EXPLORING THE LINK BETWEEN SOCIAL AND ENVIRONMENTAL REPORTING AND FINANCIAL OUTCOMES: A LITERATURE SYNTHESIS

The purpose of this study is to investigate the relevance of social and environmental disclosure and financial performance. The systematic review of academic and professional literature depicts that social and environmental disclosure is very useful and significant in controlling entities that are operating in environmentally sensitive industries, and also in ensuring workers safety and good workplace practices. The research papers relating to the Social and environmental disclosures, which are available in Elsevier, Emerald, Wiley, Taylor and Francis, Sage and also MPDI, were used for this systematic review. The probability of published reports is a little bit unclear. Result show that studies on social and environmental disclosures is still evolving, and there is lack of consensus on the outcome of studies. This is because while majority of the studies reviewed reported significant positive relationships between corporate social and environmental performance, others reported either negative relationships or mixed findings. Based on the above, there is need for more studies on social and environmental disclosures, especially in the developing countries as most of the studies on the topic are concentrated in China and advanced countries. The need for more studies on CSED cannot be over-emphasized as it tends to open more discuss as well as bringing more diverse views of scholars based on the result of new findings from different sectors, across different parts of the world.