Estudo comparativo entre a evidenciação de indicadores socioambientais e o desempenho nas companhias latino-americanas de capital aberto

Abstract

Arises in the business environment a new challenge that is related to change the focus of enterprises in economic development only to give way to the concept of sustainable development and the concern to disseminate information on its actions for sustainability. In this context arise various models of disclosure of information, and the GRI the most widespread model internationally. Two schools of thought deal with the issue of sustainability and profitability. The Stakeholder Theory states that the adoption of practices that lead to sustainable positive impact on return of the companies, in contrast to the Shareholders Theory states that sustainable actions generate increased costs companies and their return is not compensatory. In this context, research has as main objective to analyze the relationship between the disclosure level of social and environmental indicators and performance in Latin American companies traded. The research population is made up of Latin American companies that have reported GRI in 2013. The research is classified as descriptive, with qualitative and quantitative approach, using documentary procedure and as a data source sustainability reports of the GRI model and Economática® database for the fiscal year ended 31/12/2013. The data were subjected to content analysis and correlation analysis. The variables of the survey were: Disclosure level of social and environmental indicators, ROA, the active potential to generate cash, MVA®, auditing firm and environmental impact sector. The survey results indicate that environmental disclosure is relatively low in the analyzed period, averaging 54.84%, the environmental indicators had a lower level of disclosure that social, and indicators related to product liability of disclosure were which had the lowest level of disclosure, 48.72%. Since the disclosure related to labor practices was the one with the highest dissemination index. When analyzed the level of disclosure in the countries it is found that the country with the highest level of disclosure was Mexico and the lowest level of disclosure has been Peru. The correlation calculation between the performance indicators and the disclosure of indicators was found that there is no relationship between the two aspects of research, except in the case of MVA indicator. Thus, it can be said that the disclosure of social and environmental indicators do not have a positive relationship to performance of Latin American companies traded in the operational and economic dimensions. But it can be said that there is a positive relationship in the value indicators.