Özet:

Environmental, social and governance (ESG) performance and their relationship with economic performance of the companies have been a subject of debate. ESG is useful for stakeholders in making decisions and evaluations about companies’ economic performance. Building on the stakeholder theory, this paper seeks to find the relationship between ESG performance and economic performance of firms. In this study, ESG data from the UK companies are used which covers the years 2011-2015. Correlation and regression analysis have been conducted in order to test the relationship between ESG and economic performance. The results showed that social and corporate governance performance of the UK companies have a positive and significant relationship with the economic performance. However, environmental performance failed to show a significant relationship with the economic performance. In addition, companies need to improve their environmental performance and find ways to increase the significance of environmental performance on the economic performance for a sustainable growth. The findings are expected to provide a road-map for companies in order to recognize and achieve the benefits of the ESG. The proposed relationship between the ESG and economic performance can contribute to the stakeholders’ decision making. This study also provides valuable information for developed countries by discussing the findings on the grounds of the UK.

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