Assessment of Social Accountability through SDGs of Corporate Sector during COVID-19 in India

Abstract

The major focus in the field of sustainability assessment for the past few years is on analysing the sustainability practices of corporates on an annual basis. Less attention has been devoted to estimating the sustainability practices on an event basis. The current study was carried out to analyse the sustainability practices adopted by companies during the period of Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19). A sustainability performance measurement (SPM) framework was constructed using content analysis, to measure the performance of Sensex companies towards sustainability efforts. Sensex constitutes 30 well-established and financially sound companies listed in the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE). The primary elements of the SPM framework were derived from Sustainable Development Goals, which are considered to be a blueprint for a sustainable future. The initiatives taken by companies during the period of ‘covidization’ were classified under different parameters of SPM and then quantified with the help of mathematical tools. The results signify that there lies a scope of 63.08% improvement in sustainability practices of overall industries. Further, there is a huge gap of 76.92% between the best-performing and least-performing companies. The performance of all the sectors studied for the sustainability practices was statistically at par with each other. However, the difference between the best-performing (fast-moving consumer goods—FMCG) and least performing (finance) sectors was found to be 42.74%. The result of analysis of variance (ANOVA) for performance across various sustainability parameters taken up by different sectors was significantly different from each other. A gap of 86.67% was uncovered in our analysis between the best-performing and least-performing sustainability parameters taken up by the companies under various sectors. Considering the fact that COVID-19 is a medical emergency, the performance of ‘good health and well-being’ as the best-performing sustainability parameter is justified. But at the same time, importance of other sustainability parameters cannot be ignored. It has also been observed that even in times of dire necessity, the prevailing undersized image of sustainability efforts of selected sample companies was not satisfactory. It is suggested that the corporate sector and the government should be more cautious in pursuing the objective of sustainability.