Costanza Consolandi

University of Siena | UNISI · Department of Business and Law

We argue that ESG/Sustainability is moving from being based primarily on ESG ratings and rankings which has caused significant confusion to sustainability (ESG) being based on mandated disclosure and analysis of externalities. We briefly examine the basis of ESG ranking and ratings confusion concluding that based on current methodologies of major p...

This paper takes at firm level the inspiration of the Allegory of the Good and Bad Government, the 14th century series of frescoes by Ambrogio Lorenzetti. Namely, we investigate whether a good corporate governance stabilizes financial performance and whether such superior governance improves ‘ESG (Environmental, Social, Governance) resilience’ agai...

This paper investigates the role of the intensity and relevance of ESG materiality in equity returns. Adopting the classifications of materiality provided by the Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB), the paper introduces the concept of the financial relevance and financial intensity of ESG materiality in order to estimate how it explain...

At the end of 2018, the Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB) released its corporate reporting standards for material environment, social, and governance (ESG) issues. These SASB standards are analogous to FASB's but deal with ESG activities that help the companies create value over the long term and have been endorsed by large asset man...

The 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) have created a framework for environmental and social impacts, which institutional investors and corporations are using to guide resource allocation or highlight SDG-aligned investments already in place. We argue that the SDGs have clarified certain elements predominantly missing or implicit in many en...

In recent years, the global financial and economic crisis are rewriting the relationship between business and society, focusing, among other things, on the role of the process of financialization, not only in the economy as a whole but also within non-financial companies. Shareholder value maximization, together with the commoditization of business...

The 17 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) have created a framework for environmental and social impacts, which many large institutional investors and an increasing number of corporations are using to guide their resource allocation decisions or highlight those already in place. In this paper, we argue that the SDGs have clarified c...

The world has great expectations for how the private sector, both companies and investors, can support the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). In fact, it is generally believed that these goals cannot be achieved without strong support from the private sector. But will making the world a better place hurt financial returns? The answer is “No”...

This Forum aims to systematically describe and analyse the evolution of national financial systems within the EU over the past three decades. It analyses the processes of financialisation that have dominated this period as well as the causes and consequences of the financial crisis from the perspectives of five individual member states — Germany, F...

This paper surveys risk management practices among Italian non-financial firms. This paper's contribution lies in investigating derivative usage particular to Italian businesses, a group whose public disclosure of derivative instruments is not routine. Italy is characterised by a high percentage of small and medium sized family run firms. The surve...

Abstract This paper surveys risk management practices among Italian non-financial firms. This paper’s contribution lies in investigating derivative usage particular to Italian businesses, a group whose public disclosure of derivative instruments is not routine. Italy is characterized by a high percentage of small and medium sized family run firms....

This experimental study aims to clarify to what extent and in which direction investors react to CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) initiatives meant to upgrade the ethical standards of firms beyond the minimal requirements of law. Subjects in the laboratory were invited to invest their endowment in a portfolio of financial assets. We provided i...

This paper presents a survey on the risk management function and the usage of hedging instruments by Italian non-financial firms. The objective is to measure how firms manage the following risks: Exchange-foreign, Interest rate, Energetic, Commodity, Equity, Counter-party, Operational, Country. The survey was conducted both for listed and non-liste...

The increased scrutiny of investors regarding the non-financial aspects of corporate performance have placed portfolio managers in the position of having to weigh the benefits of “holding the market” against the cost of having positions in companies that are subsequently found to have questionable business practices. The availability of stock index...

The relationship between the social performance (CSP) and the financial performance of business corporations has been a topic of interest and controversy and serious empirical research on the association between financial and social performance indicators has been going on for several decades. In this paper we supplement existent research by studyi...

The increased scrutiny of investors regarding the non-financial aspects of corporate performance have placed portfolio managers in the position of having to weigh the benefits of "holding the market" against the cost of having even token positions in companies that are subsequently found to have questionable business practices. The availability of...

The firm's stock price is affected when an insider such as a high ranking manager or board member, sells the firm's equity. This action can be construed as a signal of changes in expectations of firm's future cash flows. Does this action affect reputation as well? Using insider sell decisions as proxy, particularly in periods of declining returns,...