SASB Raporu Yayınlayan Şirketlerin Finansal Başarısızlıkları ile Sürdürülebilirlik Raporları Arasındaki İlişkinin Analizi
Buse Öktem, Selahattin KarabınarŞirketler 1900’lü yılların başlarından itibaren finansal sıkıntı, iflas vb. mali sıkıntılar ile yüzleşmek zorunda kalmışlardır. Geçmişte yaşanan bu finansal krizlerden çıkardıkları derslerle yeni araç ve yöntemler geliştirmişlerdir. Sürdürülebilirlik raporlaması da bu yöntemlerden birisidir. Bu yöntemle paydaşların bilgi ihtiyacı daha geniş ve daha derinlemesine karşılanması amaçlanmaktadır. Sürdürülebilirlik raporlaması finansal verilerinin yanında finansal olmayan verilerin de raporlanmasını gerektirmektedir. SASB (Sürdürülebilirlik Muhasebe Standartları Kurulu) sürdürülebilirlikle ilgili konularda şirketlerin yapması gereken raporlama ve kamuoyunu bilgilendirmeye dönük geniş kapsamlı bir işlev üstlenmiştir. Fakat şirketlerin finansal performansı ile sürdürülebilirlik raporu arasındaki ilişkinin ne yönde ve nasıl olduğu cevap bekleyen sorudur. Bu soruya verilebilecek cevaplardan biri de finansal sürdürülebilirliğin genel sürdürülebilirlikteki yeri ve etkisini belirlemektir. Bu hususa dönük olarak finansal başarısızlık olasılığı yüksek olan şirketlerin aynı dönemde sürdürülebilirlik raporu yayımlayıp yayımlamadığından yola çıkılarak sürdürülebilirlik kavramı ile finansal başarısızlık kavramı arasındaki ilişki analiz edilmiştir. Finansal başarısızlık göstergesi olarak Altman ve Hotchkiss (2006) tarafından imalat dışı sektörler ve belirli endüstriler için geliştirilen Z’’ skoru esas alınmıştır. SASB raporları yayımlanan şirketler arasından ulaşım sektörü seçilmiştir. Bunun nedeni Z’’ skorunun imalat dışı ve (ulaşım sektörü dahil) belirli sektörler için geliştirilmiş olmasıdır. Bu sektörde SASB kapsamında rapor yayımlayan uluslararası ve çeşitli ülkelerden 43 şirket olup, 40 şirketin finansal verisine ulaşılmıştır. Ancak bir şirket 2017 yılında kurulduğundan, Z’’ skoru hesaplanmamıştır. Bu nedenle 39 adet şirketin 2016-2020 yılları arasında yayınladıkları beş yıllık finansal tablolara göre Altman Z’’skoru hesaplanmıştır. Z’’ skoru 4.35 altında (sıkıntılı alan) olan şirketler ile 4.35-5.85 arasında (gri/belirsiz alan) olan şirketlerin sürdürülebilirlik raporu yayınlayıp yayınlamadığı incelenmiştir. Çalışma sonucunda şirketler sıkıntılı veya belirsiz alanda olmalarına karşın son yıllara yaklaştıkça sürdürülebilirlik raporu yayınlayan şirket sayısının arttığı görülmüştür. Başka deyişle 2016-2020 yılları arasında beş yıl boyunca finansal sıkıntıda olan sekiz adet şirket mevcuttur. Bu şirketlerden dört tanesi ilgili yıllar süresince sürdürülebilirlik raporu yayınlamış olup, üç tanesi havayolları bir tanesi otomobil sektöründe faaliyet göstermektedir.
Analysis of the Relationship Between Financial Failures and Sustainability Reports of Companies Publishing SASB Reports
Buse Öktem, Selahattin KarabınarWhat the relationship is between a company’s sustainability report and its financial performance is a question awaiting an answer. One answer to this question involves determining the place and impact financial sustainability has with regard to overall sustainability. As such, this article analyzes the relationship between the concept of sustainability and the concept of financial failure based on whether companies with a high probability of financial failure published a sustainability report in the same period. As an indicator of financial failure, the Z’’ score developed by Altman and Hotchkiss (2006) for non-manufacturing and specific industries (retailers, telecommunications, airlines, etc.) was taken as the basis. The transportation sector was selected among the companies with published SASB reports because the transportation sector is one of the certain nonmanufacturing sectors for which the Z” score was developed. This sector shows 43 companies that have published SASB reports and financial data to be accessible for 40 companies. However, no Z’’ score has been calculated for companies founded since 2017, thus the Altman Z’’scores were calculated according to the five-year financial statements 39 companies had published between 2016-2020. The study examines whether companies with a Z’’ score under 4.35 (indicating financial difficulty) and companies with a Z’’ score between 4.35-5.85 (indicating the financial gray zone) have published sustainability reports. The results of the paper show the number of companies that published sustainability reports to have increased in recent years, even companies that are in trouble or financial uncertainty. In other words, eight companies were found to be in financial distress for the five years between 2016-2020, with four of these companies having published sustainability reports during that time, three being airline companies and one operating in the automobile sector.
Financial failure has been one of the most important risks for companies, investors, and lenders for many years, especially during fluctuating economic periods. Regardless of the company size or the sector in which it operates, the possibility exists of encountering financial difficulties. In case of financial distress, companies primarily aim to maintain financial stability, thus ensuring the company’s continuity.
Markets are observed to have changed and developed rapidly through the effects of globalization, technological developments, and economic conditions. This change brings the ability to predict financial failure to the fore, especially with regard to companies, and forecasting financial failure will have an important function in this respect. The financial reports companies publish are taken as a basis for determining financial failure. However, environmental problems such as climate change, drought, and global warming have increased ecological uncertainty as well as future economic uncertainty. Stakeholders also require additional reports such as sustainability reports in order to identify ecologicaland environmental-oriented problems, as well as the additional financial reports companies publish in the face of these uncertainties. These additional reports a company publishes help explain to stakeholders the measures the company is taking against environmental problems, as well as the company’s innovative approaches and practices implemented for minimizing environmental impacts from products, starting from the production stage and finishing with it reaching the final consumer. At this stage, one should not forgot that a sustainable environment should be provided so that current and future generations can live comfortably in the face of changing environmental conditions.
The first section of the paper explains the concepts of sustainability, sustainability accounting, and sustainability reporting, and the second section explains the activities related to sustainability accounting. The third section defines financial failure. The analysis phase selected the transportation sector from among the 11 sectors included in the Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB) and examined the annual reports of 39 out of 43 companies in the transportation sector in the world. The Altman Z″ scores for the companies were calculated according to the data they announced in their financial statements. In the paper, the relationship between companies operating in the transportation sector selected from SASB and their financial failures was analyzed. Thus, it is aimed to examine the relationship between financial failure and sustainability reports. The calculated Altman Z″ score measures not just companies’ financial failure but also the impact COVID-19 has had on financial reporting.
When classifying companies according to their Z″ score with regard to financial failure estimation studies, the following grouping was made with respect to Table 1 from Altman and Hotchkiss’ (Altman ve Hotchkiss, 2006, s.248-267 ve Altman, İwanicz-Drozdowska, Laitinen ve Suvas 2017, s.136).
- Companies with a Z″ score < 4.35 are in the distressed zone,
- Companies with a Z″ score between 4.35 and 5.85 are in the gray zone, and
- Companies with a Z″ score ≥ 5.85 are in the safe zone
This study evaluated companies in the distressed zone (Z″ < 4.35) and companies in the gray/uncertain zone (4.35 ≤ Z″ < 5.85) to examine whether these companies published reports on sustainability reporting.
As a result, the study found eight companies to have been in financial distress for the five years between 2016-2020, with four of these companies having published sustainability reports during this period. Three of these companies operate in the airlines sector, and one company operates in the automobile sector.
The study additionally observed an increase to have occurred in terms of the number of sustainability reports each year, even for companies in financial distress or in the gray zone. In other words, the need and importance for companies to file a sustainability report in addition to a financial report has increased each year in the studied period. When examining the impact COVID 19 has had with regard to financial reports, the Z″ scores in 2020 for 22 companies were observed to have decreased compared to their 2019 Z″ scores. This shows most companies’ finances to have been negatively affected by the COVID 19 pandemic. In addition, the Z″ scores for the companies in the airline sector as an industry branch in the transportation sector are seen to have been more affected by COVID 19 than other industries.
