永續報告書揭露語調與永續績效之關聯性

Abstract

本研究分析永續報告書正向語調與未來永續績效的關係，並進一步探討法人持股對正向語調間之調節角色。以臺灣2018年至2021年非金融保險業上市上櫃、且有出具英文永續報告書之公司為樣本，並以FinBERT模型對文本執行ESG主題分類與情緒分類，進而計算語調分數。研究結果發現，永續報告書之語調分數與未來永續績效有顯著正相關，且於環境面與社會面之揭露亦支持此結果，顯示管理階層將於永續報告書中透過正向的揭露語調，反映其看好未來之永續績效表現。另外，法人持股較高的公司，其語調分數與未來永續績效呈顯著正相關，而法人持股較低的公司則兩者間關係不顯著，上述結果於法人持股拆分為國外法人持股與國內法人持股時亦相符；顯示法人持股對永續報告書之正向語調具有調節作用，將能強化正向語調與未來較佳永續績效間之關聯性。

This study analyzes the relationship between the positive tone of sustainability reports and future sustainability performance, and further explores the moderating role of institutional ownership in such relationship. I use Taiwanese non-financial listed companies that issued English sustainability reports from 2018 to 2021 as the research sample, the FinBERT model to classify ESG themes and sentiment in the text to measure disclosure tone scores. The results show a significant positive association between the positive tone of sustainability reports and one-year-ahead sustainability performance. The results consistently hold when sustainability performance is partitioned into environmental and social aspects. These findings support the signal effect of disclosure tone that reflects managerial optimism about future sustainability performance. Additionally, I find that the positive association is stronger in companies with higher institutional ownership but do not find such association in companies with low institutional ownership. This result holds when institutional ownership is measured separately by foreign and domestic institutional ownership. Overall, the findings support the positive moderating effect of institutional ownership and suggest that institutional ownership strengthens the informative effect of positive disclosure tone in sustainability reports.