This paper aims to investigate whether the environmental, social and corporate governance (ESG) score of companies operating in the energy sector is associated with their corporate financial performance (CFP). The research covered data from eight companies with a dominant position in the Polish energy sector. The research used the comparative analysis between ESG performance and accounting-based measures of profitability: return on equity (ROE), return on assets (ROA) and return on sales (ROS). Additionally, reference was also made to the DuPont model. The acquired results do not reveal repetitive dependencies that would facilitate the discovery of a pattern of the impact of the factors of ESG on the financial performance of enterprises. Despite indicating the cases of correlations between the ESG scores and CFP at a high level, indeed sometimes at a very high level, the particular case studies significantly differ from each other. This may be caused by the fact that Polish enterprises from the energy sector illustrate far-reaching specifics, among others, with regard to the key significance of the entities with a prevalent state ownership and strict administrative regulations, which are subject to the energy market, state of development and structure of the whole sector in Poland. Thus, this is also why the mechanisms or dependencies, whose existence it is possible to expect in conditions of free competition, may be weakened or even eliminated in Polish conditions.

This paper aims to investigate whether the environmental, social, and corporate governance (ESG) score of New Zealand-listed companies is associated with their stock performance during the COVID-19 pandemic. The idea of socially responsible investing is commonly accepted in New Zealand, and past academic literature has argued for the positive (though often weak) relationship between companies’ stock returns and their ESG profile. The methodology of the research is threefold. First, the average daily return for 11 New Zealand Exchange (NZX) market sectors and the S&P/NZX50 index during the COVID-19 panic and rebound periods are compared. Then, the impact of the COVID-19 outbreak on the average daily return of 11 broad NZX sectors in relation to the average ESG score for a given sector is checked. Finally, the relationship between the daily average performance of 56 NZX-listed companies and their ESG scores proxied by Refinitiv’s ESG Combined Score is determined. The analysis reveals no support for the idea that the returns of firms with higher ESG scores are greater than those with a low ESG ranking during the COVID-19 pandemic. The results show a negative, though statistically insignificant, correlation between the ESG score and annualized stock return both on the sector and individual company levels. Even though our reported findings do not confirm the believed positive correlation of the analyzed measures (based on previous studies), they clearly show that high ESG performance does not harm financial performance even in the context of crises.

Astonishingly little attention has been paid in academic literature to the 2008–2009 foreign exchange (FX) options debacle in Poland, the scale of which was unheard of. It affected not only an individual organization but a significant part of economy, being an example of a situation in which operational risk at the company level could have impacted systemic risk. The research provides evidence of the dark side of financial innovations through an analysis of a countrywide case on an emerging market, utilizing a primary qualitative content analysis (QCA) of over 750 documents (including press releases, public authorities’ accounts, and corporate statements). It documents that the FX options debacle was caused by financial institutions which shrouded some aspects of innovative securities or took advantage of information asymmetry to exploit uninformed clients. The study concludes that both adequate legal regulations and proper operational risk management are crucial to avoid similar corporate failures.

Purpose: Knowledge sharing within organizations has significant benefits for group and organizational performance. This study aims to identify the combinations of individual and relational factors that influence high- and low-intensity knowledge sharing among workers using the ability-motivation-opportunities (AMO) framework.Design/methodology/approach: This research adopts a qualitative, set-theoretic approach, using fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) to analyse data collected from knowledge workers in an international corporation.Findings: Our findings show that knowledge sharing is fundamentally relational, meaning that the quality and history of interaction with co-workers affect the intensity of knowledge-sharing behaviour. All AMO dimensions prove important for sharing, although some of them can substitute one another. However, if there is a lack of ability and opportunity, employees will not share knowledge even if they are motivated by reciprocity.Practical implications: The results offer human resources and project management practice alternative combinations of individual and relational factors that can be used to streamline knowledge sharing, emphasizing the need to invest in building relationships among co-workers.Originality/value: This study contributes to the literature by identifying configurations of core and peripheral conditions pertaining to abilities, motivation and opportunities that can facilitate or constrain knowledge-giving.

MISS - Methodology for the Identification of Strategic Stakeholders of an Organisation