Small and Medium Enterprises in Emerging Economies : The Achilles’ Heel of Corporate ESG Responsibility Practices?

The information contained in the Enterprise Survey—administered by the World Bank (WB), the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), and the European Investment Bank (EIB)—is used to build a firm-level “Corporate Environmental, Soci...

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Main Authors: Ferrazzi, Matteo, Tueske, Annamaria
Format: Working Paper
Language:English
Published: World Bank, Washington, DC 2022
Subjects:
Online Access:http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/099920405102236971/IDU01017edd30483c04ca00b5c80a9eef01b5c7f
http://hdl.handle.net/10986/37526
id okr-10986-37526
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spelling okr-10986-375262022-06-11T05:10:36Z Small and Medium Enterprises in Emerging Economies : The Achilles’ Heel of Corporate ESG Responsibility Practices? Ferrazzi, Matteo Tueske, Annamaria ENVIRONMENTAL SOCIAL AND GOVERNANCE (ESG) STANDARDS GOVERNANCE CORPORATE RESPONSIBILITY SMALL AND MEDIUM ENTERPRISES (SME) INDEX AGGREGATION FEMALE WORKFORCE PARTICIPATION EQUITY GREEN GROWTH SUSTAINABLE GROWTH WORLD BANK ENTERPRISE SURVEY ENVIRONMENTAL, SOCIAL, AND GOVERNANCE RESPONSIBILITY COMPOSITE INDICATOR The information contained in the Enterprise Survey—administered by the World Bank (WB), the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), and the European Investment Bank (EIB)—is used to build a firm-level “Corporate Environmental, Social, and Governance Responsibility” composite indicator. The novelty of the indicator, compared with the corporate social responsibility scores and environmental, social, and governance (ESG) scores already available, is due to its unique coverage, namely, a large number of private sector small and medium-size enterprises in selected emerging economies (more than 40 economies covered by the Enterprise Survey). The composite indicator summarizes information on private sector actions on environmental, social, and governance factors. The analysis shows that the actions of private sector small and medium-size enterprises in emerging economies to foster sustainability and green growth significantly lag in the transition to a more sustainable business environment, and large gaps persist. Among emerging economies, those in the Middle East and North Africa—which deserve special attention due to the urgent need to green their growth model—are among the worst performers. Larger companies in the Middle East and North Africa show better environmental, social, and governance performance than small and medium-size enterprises in other areas; but smaller firms in the Middle East and North Africa show extremely weak performance in many aspects, even if controlling for the relative level of economic development. The weakness of environmental, social, and governance practices among firms in the Middle East and North Africa is due to the social (with large gaps in female participation in the workforce and management) and environmental topics. This calls for urgent policy action to address such weaknesses and exploit the full potential of the region. 2022-06-10T19:37:43Z 2022-06-10T19:37:43Z 2022-06 Working Paper http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/099920405102236971/IDU01017edd30483c04ca00b5c80a9eef01b5c7f http://hdl.handle.net/10986/37526 English Policy Research Working Papers;10065 CC BY 3.0 IGO http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/igo World Bank World Bank, Washington, DC Policy Research Working Paper Publications & Research Middle East and North Africa
repository_type Digital Repository
institution_category Foreign Institution
institution Digital Repositories
building World Bank Open Knowledge Repository
collection World Bank
language English
topic ENVIRONMENTAL SOCIAL AND GOVERNANCE (ESG) STANDARDS
GOVERNANCE
CORPORATE RESPONSIBILITY
SMALL AND MEDIUM ENTERPRISES (SME)
INDEX AGGREGATION
FEMALE WORKFORCE PARTICIPATION
EQUITY
GREEN GROWTH
SUSTAINABLE GROWTH
WORLD BANK ENTERPRISE SURVEY
ENVIRONMENTAL, SOCIAL, AND GOVERNANCE RESPONSIBILITY COMPOSITE INDICATOR
spellingShingle ENVIRONMENTAL SOCIAL AND GOVERNANCE (ESG) STANDARDS
GOVERNANCE
CORPORATE RESPONSIBILITY
SMALL AND MEDIUM ENTERPRISES (SME)
INDEX AGGREGATION
FEMALE WORKFORCE PARTICIPATION
EQUITY
GREEN GROWTH
SUSTAINABLE GROWTH
WORLD BANK ENTERPRISE SURVEY
ENVIRONMENTAL, SOCIAL, AND GOVERNANCE RESPONSIBILITY COMPOSITE INDICATOR
Ferrazzi, Matteo
Tueske, Annamaria
Small and Medium Enterprises in Emerging Economies : The Achilles’ Heel of Corporate ESG Responsibility Practices?
geographic_facet Middle East and North Africa
relation Policy Research Working Papers;10065
description The information contained in the Enterprise Survey—administered by the World Bank (WB), the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), and the European Investment Bank (EIB)—is used to build a firm-level “Corporate Environmental, Social, and Governance Responsibility” composite indicator. The novelty of the indicator, compared with the corporate social responsibility scores and environmental, social, and governance (ESG) scores already available, is due to its unique coverage, namely, a large number of private sector small and medium-size enterprises in selected emerging economies (more than 40 economies covered by the Enterprise Survey). The composite indicator summarizes information on private sector actions on environmental, social, and governance factors. The analysis shows that the actions of private sector small and medium-size enterprises in emerging economies to foster sustainability and green growth significantly lag in the transition to a more sustainable business environment, and large gaps persist. Among emerging economies, those in the Middle East and North Africa—which deserve special attention due to the urgent need to green their growth model—are among the worst performers. Larger companies in the Middle East and North Africa show better environmental, social, and governance performance than small and medium-size enterprises in other areas; but smaller firms in the Middle East and North Africa show extremely weak performance in many aspects, even if controlling for the relative level of economic development. The weakness of environmental, social, and governance practices among firms in the Middle East and North Africa is due to the social (with large gaps in female participation in the workforce and management) and environmental topics. This calls for urgent policy action to address such weaknesses and exploit the full potential of the region.
format Working Paper
author Ferrazzi, Matteo
Tueske, Annamaria
author_facet Ferrazzi, Matteo
Tueske, Annamaria
author_sort Ferrazzi, Matteo
title Small and Medium Enterprises in Emerging Economies : The Achilles’ Heel of Corporate ESG Responsibility Practices?
title_short Small and Medium Enterprises in Emerging Economies : The Achilles’ Heel of Corporate ESG Responsibility Practices?
title_full Small and Medium Enterprises in Emerging Economies : The Achilles’ Heel of Corporate ESG Responsibility Practices?
title_fullStr Small and Medium Enterprises in Emerging Economies : The Achilles’ Heel of Corporate ESG Responsibility Practices?
title_full_unstemmed Small and Medium Enterprises in Emerging Economies : The Achilles’ Heel of Corporate ESG Responsibility Practices?
title_sort small and medium enterprises in emerging economies : the achilles’ heel of corporate esg responsibility practices?
publisher World Bank, Washington, DC
publishDate 2022
url http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/099920405102236971/IDU01017edd30483c04ca00b5c80a9eef01b5c7f
http://hdl.handle.net/10986/37526
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