Escândalos de corrupção socioambientais: efeitos no desempenho financeiro e na legitimação das empresas adeptas ao ESG da América Latina

Abstract

The aim of this research was to verify the influence of socio-environmental corruption scandals on the financial performance and legitimization of companies that adhere to ESG policies. To this end, the methodological procedure was descriptive in terms of objectives, documental in terms of procedures and qualitative-quantitative in terms of approach. The sample for this study consisted of publicly traded companies in Latin America that adhere to ESG and that have been involved in socio-environmental corruption scandals. To select this sample, newspaper reports were searched using the Google News tool. Data was then collected from the financial statements of the companies identified using the Refinitiv database. The data covered the period from 2010 to 2023. The methods used in this research were the multiple linear regression model with panel data and the Mann-Whitney and Student's t-tests. The main findings of the research were: (i) Socio-environmental corruption scandals may be able to improve the financial performance of companies with ESG policies in Latin America by providing more business opportunities, even if these behaviors are inappropriate; (ii) Companies involved in such scandals tend to have lower ESG performances, due to practices that seek private gains and damage their reputation; (iii) There is no evidence that companies involved in socio-environmental corruption are able to maintain good ESG performance, indicating the rejection of the study's second hypothesis; and (iv) Companies not involved in socio-environmental corruption scandals showed better financial performance, according to the tests for independent samples, suggesting that negative events impact reputation and the attraction of investments.