Variables definitions

Expected relationship

Dependent variable

TBN

Tobin Q defined as score obtained as the ratio relationship between the firms’ market value and firm’s total asset value.

Independent variables

SR

Sustainability report, defined as firm’s reports that provides information about social, economic/financial, and environmental performance (Junior, Cotter, & Best, 2014; Sherman, 2009) .

Positive relationship (Ansari et al., 2015; Ching et al., 2017; Dobre et al., 2015; Wang, 2015) .

GRI

GRI defined as international independent standards (IIS) organization that helps firms, businesses and governments report and understand their impacts from social, economic/financial, and environmental performance (Isaksson & Steimle, 2009; Sherman, 2009; Simmons, Crittenden, & Schlegelmilch, 2018) .

Positive relationship (Mulkhan, 2013; Loh et al., 2017; Lourenço et al., 2014) .

FS

FS defined as the company’s size in relation to its asset value within the specific industry (Choi & Dow, 2008; Mowen, Hansen, & Heitger, 2015; Said et al., 2017) .

Positive relationship (Cardamone et al., 2012; Carnevale et al., 2012; Cormier & Magnan, 2007; Schadewitz & Niskala, 2010) .

ES

ES defined as the degree to which a firm is responsive to the ecological or environmental needs through sustainable activities (Lin, Chang, & Dang, 2015; Osarto et al., 2015) .

Positive relationship (Cardamone et al., 2012; Hassel et al., 2005; Murray et al., 2006; Shah et al., 2016) .

L

L defines as the firm’s leverage in reference to use of debt/borrowing in funding operations (Choi & Dow, 2008; Said et al., 2017) .

Negative relationship (de Klerk & de Villiers, 2012; Cormier & Magnan, 2007; Omran & El-Galfy, 2014) .

GS

GS defined as score indicator on firm’s governance risk compared with the region or industry index on quality score on corporate governance (Klassen, & McLaughlin, 1996; Lin et al., 2015; Lober, 1996) .

Positive relationship (Bhatia & Tuli, 2018; de Klerk & de Villiers, 2012; Laskar & Maji, 2018) .

A

A defined as size of audit committee in references to number of committee members, and SR experts

(Mowen et al., 2015; Said et al., 2017) .

Negative relationship (Mouselli & Hussainey, 2014; Nelson & Devi, 2013; Yammeesri & Herath, 2010) .

EPS

EPS defined as the firm’s earnings per share in reference earnings allocation on outstanding stock from firm’s profit (Choi & Dow, 2008) .

Positive relationship (Cardamone et al., 2012; Carnevale et al., 2012; Cormier & Magnan, 2007; Schadewitz & Niskala, 2010) .