Table A1. Descriptions of assessed ESG... | Emerald Publishing

Table A1.

Descriptions of assessed ESG activities

(E) Environmental activities	Tactic	Brief explanation	Sources
(E1) Energy Saving Initiatives	Operative	The company assesses its overall energy consumption and profile to reduce costs, to compare efficiency with other energy sources or replace machinery, lighting and office equipment with low-energy-consuming alternatives and/or applies to the ISO50001 standard	Schulze et al. (2016)
(E2) Water Saving Initiatives	Operative	The company deliberately focuses on reducing its water consumption in its production by using in-house water recycling technologies, or by recycling its products at the consumer level to decrease the need for water consumption in the first place	Christ and Burritt (2017)
(E3) Measuring carbon footprint	Management	The company measures its carbon footprint, buys emission offset credits, or otherwise proactively strives to reduce emissions in the supply chain	Toka et al. (2015)
(E4) Recycling of raw materials	Management	The company recycles raw material directly and/or recycles waste material to reduce costs of production and/or sells the waste material as input into other companies’ production	Silva et al. (2017)
(E5) Recyclable packaging	Management	The company recycles any material or parts thereof that protect the product from the source of production to the consumer purchasing it	Klaiman et al. (2016)
(E6) Ecofriendly logistics	Operative	The company deliberately focuses on reducing environmental impact by, e.g. replacing non-renewable energy with renewable, using rail instead of road cargo, or using direct logistics/3PLs	Govindan and Soleimani (2017); Leonidou et al. (2016)

(E) Environmental activities	Tactic	Brief explanation	Sources
(E1) Energy Saving Initiatives	Operative	The company assesses its overall energy consumption and profile to reduce costs, to compare efficiency with other energy sources or replace machinery, lighting and office equipment with low-energy-consuming alternatives and/or applies to the ISO50001 standard	Schulze et al. (2016)
(E2) Water Saving Initiatives	Operative	The company deliberately focuses on reducing its water consumption in its production by using in-house water recycling technologies, or by recycling its products at the consumer level to decrease the need for water consumption in the first place	Christ and Burritt (2017)
(E3) Measuring carbon footprint	Management	The company measures its carbon footprint, buys emission offset credits, or otherwise proactively strives to reduce emissions in the supply chain	Toka et al. (2015)
(E4) Recycling of raw materials	Management	The company recycles raw material directly and/or recycles waste material to reduce costs of production and/or sells the waste material as input into other companies’ production	Silva et al. (2017)
(E5) Recyclable packaging	Management	The company recycles any material or parts thereof that protect the product from the source of production to the consumer purchasing it	Klaiman et al. (2016)
(E6) Ecofriendly logistics	Operative	The company deliberately focuses on reducing environmental impact by, e.g. replacing non-renewable energy with renewable, using rail instead of road cargo, or using direct logistics/3PLs	Govindan and Soleimani (2017); Leonidou et al. (2016)

(S) Social activities	Tactic	Brief explanation	References
(S1) Paying taxes	Operative	The company accepts its responsibility to pay its share of local taxes in each of the countries it operates and generates revenues	Baudot et al. (2020)
(S2) Fair wages	Management	The company complies with industry standards applicable to legislated minimum wages and does not discriminate against women to have lower wages than men for the same work	Larkin et al. (2012); Vaughan-Whitehead (2010)
(S3) Profit-sharing	Management	The company allocates part of its profits to the workforce at large to retain staff, improve workforce motivation and attract talent	Huddart and Liang (2005)
(S4) Charitable giving	Operative	The company occasionally donates cash or other resources for a specific societal target of improvement	Godfrey (2005)
(S5) Child labor	Management	The company ensures that no worker is under the age of 13 and is engaged in their supply chain in an illegal and unsafe fashion	Kolk and van Tulder (2002)
(S6) Collaboration with Unions	Operative	The company allows individual workers to organize themselves in labor unions and allows unionized labor to operate in their immediate business environment in believing that a stronger white-collar blue-collar interaction benefits the company	Fjeldstad et al. (2012); Meiers (2014)
(S7) Supplier Codes of Conduct	Operative	The company has a policy on how its suppliers should or must act. For instance, suppliers’ approach to occupational health and safety issues (OHSE) or, e.g. not employing children	Short et al. (2016)
(S8) Employee Health and Safety Policy	Management	The company complies with local legislation or implements home-nation policies if the local legislation is inferior to their local subsidiaries	Nordlöf et al. (2017)
(S9) Diversity and equal opportunities	Management	The company employs people from other cultural backgrounds than the home nation; hires people with disabilities; provides workers with the same opportunity to develop skills, performance and to be promoted on equal grounds	Lawrence and Turner (2016); Wei and Wu (2013)

(S) Social activities	Tactic	Brief explanation	References
(S1) Paying taxes	Operative	The company accepts its responsibility to pay its share of local taxes in each of the countries it operates and generates revenues	Baudot et al. (2020)
(S2) Fair wages	Management	The company complies with industry standards applicable to legislated minimum wages and does not discriminate against women to have lower wages than men for the same work	Larkin et al. (2012); Vaughan-Whitehead (2010)
(S3) Profit-sharing	Management	The company allocates part of its profits to the workforce at large to retain staff, improve workforce motivation and attract talent	Huddart and Liang (2005)
(S4) Charitable giving	Operative	The company occasionally donates cash or other resources for a specific societal target of improvement	Godfrey (2005)
(S5) Child labor	Management	The company ensures that no worker is under the age of 13 and is engaged in their supply chain in an illegal and unsafe fashion	Kolk and van Tulder (2002)
(S6) Collaboration with Unions	Operative	The company allows individual workers to organize themselves in labor unions and allows unionized labor to operate in their immediate business environment in believing that a stronger white-collar blue-collar interaction benefits the company	Fjeldstad et al. (2012); Meiers (2014)
(S7) Supplier Codes of Conduct	Operative	The company has a policy on how its suppliers should or must act. For instance, suppliers’ approach to occupational health and safety issues (OHSE) or, e.g. not employing children	Short et al. (2016)
(S8) Employee Health and Safety Policy	Management	The company complies with local legislation or implements home-nation policies if the local legislation is inferior to their local subsidiaries	Nordlöf et al. (2017)
(S9) Diversity and equal opportunities	Management	The company employs people from other cultural backgrounds than the home nation; hires people with disabilities; provides workers with the same opportunity to develop skills, performance and to be promoted on equal grounds	Lawrence and Turner (2016); Wei and Wu (2013)

(G) Governance activities:	Tactic	Brief explanation:	References:
(G1) Board-level CSR/ESG programs	Management	The board of directors has at least one assigned director holding responsibility for the company’s corporate social responsibility activities	Ioannou and Serafeim (2015)
(G2) Executive compensation approved by AGM.	Management	The company has a compensation committee that annually prepares a review and remuneration proposal to be voted upon (accepted or rejected) by the shareholders at the annual general meeting	Chng et al. (2012)
(G3) Independent board members	Operative	The board of directors consists of independent board members who are not related to the company’s daily activities or operations	Desender et al. (2013); Kroll et al. (2008)
(G4) Female board members	Operative	The company has a policy of deliberately including (voluntarily or by quotation) women as board members	Bear et al. (2010)
(G5) ESG/CSR policy	Management	The company has a policy (or implemented standard) describing their corporate social responsibility and/or position regarding their environmental, social and governance behavior	Cheng et al. (2014); Gössling and Vocht (2007)
(G6) Cybersecurity management	Operative	The company has a policy (or implemented standard) that specifically protects customer information and corporate information from unauthorized access (hacks)	Bone (2016); Tisdale (2015)
(G7)Anti-corruption policy	Management	The company has a policy (or implemented standard) manifesting a zero-tolerance towards corruption and/or enforces rules that address anti-corruptive behavior	Yang (2009)

(G) Governance activities:	Tactic	Brief explanation:	References:
(G1) Board-level CSR/ESG programs	Management	The board of directors has at least one assigned director holding responsibility for the company’s corporate social responsibility activities	Ioannou and Serafeim (2015)
(G2) Executive compensation approved by AGM.	Management	The company has a compensation committee that annually prepares a review and remuneration proposal to be voted upon (accepted or rejected) by the shareholders at the annual general meeting	Chng et al. (2012)
(G3) Independent board members	Operative	The board of directors consists of independent board members who are not related to the company’s daily activities or operations	Desender et al. (2013); Kroll et al. (2008)
(G4) Female board members	Operative	The company has a policy of deliberately including (voluntarily or by quotation) women as board members	Bear et al. (2010)
(G5) ESG/CSR policy	Management	The company has a policy (or implemented standard) describing their corporate social responsibility and/or position regarding their environmental, social and governance behavior	Cheng et al. (2014); Gössling and Vocht (2007)
(G6) Cybersecurity management	Operative	The company has a policy (or implemented standard) that specifically protects customer information and corporate information from unauthorized access (hacks)	Bone (2016); Tisdale (2015)
(G7)Anti-corruption policy	Management	The company has a policy (or implemented standard) manifesting a zero-tolerance towards corruption and/or enforces rules that address anti-corruptive behavior	Yang (2009)