). While the exact origination of the Fourth Industrial Revolution remain uncertain, it is clear that new technologies are already drastically changing people’s lives and the way companies operate. The growing interest in digitalisation has encouraged more and more research on its impact on the development of companies. However, although research on the relationship between digitalisation and company performance is a current topic, there are insufficient comprehensive studies due to the lack of such an index that would cover all aspects of digitalisation. The existing literature that analyzes the effects of digitalisation mainly focuses on company profits, efficiency of internal business processes, company innovation and organizational performance, but not enough on Environmental, Social and Governmental (ESG) performance. Therefore, the subject of research in the paper is digitalisation and ESG performance. The goal of the research is to determine whether the digital transformation of the company’s operations affects ESG performance. To this end, a case study was applied on the example of the company NIS a.d. Novi Sad, which allocates significant funds to the business digital transformation. The results of the research showed the positive effects of digitalisation on ESG performance measures, starting from planning, measurement and data analysis, control and reporting on the ESG performance, which significantly affects the proposal and undertaking of specific measures to improve ESG performance of companies in the future.