Maria Jesus Muñoz-Torres

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• Doctor of Engineering
• Professor (Full) at Jaume I University

Purpose The aim of this paper is to evaluate the impact of the sustainable financial disclosure regulation (SFDR) on the environmental, social and governance (ESG) performance and risk scores of sustainable funds (SFs) from a multi-regional perspective. Design/methodology/approach This research involves conducting a comparative study between self-...

El presente documento recoge el trabajo realizado por el equipo técnico del grupo de investigación SoGReS-MF junto con el Comité Econòmic i Social de la Comunitat Valenciana (en adelante CES CV), referente a la realización de un informe técnico en torno a La sociedad civil organizada de la Comunitat Valenciana ante el reto de la Agenda 2030. El obj...

Free, Prior, and Informed Consent ( fpic ) is crucial for the exercise of indigenous peoples’ right to self-determination, a binding human rights norm, as it provides them with the opportunity to determine how their lands and resources are developed. While numerous companies have committed to respecting fpic in their corporate policies, there conti...

Purpose 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 syst...

Indigenous peoples’ right to Free, Prior, and Informed Consent (FPIC) has been recognised as an important principle to ensure their meaningful participation in decision-making processes related to extractive projects. Yet, many companies grapple with their duty to engage in good faith consultations with indigenous peoples implied by the standard of...

Purpose 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. Design/methodology/approach The study applies a content analysis procedure based on a proposed analytic...

“Publish or perish” is a well-known aphorism in academia. However, this mantra has often led to excessive pressure to publish increasing numbers of manuscripts without commensurate care for quality. Such pressure has been associated with evaluation systems that push researchers to focus on various scientometrics indicators, such as publishing in jo...

This paper conducts a systematic literature review of primary studies that analyze the relative performance of SRI Equity investment funds vs their conventional counterparts. The existing literature is analyzed and categorized into two samples depending on the benchmark used. Based on our research of the period between 1992 to July 2021 we arrive a...

Solutions will be effective if they are aligned with the problems that they are trying to solve. This paper studied the most relevant social impacts of the textile industry and how appropriately textile companies manage these social impacts, in order to achieve greater social sustainability in global supply chains. Therefore, we attempted to determ...

Sovereign wealth funds constitute the largest accumulation of capital in history. The integration of sustainable investment criteria in sovereign wealth funds is therefore crucial for the financial market’s contribution to securing the functioning of Earth systems and thereby a safe operating space for humanity. Such an integration requires an inte...

Sustainability is a complex and polycentric concept that needs to be addressed from an interdisciplinary and holistic perspective. Sustainability sciences have advanced in recent years, highlighting the necessity of assessing organizational, social, economic, and environmental impacts. The relevance of assessment in sustainability however goes beyo...

The European Union fosters the integration of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) risks in investment decision processes being credit rating agencies crucial in this process. This chapter provides insights on how the financial markets, through credit rating agencies, are integrating ESG risks into the corporate sustainability assessment pro...

La inversión sostenible (IS) se ha convertido en uno de los temas más destacados para la comunidad empresarial, los mercados financieros y la sociedad en los últimos años. Cada vez más, las inversiones buscan estimular la recuperación económica de una manera más sostenible, amplificando este impulso con la integración en la inversión de criterios a...

Agricultural techniques and orchard management play an important role in food production sustainability and there is an increasing number of research papers that focus on food cradle-to-gate life cycle assessment. In addition, there is also an emerging body of research on short food supply chains and on whether or not proximity can be a proxy for s...

Este artículo explora el papel de las agencias de rating de sostenibilidad en el impulso del desarrollo sostenible. Más específicamente, el artículo analiza los principales retos a los que se enfrentan las agencias de rating de sostenibilidad en el actual contexto de riesgos globales y en qué medida están haciendo frente a tales riesgos. Para ello...

In a global context, it is crucial to measure and report the corporate sustainability impacts taking into account what is happening along the whole supply chains. The objective of this study is to analyze whether environmental measurement and reporting practices, currently developed by companies under a global supply chain context, are aligned with...

Sommario: 1. Introduzione. – 2. Stato dell’arte. – 3. Una proposta di misurazione della sostenibilità nelle catene di fornitura globali. – 4. Analisi delle informazioni ambientali sul ciclo di vita del telefono mobile. – 4.1 Determinazione del ciclo di vita del telefono mobile. – 4.2. Metodologia. – 4.3. Analisi dei risultati e discussione. – 5. A...

This study builds on the research gap that arises from the consistency analysis of the GRI-materiality approach with other prioritization approaches. The main objective is to explore to what extent corporate environmental performance is consistent using two different prioritization approaches. This study employs a novel quantitative approach to ass...

In the last few years, considerable attention has been paid to microfinance as a relevant participant in the formal financial system, whose target audience is people who are otherwise at risk of financial exclusion. In parallel, sustainability and the promotion of Sustainable Development (SD) are imposed as the theoretical frame when facing any stu...

Ports are under increasing pressure to become more sustainable. A fundamental requirement to integrate sustainability into all structures, policies, and processes of an organisation, such as a port, is to have a corporate governance fully committed to sustainable development. However, sustainability frameworks in the port industry deal mainly with...

This is a Work in progress published in SSRN https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3378473

Environmental, social, and governance (ESG) rating agencies, acting as relevant financial market actors, should take a stand on working towards achieving a more sustainable development. In this context, the objective of this paper is, on the one hand, to understand how criteria used by ESG rating agencies in their assessment processes have evolved...

The development of sustainable finance favors the appearance of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) rating agencies as providers of ESG information and tools for measuring the contribution of companies to sustainable development. Thispaper attempts to show whether assessment methods adopted by eight ESG agencies are consistent with the Inte...

The microfinance sector is considered an important contributor to the expansion of formal financial systems. It plays a significant role in sustainable development. Microfinance institutions (MFIs) as key actors in the microfinance sector require an organizational management framework that facilitates sustainable growth. The objective of this study...

The integration of sustainability principles into the assessment of companies along the supply chains is a growing research area. However, there is an absence of a generally accepted method to evaluate corporate sustainability performance (CSP), and the models and frameworks proposed by the literature present various important challenges to be addr...

Purpose 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. Design/methodology/approach This research uses an exploratory approach based on content analysis,...

Achieving sustainable development will not be possible without the effective integration of education for sustainable development (ESD) at all educational levels. However, to include these aspects in the university context, it is necessary to provide professors with mechanisms, resources and tools that allow the transmission of social and environme...

This study delves into the long-term relationship between social and financial performance of organizations. The aim of this study is to analyse the evolution of this relationship during the global financial crisis to ascertain both how companies have evolved in terms of CSR strategic consistency under financial uncertainty, and the relationship th...

Since the early microcredit programs up to the present, microfinance has grown exponentially, as it has the academic interest on it as a research subject. Considering that this sector has impact in terms of sustainability, any research in the field requires an analysis with wide criteria, which should include the economic, environmental, social, an...

The integration of environmental, social and governance (ESG) criteria into the evaluation process of assets is a theme that is widely accepted among socially responsible investors. In this process, however, the integration of investors’ preferences has not been adequately developed. The challenge is to integrate the preferences of heterogeneous in...

Assessing corporate environmental performance (CEP) that is both comprehensive and consistent with sustainable development both for society and companies, while at the same time taking heed of the facts and interests of each stakeholder, is not a simple feat. Due to the multidimensional character of the sustainability concept, several questions mus...

The aim of this paper is to explore the structures of the governing bodies at Spanish universities paying special attention to the gender question. This study attempts to contribute to the knowledge of sustainability in universities by analysing women’s participation in the university governing bodies and the relationship between women’s presence i...

Socially responsible investment (SRI) has grown substantially over time. It has emerged as an important financial system driver for corporate sustainability management. The objective of this paper is to analyse the critical issues in relation to corporate sustainability assessment as has been promoted in the financial markets through the assessment...

This study aims to explore how environmental, social and governance (ESG) consistency impacts the firm performance, specifically, the relationship between ESG performance and economic performance (EP). This study posits that the company’s commitment and effectiveness towards the creation of consistent competitive advantage in environmental, social...

SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT EDUCATION SUPPORTED BY GAMES IN CLASSROOM R. León ¹, M.A. Fernández-Izquierdo ², M.J. Muñoz-Torres ², J.A. Rivera-Lirio ², I. Ferrero-Ferrero ², E. Escrig-Olmedo ², L. Bellés-Colomer ², I. García-Pérez ², L. Ibáñez-Gallén ² 1University of Zaragoza (SPAIN) 2University Jaume I (SPAIN) Even though sustainability development i...

Extended abstract: Through an exploratory research approach, this paper analyzes the potential impact of sustainability indices and rating agencies on the nature of corporate sustainability and stakeholder management of organizations and in the financial market. Keywords: corporate sustainability, socially responsible investment (SRI), sustainabil...

The Europe 2020 Strategy addresses three priorities: smart, sustainable and inclusive growth. This strategy asks to develop a competitive economy based on knowledge, innovation, high environmental management and performance, and high-employment, with the purpose of delivering social and territorial cohesion. In these challenging commitments, the Eu...

Materiality has become a relevant issue in sustainability disclosure and business performance assessment. The main objective of this paper is to provide an assessment framework of sustainability performance based on expert knowledge. The expert knowledge has been extracted from the materiality analysis included in the sustainability reports. Focusi...

This book contains the refereed proceedings of the International Conference on Modeling and Simulation in Engineering, Economics and Management, MS 2016, held in Teruel, Spain, in July 2016. The event was co-organized by the AMSE Association and the University of Zaragoza through the GESES Research Group, with the support of the SoGReS-MF Research...

Purpose – 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. Design/methodology/approach – 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 t...

Following a review of the literature on the impact of micro nance from the sustainability perspective, through the interrelation of economic, environmental, social and governance dimensions (ESG), and an analysis of its performance in promoting nancial inclusion and poverty eradication, we present a comprehensive and inclusive assessment of micro n...

It is particularly important assessing sustainability in an integrative way considering different stakeholder perspectives to overcome the weaknesses of reductionist approaches to measure sustainability. This integration could help organizations to understand and engage with their stakeholders; and could contribute to sustainable development. Th...

This study aims to explore how board age diversity affects corporate performance. This study develops three hypotheses built on the perspective of the upper echelons and Harrison and Klein's (2007) diversity typology. Focusing on age diversity and using a board of directors as a unit of analysis, this study empirically tests the effects of each typ...

Nowadays, social cohesion arouses an increasing interest among both academics and policymakers, since the promotion of cohesive has been proven an indispensable framework for the achievement of sustainable development. Fiscal policy can play a fundamental role to enhance social cohesion, when aiming at ensuring an equitable distribution of income a...

This paper analyses the important role that social cohesion plays with regard to sustainable development. Both terms have been studied largely, but often as separate spheres with little or no connection. Nevertheless, the success of the sustainable development defined by the WCED requires a favourable social context that can only be achieved by mea...

Many organizations currently publish sustainability ratings that quantify the sustainability of firms by aggregating scores. These organizations analyze companies in economic, social, environmental and corporate governance terms. However, some of these scores are associated with problems of how positive and negative assessments are offset. This wor...

This study examines consistency between compensation systems and corporate performance. The main purpose is to analyse how the performance has affected the short-term executive pay in Spanish banking system during the period 2004–2008. The main results reveal that pay- performance sensitivity is asymmetrical regarding the sign of the variation of t...

The crisis is an opportunity for a change in the management models, which may contribute a greater efficiency and effectiveness of political strategies and processes in organisations. Taking into account every risk holistically and seeking a sustainable management, this article explores how an organization may include financial and extra-financial...

The existence of shadow economy has serious implications for social and economic development. The reasons for informality are numerous and vary from one region to another. Whereas in Europe priority is usually given to the own economical benefit by means of tax evasion, in Latin America the situation is more complex; sometimes it is a personal opti...

Emerging markets play an important role in the global economy, given the prospects of their high economic growth and improving legal infrastructures. Despite the importance of these economies, questions related to corporate governance and corporate social responsibility (CSR) in emerging markets are scarce in the literature, requiring further resea...

The objective of this work is to show the Spanish bank’s position in terms of Corporate Social Responsibility in Latin America. This research was based on a case study about the two large banks –Santander and Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria– in three Latin American Countries –Argentina, Brazil and Chile– through public data such as social or sustai...

The debate surrounding the financial needs of investors and the impact on society of investment is considered to be an important research topic due to the growth of socially responsible financial markets. The main objective of this research is to study society's perception about socially responsible investing (SRI) and to identify investor's prefer...

This study explores the mediating role of corporate social responsibility (CSR) management quality in the relationship between board diversity and CSR performance. It states that generational diversity is a consistent construct of age diversity as variety, and uses three different proxies to measure CSR management quality and performance. The sampl...

This paper presents a reference architecture for information integration in sustainable supply chain management. This architecture aims to provide an integrated information infrastructure across a supply chain. It is intended to provide support to the interchange of information related to the socially responsible management of corporations by coord...

Board of directors is one of the most significant governance issues under review by the corporate governance initiatives. A recent recommendation to improve board effectiveness is concerning diversity of the boards. However, further research to assess the impact of board diversity in the business world and to better understand how board diversity i...

Sustainability ratings agencies evaluate companies in economic, social, environmental and corporate governance terms. However, the scoring modes employed by the rating agencies to evaluate the social and environmental performance are associated with some problems such as the lack of adaptation of rating criteria and rating evaluation methodologies...

Climate change is one of the main threats to sustainable development and represents one of the principal environmental challenges that affects the global economy, health, and social welfare. This study aims to examine the Spanish company law on aspects related to climate change and sustainability. This study is structured in four parts. The first o...

Over recent years, the effectiveness of good corporate governance practices has received considerable attention by the financial literature. In the current global finance crisis, several practitioners, academic and regulators argue that mechanisms of corporate governance have not served their purpose to safeguard equitably the interest of stakehold...

Credit rating agencies are being widely criticized because the lack of transparency in their rating procedures and the huge impact of the ratings they disclose, mainly their sovereign credit ratings. However the rationale seems to be that although credit ratings have performed worse than their aim, they are still the best available solution to prov...

Academics and practitioners have not yet developed an adequate method to evaluate the social performance of organisations that includes a robust and comprehensive approach of sustainability and uses the most relevant data sources. However, sustainability rating agencies are evaluating the social performance of organisations according to their own m...

In light of the recent corporate governance developments after the global financial crisis, this study aims to explore how board diversity affects corporate performance. Focusing on age diversity as separation, variation and disparity and using board of directors as unit of analysis, this study empirically tests the effects of each type of age dive...

Most corporate social responsibility (CSR) standards have not been designedto be implemented in small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs). Giventhat 99% of Spanish companies are SMEs, this study aims to propose aselection of basic CSR material issues that, because of their usefulness andsignificance, should be adapted to Spanish SMEs and their stak...

Academics and practitioners have not yet developed an adequate method to evaluate the social performance of organizations that includes a robust and comprehensive approach to sustainability and uses the most relevant data sources. This study contributes to research on the evaluation of social performance in organizations by means of an innovative m...

In recent years, the debate about the role of the Public Institutions in the fields of corporate social responsibility and sustainable development has gained momentum. Nevertheless, the ambiguity of the latter concepts makes it difficult both to measure them and to estimate the impact that the different public initiatives may have on them. In this...

The complexity associated with the public and private management of sustainable development is causing the increasing involvement of various European Union governments in issues related to the social responsibility of organisations. However, the debate about the nature of this involvement is still open. The study here shows the results of a survey...

Many organizations currently publish ratings that quantify the sustainability of firms by aggregating scores. However, some of these scores are associated with problems of how positive and negative assessments are offset. This work proposes a methodology for using fuzzy logic in the design of a comprehensive sustainability rating for firms. The app...

Purpose 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 stra...

Currently, there are many sustainability indices and environmental, social and governance rating and information provider agencies (ESG IPAs). These organisations study companies in terms of sustainability, that is, economic, social, environmental and corporate governance criteria. But which are the criteria used to evaluate? This paper exhibits an...