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This study aims to empirically analyze a sound commitment and a consistent integration of sustainable development goals (SDGs) in the corporate reporting and management systems of companies that have a leading position in sustainability.

The study applies a content analysis procedure based on a proposed analytical framework to codify the commitment and the SDG integration. In order to analyze the consistency of the integration, this study has provided a “SDG integration” score based on fuzzy inference systems methods. The companies in the sample have been identified as benchmarks in terms of sustainability in a specific region of Spain.

The findings show a lack of formality regarding the SDG commitment at the highest decision-making level and a low level of SDG integration in the reporting and management systems. These results are mainly explained because the most companies do not prioritize according to the materiality analysis and those SDGs more reported have not been deployed along targets and KPIs in a consistent way.

The results provide practical implications that help to overcome the limitations in terms of comparison and consistency of the SDGs-reported information. It also illustrates how the leading sustainable companies are doing the SDG reporting and suggests which elements could be improved to promote a consistent integration of the SDGs in the management systems.

This study provides new work lines in the promotion of an effective SDG-business reporting based on a robust management structure that allows an alignment among the SDG-business decisions based on a normative, strategic and operational approach.

The purpose of this paper is to explore how effectively leading sustainable hotels have integrated Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) into their reporting. The main aim is to pinpoint areas for improvement concerning SDG reporting which can help the hospitality industry to achieve a transformation in a more SDG-aligned global tourism system.

For this study, a content analysis technique was used to extract the information regarding strategic consistency of SDG reporting. Both qualitative and quantitative approaches were applied to the analysis of this information. This paper seeks to assess the extent to which the materiality analysis, corporate targets and performance indicators defined by the world’s top sustainable hotels in their sustainability reports are consistent with those SDGs linked to the business. To that end, the authors have selected the most sustainable hotels according to the SAM Corporate Sustainability Assessment in 2020.

The results of this study show that the most sustainable hotel companies did not take a strategic consistency approach when reporting the SDGs. These findings identify four areas for improvement concerning reporting, which may promote the adoption of a strategic and consistent approach in SDG reporting.

This study includes a set of recommendations to provide the market with complete, coherent and comparable information on their contribution to the SDGs and, therefore, foster collective learning to bring about sustainable tourism transformation.

This paper represents a contribution to the discussion on the strategic or symbolic implementation of SDGs at a corporate level. In addition, this paper reflects a deeper understanding of how hotel companies could improve their reporting and management system to contribute to SDGs.

The purpose of this study is to improve the understanding of stakeholder engagement in the context of sustainability reporting (SR) for higher education institutions (HEIs), together with the materiality principle and stakeholder expectations.

This research uses an exploratory approach based on content analysis, a case study and descriptive and inferential statistics.

Three key findings come out of this research. First, the results indicate that HEIs use diverse criteria for grouping stakeholders and that stakeholder engagement is a heterogeneous process. Second, the expectations of internal stakeholders align with the material aspects of SR. Finally, among internal stakeholders, students and academics disagree on the prioritisation of some sustainability aspects, with non-academic staff adopting an intermediate position.

This analysis improves our knowledge of stakeholder engagement in HEIs. It helps to identify the relevant impacts of stakeholder engagement, enhances the quality of reporting and encourages a real dialogue with stakeholders.

The study examines stakeholder engagement and how the materiality principle is adopted by HEIs through SR. Furthermore, it compares these results with stakeholder expectations, considering the discrepancies between stakeholders. The results open the way to future research to explore the potential conflicts and collaborations between and within stakeholders to advance towards more sustainable institutions in the higher education sector.

The purpose of this paper is to analyse whether the onset of the financial crisis caused changes in the influence of top management team (TMT) on corporate results.

The sample is comprised of the list of S & P 500 Index firms between 2002 and 2008. The study uses a longitudinal panel methodology applying a two-step GMM estimator system. This approach addresses potential unobserved heterogeneity, simultaneity, and dynamic endogeneity.

The primary results reveal that the onset of the financial crisis stimulated those TMTs with large teams and a high frequency of meetings to improve corporate performance, without leading to a reduction in corporate risk taking.

This study reveals that different environmental conditions call for different behaviour from TMTs to fulfil their responsibilities. This study also suggests changes in normative and voluntary guidelines for improving the quality of the TMT’s work.

The purpose of this paper is to propose a framework that intends to help organisations achieve the sustainability goal by means of a methodology that integrates sustainability in both the planning and management tasks of the organisation and that serves as a base for the implementation of an information system aligned with the business strategy.

After an exhaustive review of literature about corporate social responsibility, strategic planning of organisations and balanced scorecards (BSCs), a methodology has been developed that describes the process of designing and implementing a sustainability BSC for sustainability strategic planning and management.

The methodology can be easily implemented at companies with a minimum of computer resources, but managers play a key role in its success, since they are the responsible for providing the necessary environment for overcoming such an important change.

The methodology has only been applied once and their results will only be able to be analysed after a long time. Meanwhile, more implementations have to be performed to test and improve the different steps und tools until the methodology can be considered definitive.

The methodology could be used by many organisations, improving their social and environmental performance and contributing to their sustainability and the sustainability of all of their stakeholders, specially for society as a whole. Readers of this paper could see a practical application of methodology and its viability by means of the case.

An innovative structure for BSCs which has been developed having in mind the sustainability since the beginning, but not justly adding environmental and social variables to a model designed with economical purposes.

To determine whether the strategic commitment of the company to its stakeholders is positively related to its social and financial performance.

This paper analyses the mission statements and the sustainability reports, of a sample of 52 Spanish listed firms (70 per cent Madrid stock index capitalization). The vision, mission and values of the company will define its strategic stakeholder or shareholder orientation. In the process of evaluation of the social performance of the firm it is built a scale (strategic consistency index (SCI)) which considers the quality of the sustainability reporting using the GRI Guidelines. Some traditional financial and economic indicators are used to analyse the company's financial performance.

Results show a not very high level of the stakeholder approach in Spanish companies, a high level of publication and quality of sustainability reports and, finally, a positive and not significant relationship between these variables and a positive financial performance.

The unavailability of a long series of sustainability reports is an obstacle for a broader analysis. This research could transmit to companies the positive relationship between social and financial performance.

The use of GRI sustainability reports as a component of a broader corporate sustainability index and the analysis of the strategic commitment to their stakeholders through the construction of a SCI and the relationship with their financial results.

The purpose of this paper is to analyse empirically the corporate social responsibility (CSR) strategic effects on the competitive performance of small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) by performing a multiple mediator analysis.

The empirical research was conducted in Spanish SMEs. A questionnaire was distributed among managers of these companies. Thus, with a final sample of 481 cases and using consistent partial least squares structural equation modelling, direct and mediating effects were tested. In particular, relationships among corporate social performance (CSP) (exogenous variable), competitive performance (endogenous variable), relational marketing (mediating variable) and innovative capacity (mediating variable) were hypothesized. Moreover, a further analysis about the superior returns offered by socially responsible practices related to core business stakeholders was conducted.

The results highlight a significant and positive effect that CSP has on competitive performance. Additionally, both mediating positive effects were supported and the firm size was checked as a relevant control variable which, as proxy for resources availability, affects all constructs used with the exception of relational marketing. Managers interested in a strategic approach to social responsibility should be aware that the investment in activities related to employees and customers leads to higher competitiveness.

The study was limited to SME in Spain. Moreover, information related to competitive performance was gathered from managers’ own perceptions, considering the performance of their direct competitors as a reference level.

To the authors knowledge, no research studies were found that empirically examined the business case in SMEs and employed a CSR approach based on stakeholders’ perspective. Therefore, the main contribution of this research is to show how socially responsible management of SMEs leads to higher competitive performance both direct and indirectly, using two strategic variables suggested in literature on large corporations. Despite their resources limitations, this kind of organizations is in a favourable position to engage with different stakeholders and benefit from their relationships, especially with employees and customers.

The aim is to determine whether the organisations more strategically committed to their stakeholders present better social and financial performance and, based on this relationship, to determine the state of the art of the Spanish sectors' approach to sustainable development.

This paper analyses the sustainability approach of a sample of 52 Spanish listed firms. This process is based on the study of different indexes generated in order to evaluate the company's commitment through its stakeholders, the social and financial performance of these organisations, and the relationship between them. Previous results showed a positive and not significant relationship between these variables and a positive financial performance. This paper replicates a former research by introducing a fuzzy‐ logic‐based methodology in order to generate the aforementioned indexes.

The current results support the conclusions formerly obtained and simultaneously demonstrate that big Spanish companies are at an incipient stage of development of a clearly sustainability‐oriented management.

The unavailability of a long series of organisations' sustainability information is an obstacle for a broader analysis. This research could motivate the usefulness of the fuzzy logic methodology for analysing the business sustainability approach and to develop studies on the corporate social performance.

The use of fuzzy logic methodology for the generation of indexes related to the organisation's social responsibility and sustainability results.