The Impact of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) Implementation on Firm Performance: Evidence from Selected Listed Companies in Sri Lanka

Abstract

Organizations can play a significant role in advancing the sustainable development agenda by integrating SDGs into their strategies and operations and providing new solutions to global sustainable development challenges. A review of the literature and empirical studies evidenced that implementing sustainable development goals is still in progress in the Sri Lankan business context. This study covers the body of knowledge regarding the impact of incorporating SDGs into business strategies for improved financial performance. This research aims to fill the empirical gap by investigating the impact of implementing sustainable development goals on firm performance in Sri Lanka. Therefore, the main objective of this study is to identify the relationship between the implementation of the SDGs and Firm Performance, to ascertain whether the implementation of these policies helps achieve high Firm Performance and to develop a framework to determine the influence of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) on firm performance. This study is an ongoing research project and proposes to collect data from secondary data sources using annual reports, sustainability reports, and official websites of the 40 companies listed in CSE representing ten banks, ten insurance, and 20 finance covering the period of 2017-2021. Level of sustainable development implementation, company size, sector, age, and corporate risk are chosen as the independent variables, and financial performance is measured using ROA and ROE as the dependent variable for the study. Description of the SDG implementation level, descriptive statistics, correlation, and regression analysis will be used to analyze and present the collected data. The study also focuses on finding out the SDG implementation level of selected industries and comparing those levels with other countries’ practices. Based on the results, this study concludes and suggests the future implementation of the SDG in Sri Lankan Companies.