Financial aspects of sustainability: An evidence from Slovak companies

Abstract

Business sustainability has been one of the leading topics of the financial management of Slovak companies since the beginning of the millennium. The initially relatively strict link only to environmental aspects has been supplemented by the economic and social dimensions in recent years, under the pressure of the business environment. Examining the link between a company's financial performance and sustainability is addressed in this paper by the financial ratios method and the correlation and linear regression analysis methods. The subjects of investigation are enterprises from three selected sectors, with the selection criterion for the sample being determined based on the share of sales of the enterprises in the sectoral sales such that the sample includes enterprises with a total share of more than 50%. The aim was to design an integral indicator of business sustainability and linking it to the identified economic performance indicator, Economic Value Added, whereby it insists on economic pillar of sustainability exclusively. The research results show a strong direct dependence of the financial performance to the IUUP (Integral business sustainability indicator) in the supply of "Supply of electricity, gas, steam and cold air" and the independence of the IUUP in the "Information and communication" and "Industrial production" sectors. Further research should go beyond the borders of the Slovak Republic and should be aimed at proposing changes and amendments in IUUP, applying more comprehensive evaluation procedures, while respecting the public availability of input information.