Sustainability and Corporate Social Responsibility in Bottle Water Sector

i DOCTORAL PROGRAM IN ECONOMIC, BUSINESS AND SOCIAL SCIENCES SEVILLA UNIVERSITY DOCTORAL THESIS Sustainability and Corporate Social Responsibility in Bottle Water Sector Rita Isabel Miranda Almeida Directors: Dr. José Ángel Pérez López. Professor at Department of Accounting and Financial Economics Dr.ª Rute Maria Gomes Abreu. Professor at Guarda Polytechnic Institute Seville, may. 2022 ii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS The elaboration of this PhD thesis is the result of a long academic journey, to all the people who contributed directly and indirectly to the elaboration of this PhD thesis, my sincere thanks. To Professor Dr. José Angel Pérez-López, my supervisor, for his scientific competence and monitoring of the work, as well as for the relevant criticisms, corrections and suggestions made during the supervision. To Professor Dr. ª Rute Maria Gomes Abreu, my supervisor, for giving me the challenge to participating to this doctoral program, for her scientific competence and guidance, for the availability and generosity shown throughout these years of work, as well as for her friendship. To Dr. ª Aneta Ptak-Chmielewska for her valuable and essential contribution to the article Sustainability Assessment of Bottle Water Industry in Portugal. To Dr. ª Mara Del Baldo for her availability and generosity shown when I was staying in Urbino University. To Dr. Samuel Idowu for his availability and generosity shown when I was staying in Surrey University. To Dr. René Schmidpeter for his availability and generosity shown when I was staying in Cologne University. To Dr. Martin Brueckner from Murdoch University for his availability and generosity shown when he stays in Guarda Polytechnic Institute. To the reviewers of the articles, for the valuable contributions they have made throughout the review processes. To my husband Filipe and my daughters, for his support, love, understanding and tenderness. To my parents, for the education, dedication, and support, to provide me with a better future. To my family and friends for their love, encouragement, and support throughout this project. To all the persons that direct or indirect have help me during this period of research. iii ABSTRACT This PhD thesis analyses water management and bottle water industry, in particularly, in the context of sustainable development and corporate social responsibility. Since business leaders make decisions every day that affect the water management and the sustainability of the bottle water sector, it is important to identify where such decisions lead to improvements in this industry sector. The propose of the PhD thesis is proposed new models and principles to corporate social responsibility and stakeholder engagement of these companies since the last developments of environmental policies in Europe and in Portugal, bring to the sector new challenges that influence the sustainability of their business. The methodology of this PhD thesis is the outcome of tree papers related water an essential element for the life of all living beings and aim to contribute to knowledge about bottle water companies in Portugal, exploring the role of these companies in relation to economic, social and environmental aspects. The findings of the PhD Thesis suggest that regional natural and socioeconomic characteristics of Portugal call for a new differentiated approach of dealing with water resources. To response to the increasing pressure on water resources in Portugal is imperative to increase efficiency and effectiveness in water use, due to the risks of climate change and its impacts on water resources. Besides, the managers of bottle water companies need to understand that the gains due the disclosure of CSR practices, go far beyond simple social and environmental activities. Through the research of level of CSR disclosure on the websites of the Portuguese bottle water companies this PhD thesis emphasizing the websites as a tool for improving CSR practices and to demonstrate to their stakeholders their commitment with the social, environmental and financial aspects. The last investigation reveals that economic and financial performance have a positive impact on sustainability of bottle water companies opposite to the commercial and operational performance that have a negative impact on sustainability. This research highlights the knowledge that sustainability and social responsibility are becoming important business practices in today’s organizations and in bottle water industry in particularly. Key Words: Water, Sustainability, Corporate Social Responsibility. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS List of Abbreviations……………………………………………………………….…vi List of Figures…………………………………………..………………………….…vi List of Tables……………………...…………………………………………………viii Introduction ………………………………………………………………….………1 Chapter 1 – Literature Review 1.1. Introduction……………………………………………………………………….7 1.2. The Importance of Sustainability………………………………..……….……….8 1.3. The Relevance of Corporate Social Responsibility...............................................10 1.4. The Water Resources Management.......................................................................15 1.5. Final Consideration…………………………………………………………..….24 Chapter 2 – Methodology of the PhD thesis 2.1. Introduction…………………………………………………..………………….27 2.2. Research questions……………………………………………..…….………….28 2.3. Sample and Data Collection…………………......................................................28 2.4. Research methods..................................................................................................28 2.5. Final Consideration………………………………………………….……….….29 Chapter 3 – Water as Public and Private Good: The Future of Water in Portugal 3.1. Introduction……………………………………………...………….…….……..30 3.2. Water as Public and Private Good ? .……………………………………...…….32 3.3. The Future of Water in Portugal……………........................................................38 3.4. Final Considerations..............................................................................................46 v Chapter 4 – Digital Corporate Social Responsibility Reporting in the Water Industry 4.1. Introduction……………………………………………………………………...48 4.2. Literature Review……………………………………...………………………...51 4.3. Research Methods and Hypothesis….………......................................................55 4.4. Result Analysis.....................................................................................................61 4.5. Final Consideration……………………………………………………………..66 Chapter 5 – Sustainability Assessment of the Bottle Water Industry in Portugal 5.1. Introduction………………………………………………………………….…..69 5.2. Literature Review and Hypotheses Developed………………………………….70 5.3. Research Methods……………………………….................................................77 5.4. Results and Discussions……………………........................................................81 5.5. Final Consideration……………………………………………………..……….87 Conclusions………………………………………………………………….………90 References………………………………………………...…………………………97 vi LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS APIAM – Associação Portuguesa dos Industriais de Águas Minerais Naturais e de Nascente CMVM – Comissão do Mercado de Valores Mobiliários - Portugal CSD – Corporate Social Disclosure CSR – Corporate Social Responsibility CSP – Corporate Social Performance CSRA – Corporate Social Responsibility Accounting EA – Environmental Accounting EEA – European Environment Agency EPAL - Portuguese Water Company ER – Environmental Reporting EIRIS – Ethical Investment Research Service EU – European Union GRI – Global Reporting Initiative IRAR – Regulation of Water and Waste NAP – National Water Plan PNUEA – National Program for the Efficient Use of Water PIANSMW – Portuguese Industrial Association of Natural and Spring Mineral Waters OECD – Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development SA – Social Accounting SABI – Sistema de Analysis de Balances Ibéricos SAI – Social Accountability International SAu – Social Audits SuA – Sustainability Accounting SDGs – Sustainable Development Goals UN – United Nations US – United States WEF – World Economic Forum WHO – World Health Organization vii LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1 – Water as a public and private good. Source: Adapted from Akhmouch and Francisco (2016)…………………………………………………………………….33 Figure 2 – Inefficiency of water use by sector. Source: Adapted from PNUEA …...40 Figure 3 – PNUEA Assumptions. Source: Adapted from APA (2018b) …………...41 Figure 4 – Proposed CSR Disclosure Model …………………………………..…...58 Figure 5 – Regression Model of the CSR Disclosure Model……………………......60 Figure 6 – Histogram of the CSR Disclosure Model ………………………...…......64 Figure 7 – P-PPlot Regression of the CSR Disclosure Model ………………….......64 Figure 8 – Scatterplot of the CSR Disclosure Model ……….………….……….......65 Figure 9 – Scatterplot of the CSR Disclosure Model ……….………….……….......65 viii LIST OF TABLES Table 1 - Strategic and specific objectives of PNUEA for urban sector……………….43 Table 2 - Strategic and specific objectives of PNUEA for agricultural sector………...44 Table 3 - Strategic and specific objectives of PNUEA for industrial sector ...………...45 Table 4 - Categories of GRI food sector guidelines ...………………………………...58 Table 5 - Pearson correlation test...……………………………………………….…...60 Table 6 - Variables distribution by the CSR Disclosure Model...……………..….…...62 Table 7 - Summary of the CSR Disclosure Model...……………..……………….…...62 Table 8 - ANOVA results of the CSR Disclosure Model...……………..……………..63 Table 9 - Coefficient test of the CSR Disclosure Model...……………..……………...63 Table 10 - Summary of hypotheses results of the CSR Disclosure Model...………......64 Table 11 - Correlations with dependent variable...………………………………….....78 Table 12 - Descriptive statistics (N=253)...………………………………………….....81 Table 13 - Pearson Correlation Coefficients (N= 253) …………………………….......82 Table 14 - Fixed Two-Way Estimates (N= 253) …………………………….…….......83 Table 15 - The summary of hypotheses test results…………………………….……....86 1 INTRODUCTION 8 The hydromineral wealth of Portugal is known and used since Roman times. From the marketing point of view, mineral and spring waters are outstanding economic valuable natural resources, representing a non-negligible income for the regions where they occurred through bottling industries, with significant impact on tourism. Bottled natural mineral waters contributed with 172 million € (2014) to the Portuguese economy, the sector accounts for nearly 2 percent of the Portuguese food industry and about 7 percent of the beverage industry, ensuring more than 10 000 jobs. In essence, the social responsibility arises as a strategic response of the company that faces the current world challenges as new demands to the profitable economic growth (Aras and Crowther, 2010) at the same that demands for more social equity, respect with the environment, diminish climate changes and limited natural resources (Crowther and Rayman-Bacchus, 2004). Then it justifies the knowledge of the reality of the company which depends from water as a natural resource (Amores et al., 2013). Usually, a company from beverage sector produces more than bottled waters. Also, diet and light beverage, iced teas, juice drinks and, allowing to identify a set of products and respective strategies to the company's sustainable development. 1.2. The importance of Sustainability Sustainable development is a part of strategy of modern company. The knowledge of this conception creates business activity due too social, environment and economic benefits. Sustainable guidelines point ways of exploring natural resources satisfying human needs and enabling business activity and its continuous development (Szczuka, 2015). In this context, the debates of CSR and sustainability in the sector of water industry became part of a new agenda among leading water company managers. Stakeholders such as customers, landowners, and citizens were implicitly connected to the way that these managers talked about CSR alongside environmental issues such as ‘mitigating the climate change’ and ‘substitution for green energy’ (Lauesen, 2014). However, in the face of new agendas such as the introduction of reporting instruments of environmental, social, and financial bottom lines such as the Triple Bottom Line (Elkington, 1998), Aras & Crowther critically point to the theoretical dilution of the term 9 ‘sustainability’ (2008, p. 434), the authors propose as an alternative a vision based on the initial definitions of the Gaia Hypothesis (Lovelock & Margulis 1974; Lovelock 1979):”[The Gaia Hypothesis is] a model in which the whole of the ecosphere, and all living matter therein, is co-dependent upon its various facets and formed a complete system...interdependent and equally necessary for maintaining the Earth as a planet capable of sustaining life” (Aras & Crowther, 2008). From this perspective Aras & Crowther (2008), have established four fundamental issues of sustainability of equal importance: (1) societal influence, defined as a measure of the impact that society makes upon the corporation in terms of the social contract and stakeholder influence; (2) environmental impact, defined as the effect of the actions of the corporation upon its geophysical environment; (3) organisational culture, defined as the relationship between the corporation and its internal stakeholders, particularly employees; and (4) finance, understood in terms of an adequate return for the level of risk undertaken (Aras & Crowther, 2008). In this context, the sustainability concept was not only about how the business sphere should change its conduct but also to mitigate human poverty, dissimilarity, and environmental depletion and pollution, but evolved into a model that also framed business financial aims in a sustainable method combined in a holistic, management framework (Lauesen, 2014). This recognition is important to transform sustainability strategy to economic success and social and environmental development of the society in which companies are inserted, is unquestionable (David et al., 2014). Indeed, social responsibility and sustainable development arise as a response strategy by the beverage industry, to the immense current challenges of the world, by the simultaneous demand for profitable economic growth, progress industrialisation, social equity and respect for the environment, such as population development, the climate changes, the need for increased agricultural production and the existence of limited natural resources, such as the water, the global supplies of freshwater are ever more under pressure (WEF, 2015). According to the annual report 2015, of the World Economic Forum (WEF) one of the greatest dangers facing the world for the next ten years is water scarcity. Approximately 4-5 billion people lack access to potable water, and the Middle East country that stands out in this fight. 10 1.3. The relevance of Corporate Social Responsibility In Portugal, there is increasing adherence of companies to implementing CSR practices, however, when compared to other EU countries, it’s still low (Ramos et al, 2013). The implementation of CSR practices depends on visibility that the company has on the market and the growing concern in areas such as health and safety and environment, this evolution is driven internally or motivated by external pressures, given the presence of Portugal in the International Labour Organization and in the European Union, which requires all companies to move forward to meet with their legal responsibilities (Branco, 2015). At international level, in the past decade, the attention in “corporate social responsibility'' (CSR) has grown-up from the field of a small group of researchers to the mass of investors, firms, and, indeed, the public (Nguyena, Kecskés and Mansi 2017). Although the term ‘corporate social responsibility’ seems to be new, the business literature indicates that the concept has evolved over recent decades, social, political, and environmental developments (Moura-Leite and Padgett, 2011). Though the impression that firms had some duties to society beyond that of making profits has been around for hundreds of years (Carroll and Shabana, 2010), it was not until the end of the last century that CSR became a reality in business and one of the determinant factors that has been taken into account in decision-making (Garriga and Melé, 2004). In this context, CSR has become a significant issue for corporations, with over 80% of publicly-traded companies reporting CSR activities online (PriceWaterhouseCoopers, 2010). Although its growing importance, there is little consensus among scholars about the motivation for CSR and its effect on shareholder investment (e.g., Margolis et al., 2007). According to a report from The Economist, CSR is an “significant” or “dominant” consideration for 81% of investors and 86% of managers (Economist Intelligence Unit, 2005). In perfect financial market, investment decisions are self-regulating from financial situation, companies should carry out all positive net present value projects and decline all negative net present value projects (Modigliani and Miller, 1958). 11 The evolution of the CSR has a long history associated with how it impacts on companies’ behaviour (Moura-Leite and Padgett, 2011). Since 1920, business executives have paid more attention to some explanations of responsibility and responsible performance (Windsor, 2001). In the 1950s the main attention was on businesses’ responsibilities to society and doing good conducts for society. An important reference for the discussion of CSR is the work of Bowen (1953), Social Responsibilities of the Businessman, whose theoretical approach emphasized the obligations of the business man, and the entrepreneur, who should be in line with the values required by the society, arguing that social responsibility in a company should be understood as a social reaction, should not be limited to the current legal regulations, but rather to respond to the needs and demands of different social groups. CSR can be understood as the way in which a company is deliberately responsible for its action(s) and non-action(s) and the influence of these on society and the environment. The concept refers to the approach used by companies to integrate social, environmental and economic concerns into their values, culture, decision making, strategy and operations in a transparent and ethical manner (Waniak-Michalak et al, 2016). The term CSR includes a variety of subjects revolving around companies’ relations with society. The types of issues covered include ethics, governance, social activities such as philanthropy and community involvement, product safety, equal opportunities, human rights and environmental activities (Tilt, 2009). Since the mid-1990s, an increasing number of firms around the world have started to disclose nonfinancial information related to social issues, such as environmental preservation, human rights protection, employees’ welfare improvement, and contributions to their communities and societies. An increasing number of firms are publishing information on their social performance in the form of separate corporate social responsibility (CSR) reports (Dhaliwal, et al.2014). In this context, prominent themes continued to grow like, corporate social performance (CSP), stakeholder theory, business ethics, sustainability, and corporate citizenship 12 (Carroll, 2008). But these definitions reveal that they are more than micro-definitions and raise macro concepts of CSR, that “reflects three different perspectives, namely, shareholder value, social value and stakeholder value” (Rath and Gurtoo, 2012). Over the past two decades, companies have focused on the recognition and measurement of environmental issues in financial reporting as the effect of business activities and operations on environment has progressively become significant for stakeholders who, apart from shareholders, comprise the customers, employees, government agencies, and the public in general (Bobe and Dragomir, 2011; Ilinitch et al., 1998). Nowadays, business performance is no longer measured in terms of the balance sheet value, but by the positive influence of business on the shareholders and other important publics (Friday, 2015). Many investors, to make investment decisions, regularly consider a company’s CSR activities along with traditional financial performance measures (Elliott et al., 2014). In this context, shareholders may consider how a company returns to various stakeholders in the broader social environment (i.e., CSR) to be as a significant component of the company’s achievement (KPMG, 2011; Van der Laan et al., 2008). Shareholders may also view CSR investments as an appropriate use of resources to reduce the free cash flow problem (Jensen, 1986), they can be more supportive of boards and/or management that have made decisions to engage in CSR activities. Several researches have explored various useful aspects of CSR and have found evidence that CSR practices are related with higher firm value (Lin et al., 2009), lower financial constraints (Cheng et al., 2014), lower investment-cash flow sensitivity (Attig et al., 2014), improved information quality (Cho et al., 2013; Cui et al., 2015 and Lopatta et al., 2015) and reduced agency conflicts (Waddock and Graves, 1997; Harjoto and Jo, 2011 and Eccles et al., 2012). Prior research about whether CSR activities develop company value/performance has produced mixed results (Aggarwal, 2013), with the balance of research favoring a positive relationship among CSR activities and company value/performance (Cullinan, Mahoney and Roush, 2017). Shaista and Sara (2014) found a positive correlation among CSR and 13 organizational performance. Equally, Kim and Kim (2014) examine CSR in tourism industry and studied if CSR increases value for shareholders. Evidence from research shows that CSR is related with profitability and contributes to employee assurance and customer loyalty (Fraedrich and Ferrell 2008; Friday 2015). The study used ESG rating from 1991 to 2008, to test the consequence of CSR on two different types of equity-holder risks proposed that social responsibility was found to expand shareholder value by growing Tobin's Q, although firms with minimal CSR reduce shareholder value and increasing the risk (Maqbool and Zameer, 2018). Similarly, Hammond and Slocum, (1996) highlighted that CSR can develop corporate reputation and minor financial risk, so firms having minimal chance of getting bankrupt, compared to non-CSR firms. Finally, McGuire et al. (1990) provide the evidence that the reputation-performance effect may operate in both directions: a firm’s financial performance affects its reputation, but its reputation also affects its performance (Roberts and Dowling 1997). Theoretical work on CSR accounting has formed several theories as to the incentive of companies to statement or disclose information on their CSR activities, greatest deriving from the broad theory called Political Economy Theory which is defined as ‘the social, political and economic framework within which human life takes place’ (Gray et al., 1996, 47). Legitimacy theory is one such theory and suggests that reporting is used as a communication mechanism to inform and/or manipulate the perceptions of the companies’s actions. Suchman (1995, 574) describes legitimacy as: a generalized perception or assumption that the actions of an entity are desirable, proper, or appropriate within some socially constructed system of norms, values, beliefs, and definitions. According to Schaltegger and Burritt (2006), there are at least three aspects that encourage executives to create a corporate accounting system that affords information for evaluating business activities and actions on sustainability: legislative pressure, selfregulation, and the sustainability in business. First, legal regulations require companies to report the results of their activities on environmental issues. Non-conformity with regulations leads to sanctions on companies. 14 A second factor is self-regulation that origins voluntary disclosure of social and environmental evidence, which is significant for businesses to expand their performance and reputation. Self-regulation also aids companies avoid mandatory governmental regulations. Third, sustainability accounting supports management to recognize and understand the economic potential, such as cost reduction or increase in sales revenue, of voluntary environmental activities and even in tax subjects (Lanis and Richardson, 2012). This is related with better business performance. Additionally, these three factors are considered vital for sustainability in businesses (Akisik and Gal, 2011). It is clear, the Corporate Accountability Movement arisen as one of the greatest influential phenomena of global civil society, enquiring the blind and irrational dominion of free markets as supported by large companies (Held and McGrew, 2002; Bendell, 2004). However, while the concept of accountability is widely used in business and sustainability reporting there is a need for clear definition. A key challenge discussing the literature on corporate accountability is the apparent lack of agreement on the definition of accountability (Cooper and Owen, 2007). Gray et al. (1996) provide the most direct definition of accountability as “the duty to provide an account (by no means necessarily a financial account) or reckoning of those actions for which one is held responsible”. Cooper and Owen (2007) add to this definition a normative standpoint, by including a requirement for “purposeful communicative action” and “empowerment, in terms of facilitating action” by stakeholders. Although several authors, from different academic fields, are currently working in the field of corporate accountability, there is no consensus on its content. Current literature includes a variety of diverse terms (with different meanings) and record-keeping procedures of corporate accounting practices. These include social accounting (SA), corporate social responsibility accounting (CSRA), environmental reporting (ER), environmental accounting (EA), social audits (SAu) and sustainability accounting (SuA) (Taplin et al., 2006). Mathews (1995, 668) reflects that SA, CSRA and CSR are identical terms and describes them as the ‘‘extension of accounting reports to include information about products, employees’ interests, community activities, and environmental impacts’’. He also notes that this evidence is noted on a voluntary basis and could be classified in 15 two main categories affording to the unit of measurement: quantitative and qualitative (Mathews,1997). Giving the literature review, in recent years, there seems to be an increasing convergence of corporate governance and sustainability reporting which is enhancing accountability (Kolk, 2008). In a framework for human rights Ruggie (2008) calls for “positive duty of due diligence” on companies in their discharging of their responsibility. It is essential that a clearer definition of corporate accountability is established, one that is grounded in the sustainability context and facilitate collaborative action. Ramanathan (1976) stated that the core goal of social responsibility accounting is to appraise whether companies have met their social responsibilities satisfactorily or not. This author stated three goals of social responsibility accounting: to determine and measure a business’ social performance in the financial period by calculating the social expenses and profits of the business, to control the relationship among current performance and the business’ approaches, affording to social measures and preferences, to report social performance and its effect on consumers’ choices, and finally to offer information about the goals, policies, and social projects of the business and in what way it is meeting consumer needs (Homayoun et al., 2015). In short, CSD research has been a vigorous area of activity for accounting scholars over the past four decades with quantitative content analysis providing the dominant form of investigation. The paper draws on Gray et al. (1995a, 1995b) seminal classification of CSD with the development of their comprehensive database, identifying six CSR categories. The theoretical framework employed is institutional theory one component of which - legitimacy - has been previously applied in CSD scholarship (e.g., Adams et al., 1988; Campbell, 2003; Deegan, 2002). 1.4. The water resources management Over the years, correct management of water has led to developments and improvements in health across the European Region. In fact, the public water supply activities, like the public sanitation of urban wastewater and management of municipal waste are public services essential to the general welfare of the population, health and public safety and 16 contribute to the economic activities and environmental protection; indeed, the water resources affect health, the economy and sustainable development. With the industrialization, intensification of agriculture, developing populations and increases in recreational demands accentuate the requirement for sufficient high-quality water resources, so an industrial growth and prosperity have depended on a safe, consistent, and well managed water supply (EEA, 2002). According to the annual report 2015, of the World Economic Forum (WEF) one of the greatest dangers facing the world for the next ten years is water scarcity. Approximately 4-5 billion people lack access to potable water, and the Middle East country that stands out in this fight, water is a basic human need and access to minimum quantities of safe water (20 litters per person per day) should be everyone’s right. In this context, conflicts involving uses and users, coupled with the occurrence of natural disasters such as droughts and floods, highlight the need for the provision of a continuous supply of potable water and sanitation. In 2010, the United Nations General Assembly declared access to potable water and sanitation, an essential human right the full enjoyment of life and all other human rights. However, water-related diseases occur throughout Europe, to which rural populations, socially excluded people and populations in areas affected by armed hostilities are especially vulnerable. In general, there has been increased concern about water quality at microbiological level and physical - chemical level, given that it’s exposed to several factors that contribute to contamination, such as pollution the air and soil. Consequently, a systematic preoccupation to prevent diseases caused by water contamination, are growing because the cost of treating these diseases is much higher than the price paid by consumers for supply of potable water and sanitation (EEA, 2002; ERSAR, 2013). In Portugal, the title of water resources is established in Law No. 54/2005, of November 15 (as edited by Law No. 78/2013, of November), which delimits the water public domain, maritime public domain, lakes and rivers public domain and their respective rights, as well as the creation of public easements on private plots and public waters margins. The fundamental law in this matter is the Water Law, approved by Law No. 58/2005 of 29 December, as amended by Decree-Law No. 130/2012 of 23 June, which, 17 proceeding to implementation for the national law of Directive 2000/60 / EC of the European Parliament and of the Council has established the foundation for the sustainable administration of water and fixed the correct institutional framework. The Water Act was supplemented by a set of diplomas, among which stands out the Decree-Law No. 226-A / 2007 of 31 May, that states all activities which have a significant impact on water status can only be developed since under title of use, this ruling regulates the conditions under which is assigned to authorization, permit or award and the private use of the public domain. In 2006, was formally created the Regulatory Authority for Water and Waste Services (ERSAR), consecutively, these activities with significant environmental impact, water services and waste are still conditioned by the requirementsimposed goals and instruments for environmental legislation to ensure the sustainable use of resources (ERSAR, 2013). In this context, water is a resource that needs a management with environmental concerns, the Water Act, determines the institutional framework for sustainable water management, and establishes a number of principles of environmental management: the principle of environmental dimension water (need for a high level of protection of water, to ensure sustainable use); the principle of the economic value of water (the water is or will be a scarce resource hence it has to do a cost-effective use, with cost recovery in environmental terms, based on the principle of polluter pays); the precautionary principle (measures must be taken to divert the negative impact of an action on the environment); the precautionary principle (actions with negative effects on the environment must be considered in advance); and the principle of correction (correction of damages to the environment) (Barraca, 2008). It is clear, the water supply services to the population, are fundamental to society, since they contribute for a true development of the country, from the point of view of public health, quality, and safety for the life of Portuguese households and environmental sustainability without increasing availability of these services across the country, attended by improvement the quality of services at reasonable prices for the population. For this reason, the water supply and sanitation wastewater are of interest General or, more precisely, of interest general economic. Services of interest are those groups that meet the 24 1.5. Final considerations The academic accounting literature on Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) have recognized relevant findings about the factors and consequences of CSR, and the relation among CSR and sustainability context, and the influence of CSR practices in shareholder investment. Investors or owners, in the context of the bottle water industry, recognize that the company influences the external environment through its actions, and, at the same time, these must produce effects on its economic decisions. But each investor adopts a different position related to the difficulties of evaluating the decision, especially the most complex decisions. This trend implies increasing the vulnerability of the company towards the opportunistic behaviour of the owners and therefore there is an adverse reaction of these in the adoption of measures within the framework of social responsibility. There is no doubt that these issues are important for business decision-making, but even more so if we can relate them to the corporate social responsibility that the company adopts in the society in which they are implemented. For these purposes, the authors identified the sustainability and corporate social responsibility practices that give priority to the objective of improving the decision process in the company and its respective stability, guaranteeing trust in the business and its continuity in the future and certifying a risk management, anticipating problems. To serve this purpose, the main explanatory variables of the research have been substantiated in the literature, in order to support the empirical analysis, which explores the studies on financial performance aimed at the beverage market, seeking to find in the perspective of the different stakeholders, the models that determine, with all their breadth, the value of the company, especially the influence derived from social responsibility practices and their viability in the short, medium and long term. In contemporary society, the uncertainties and risks are dominant concerns in the business environment, as well as, in the management of public assets. Increasing problems of water scarcity and drought clearly require a more sustainable approach to water resource management across Europe; this need is already reflected in water-related policy and legislation. 25 The water is a general interest feature, so implementing technologies and practices that either conserves water or use it more efficiently plays a key role in the demand-side approach to water management, it’s also important, the protection and sustainable management of this resource into other community policies, such as environmental, agricultural, energy and among others in the industry, in which the rational use it’s important, not only to contribute for sustainability of the water, but also the business of the companies. In Portugal, the water supplier and waste services show a positive evolution, due to current public policies established for almost two decades and have been adapted, and sustained mainly on EU funds, allowing a huge advance and a generalization these services to almost all its population. However, the pressure to appeal to the rationalization of water use, the frequent changes in the sector, with a public, private, or mixed management, the need to increase the price of water services, to maintain their sustainability, leads to the conversion of water into an economic good, causing a discuss about water’s identity, as an entitlement for citizens, or as commodity for customers. In contrast to this sector, the private market of natural mineral waters and spring waters have, in recent years, bet the differentiation of products for several markets required the development of targeted premium products for consumers who value the product differentiation, either in their natural characteristics or the package itself. However, the severe economic crisis, led to a change of some patterns of consumption, which influenced the sector of bottled waters required in increased tap water consumption, as there is a growing interest of municipalities in promoting water consumption tap as an alternative to bottled water which opened the door to a new battle in the price, quality and the environment. One factor that has also led to obvious changes to the sector, was the growing economic power of the market in the retail industry, since the increase of the spaces on the shelves, with private label products at low cost, who allowed over the years a quick growth of purchasing of these products, mainly for the people who don’t value product differentiation. In nowadays, the retailers control shelf space, promoting their own brands while the manufactures must purchase the space in shelves, the advertising and the promotions. 26 The food prices grew on average less in retail industry than in traditional shops, but this effort was mostly supported by producers, so we can get into a cycle in which advantages microeconomic, with low prices for consumers, can lead to serious macroeconomic consequences with closing of companies and unemployment. In this context, it’s clear that the bottled water market is very competitive, where price is the predominant factor, however the development of premium products, with a higher quality and better image, the exportation of these products to another country, with scarcity of potable water and have economic conditions to pay for them, are some solutions for the bottle water industry overcome the crisis and combating market of retail industry. As the business activities allied to tourism emerge as a differentiating factor in the market through innovative projects that promote the product "bottled water" and on the other hand Hydrotherapy activities, health, and well-being, allowing a greater sustainability of the sector and the revitalization of numerous thermal infrastructures associated to luxury hotels in Portugal. Finally, is evident, a battle between the consumption of bottled water and tap water, a sharp growth of retail brands of bottled water and a new market segment of premium products and tourism activities. Thus, it can be concluded that the bottled water market is a dynamic sector, significant for the economy of a country, whose sustainability involves the differentiation of their products and the development of activities related to tourism. It is in this perspective that fits the Responsibility Social and Sustainable Development, through the simultaneous search of lucrative economic growth, social progress and equality and respect for the environment, for this reason, the beverage industry, needs to adopt strategies based on these concepts, which conjugated the business sustainability with the protection of their main raw material which is water. 27 Chapter 2 – Methodology of the PhD Thesis 2.1. Introduction Methodologically, this research focuses on the one hand, in the literature review to contextualize the Sustainability, in general, and the Corporate Social Responsibility based in the international standards, as well as the firms' financial performance context. On the other hand, it promotes an empirical analysis to investigate the Bottle Water Industry in the last years, using different qualitative and quantitative methods. The research is supported on the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) 26000: 2010 - Guidance on social responsibility (ISO, 2010) and the Social Accountability International (SAI) - SA 8000: 2008 - Social Accountability 8000 (SAI, 2008) to analyse the corporate social responsibility framework, as well as the International Accounting Standards to analyse the financial performance and corporate governance framework of firms. The literature review is based on the study of international standards and bibliographic databases of scientific articles (ABI/Inform, ScienceDirect, SAGE, Emerald, and others). The empirical analysis is based on several databases with CSR and Financial/Accounting Information, such as: SABI (Sistema de Analysis de Balances Ibéricos), database of the Stock Exchanges, i.e.: CMVM (Comissão do Mercado de Valores Mobiliários - Portugal); and Thomson One Analytic, for accounting and financial data, and the EIRIS (Ethical Investment Research Service), for data on CSR and Corporate Governance. Also, the availability of information through the websites of the firms from the Beverage Industry will collected manuscripts, management reports, internal reports, conference reports, publications, and websites from or about the two field of research. The statistical and econometric analysis of the data is supported on the SPSS (Statistical Package for Social Sciences). 28 2.2. Research questions The literature analysis above suggests that CSR practices are material for the sustainable performance of bottle water industry, such as environmental risks and opportunities, focusing in sustainability of water sources and ecosystems. Therefore, the objective of this study is to analyse the connection between indicators that address sustainable bottle water industry management as wells as the factors that influence the CSR practices in the companies and their disclosure. Based on the proposal of Watts & Zimmerman (1986), the research method aims to satisfy two assumptions: analyse how the variables relate logically among themselves to understand the empirical phenomena of CSR and second, the definition of substantive hypothesis is that the predictions generated by the analysis. The study addresses the following research questions: There is corporate social responsibility in bottle water industry? What role does CSR play in bottle water industry? CSR practices in this sector are engagement with its stakeholders? 2.3. Sample and data collection The database used is made up of companies that operate in Portuguese market and whose economic activity is Bottling of Natural and Spring Mineral Waters (code 11071 of Portuguese National Registry of Economic Activities). For each sample company, the selection criteria include: -The company should belong to the bottle water industry; -The company should come from Portugal; -The company should have available annual report. 2.4. Research methods The research methods consist of three main parts related with the articles developed during the investigation (1) the contextualization of water as a Public or Private Good, (2) the development of a framework and a model to assess CSR policies implemented in the bottle water companies, through the analyses of the information disclosure in the 29 company’s websites (3) the definition of a model to characterize the level of sustainable performance in bottle water sector. The abovementioned activities have been supported by following a mixed methodology that includes literature review on water management and bottle water sustainability (about environmental impact assessments and features) to business sustainability, field of application and further strategies to top managers to overcame the new trends and challenges of business in the twenty one century. 2.5. Final Considerations After the development of the applied methodology, it is possible to conclude it was adequate, allowing to achieve the intended results in the three articles developed. This investigation was planned according to the literature review carried out, selecting the best methods, models, variables, and practices to achieve the intended objectives in the three research works. Additionally, it is also possible to state that the methodology developed allowed to answer the hypotheses formulated and the questions proposed at the beginning of the investigation, as well as, to reach the general and specific objectives to which this research work was proposed. The results obtained allowed the characterization of the bottled water sector, as well as the confirmation that the application of social responsibility practices is fundamental for the sustainable development of these organizations. The methodology applied in this project, where the problem under study was framed, as well as that of the sector under study, allows to conclude that it can be used without major limitations, by other researchers, contributing to the expansion of the literature on social responsibility allied to sustainable development and applied in studies of other sectors of the industry, whose activity has a high environmental impact and its dependent on the applicability of these concepts in its business to became more economic efficient. 30 Chapter 3 – Water as a Public or Private Good: The future of Water in Portugal 3.1. Introduction Water is the driver of nature and its accessibility and quality often constitute a limit on economic development and human welfare. For this primacy, the mission of providing water in sufficient quantity and suitable quality to the world’s human population while assuring its availability for future needs constitutes one of the distinguished challenges of the twenty-first century (Tarhule 2017). Consider the most significant resource on the planet, no human or any other life could live without water. However, water resources, is becoming progressively scarcer. This scarcity, joined with the numerous competing uses for water, creates complex choices over how water resources must be allocated (Grafton et al., 2013). The pressures on European water resources arise from the natural variability in water availability and climatic changes, but they are also linked to national and international social, environmental, and economic policies. In Europe, the problem of water scarcity is particularly intense in the Mediterranean region, while water quality is reasonably a typical concern in western European countries. However, it is possible that on a continent like Europe—increasingly vulnerable to extreme weather phenomena and with a growing imbalance between water demand and availability—unequal distribution and allocation of water resources will intensify competition between single users, sectors, or even between neighbouring countries. In this context, the call for Europe-wide water strategies, “effective” water policies, and “good” management practices have become crucial to ensure both water security and quality (Zicos and Hagedorn, 2017). Over the last decade, international law has acknowledged a right to safe drinking water and sanitation, most prominently at the United Nations (UN) level, such as: 12 OECD principles on water governance and when science meets the policy (OECD, 2011, 2015; 31 Akhmouch and Francisco, 2016). The access to safe drinking water and sanitation is inextricably linked to the right to life and human dignity and to the need for an adequate standard of living. In this context, the European Union has been launched several documents to ensure the higher relevance of the water as a public good and, also, to increase the quality of life and all citizens which clarifies expectations, roles, and responsibilities (European Communities, 1998; European Commission, 2014a, b). In this context, “Right2Water” is the first European Citizens’ Initiative to have met the requirements set out in the Regulation of the European Parliament and the Council on the citizens’ initiative. It was officially submitted to the Commission by its organisers on 20 December 2013, after having received the support of more than 1.6 million citizens. The Right2Water initiative invites the Commission (EC, 2014a:2): to propose legislation implementing the human right to water and sanitation, as recognized by the United Nations, and promoting the provision of water and sanitation as essential public services for all. According to the European Union, the Directive of the Water Framework or Directive nº 2000/60/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council, of October 23 (EU, 2000:1), establishing a framework in the field of the: Water is not a commercial product like any other, but a heritage, which must be protected, defended, and treated as such. At the European level, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe declared (EC, 2014a:3): that access to water must be recognised as a fundamental human right because it is essential to life on earth and is a resource that must be shared by humankind”. The EU has also reaffirmed that “all States bear human rights obligations regarding access to safe drinking water, which must be available, physically accessible, affordable, and acceptable. According to the annual report 2015, of the World Economic Forum (WEF) one of the greatest dangers facing the world for the next ten years is water scarcity. Approximately 4–5 billion people lack access to potable water, and the Middle East country that stands out in this fight (WEF, 2015). So, we move into the International “Water for Life” Decade the debate over whether water is an economic commodity, or a social good is at the top of the international agenda. As well as the privatization of water services is one of the 32 most controversial issues in freshwater management at the international level (Brewster, 2007). The growing scarcity of fresh water in the world, and the frequent difficulties of management and interest in contributing to change this situation were the main reasons for conducting this study. The study of water management in different contexts enables a greater understanding of the topic supporting the decision of managers, governs and society in general, in relation to the sustainability of this important resource. 3.2. Water as a Public or Private Good? The pure public goods have two important structures. One is ‘non-rivalry,’ meaning that one person’s enjoyment of a good does not diminish the ability of other people to enjoy the same good. The other is ‘non-excludability,’ meaning that people cannot be prevented from enjoying the good. Many environmental resources are characterized as public goods, including the water. However, it’s rational to inquiry whether environmental resources are public goods in a fully pure sense (Kotchen, 2014). According to this fact, the goods for which property rights do not exist are known as open access resources and the lack of ownership or control of these resources can lead to over consumption. Since one person’s use does not prevent or reduce its value to others i.e., they are ‘non-rival’. Overuse can become a severe problem when resources are ‘rival’ so that use of the resource decreases the amount available for others and ‘non-excludable so that consumers cannot be prohibited from using the resource without considerable cost. These resources, such as water can be when in its natural state, are known as commonpool resources. The overuse of commonpool water resources arises when each user extracts the amount of water they need, without fully considering the impact this has on the amount of water available to other users (White, 2015). Nevertheless, several environmental resources come close to sustaining the definition of pure public goods, and even when not exact (possibly closer to an impure public good), the basic concept is useful for understanding the causes of many environmental problems and potential solutions (Kotchen, 2014). The notion of public goods is also becoming 33 increasingly important at the international and global levels. Many environmental problems transcend national boundaries, with scarcity of water being the most prominent example, and maintaining a correct governance of this resource is essentially to a global public good (Barrett, 2007; Olson, 1971). The public classification of water comes from a fundamental value: its importance in relation to the subsistence and development of any human community, the vast common of water must be excluded from private legal commerce (Moreira, 1920). In this context, water is not a normal economic good, its value beyond its economic terms to the societies. It has a large number of characteristics that distinguish it from other goods. Individually, these characteristics may not be unique, but their combination makes water a special economic good (Savenije, 2002). According to this perspective, water resources have a number of unique characteristics which mean that traditional market mechanisms can lead to inefficient and inequitable allocations. This creates questions over whether water should be considered a public or a private good (White, 2015). Figure 1 - Water as a public and private good. Source: Adapted from Akhmouch and Francisco (2016) According to United Nations (2010) and EEA-WHO (2002) the access to safe drinking water and sanitation was declared a ‘human right’. As a human right, water cannot be Common Pool Good e.g. Water in Aquifer - Nonexcludable - Rival Private Goog e.g. Bottle Water - Excludable - Rival Club Good e.g. Shared Irrigation - Excludable - Non-rival Public Good e.g. Water Sanitation - Non-excludable - Non-Rival 40 Figure 2 - Inefficiency of water use by sector. Source: Adapted from PNUEA (2012) Economic: Correspond to economic interests at several levels; national (waste of water represents a “diseconomy” for the country); business (water is an important factor of production); water management entities (allows greater rationality of investments); consumers (allows a reduction of water charges). Social: It is an obligation of the country, to comply with national and community standards. It is an ethical imperative: water is fundamental to life, needs to be managing taking into account the following generations (APA, 2018b; PNUEA 2012). In Portugal, water planning, and management is implemented through the following instruments: National Water Plan (NAP), of territorial scope, that covers the entire national territory. Hydrographic Region Management Plans (PGRH) cover river basins and coastal waters integrated into a river basin district and form the basis of support for the management, protection, and social and economic valuation of waters. Specific Water Management Plans are complementary to the river basin management plans. They may be of territorial scope, covering a sub-basin or a specific geographical area, or of sectoral scope, covering a problem, type of water, specific aspect, or sector of economic activity with significant interaction with the waters (APA, 2018b). 29% 44% 27% Urban Agricultural Industrial 41 The National Water Plan (NWP) defines the national strategy for integrated water management. It sets out the broad options of the national water policy and the principles and rules of policy of that policy, to be applied by river basin management plans and other water planning instruments. The planning of waters aims to base and guide the protection and management of waters and the compatibility of their uses with their availability in order: - To Ensure their sustainable use by ensuring that the needs of present generations are met without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. - To Provide criteria for allocating to the various types of intended uses, taking into account the economic value of each, as well as ensuring the harmonization of water management with regional development and sectoral policies, individual rights and local interests. To Establish environmental quality standards and water status criteria (APA, 2018b). Figure 3 - PNUEA Assumptions. Source: Adapted from APA (2018b) In turn, the PNUEA - National Program for the Efficient Use of Water, included in the Specific Water Management Plans is a national environmental policy instrument whose main objective is to promote the Efficient Use of Water in Portugal, especially in the urban, agricultural and industrial sectors, contributing to minimize the risks of water scarcity and to improve environmental conditions in water resources, without undermining the vital needs and quality of life of the population, as well as the socioeconomic development of the country (APA, 2018b). The National Program for the Efficient Use of Water is based on the assumptions shown in Fig. 3. - Introduction of new attitudes and practices in the management of water use. - Greater efficiency and effectiveness in water use in Portugal. -Reduction of quantitative and qualitative pressures on water bodies. -Environmental and economic profits for the country. 42 It is clear that the NAP and the PNUEA represent an important development in the formulation and implementation of coherent strategies, indispensable to an integrated water resources management policy and ecosystems in Portugal. However, the authors consider the success of its mission depends on a number of operational factors, including the following: - Harmonization of the NAP and the PNUEA with other land-use planning instruments, in particular the Special Plans and the Municipal Plans. - Strengthening the capacity of intervention and the exercise of authority by supervisory bodies. - Prepare a serious and realistic analysis of the financing and self-financing of the NAP and the PNUEA, given the unpredictable budget of the Portuguese Government. - Perform hydric audits in buildings in the urban and industry sector. - Introduction of quantitative limits in the specific objectives by sector. - Promoting the participation of the population and industry professionals in the implementation of NAP and UNEP and in pursuance of its objectives. 43 The National Program for the Efficient Use of Water (PNUEA, 2012) established one strategic objective and seven specific objectives by sector and, for example, in Table 1 is enumerated for the Urban Sector. Table 1. Strategic and specific objectives of PNUEA for urban sector Strategic objectives Specific objectives – Reduction of water losses in supply systems. – Increase the knowledge of managers and operators of water and users in general. – Promote the awareness, information, and training of the main actors in water use, as well as the introduction in specific textbooks and textbooks. – Know the level of inefficiency of the public systems of water supply through its equipping with measuring equipment and with transmission and covering the entire urban water cycle. – Ensure a dynamic of success in the implementation of efficient water use, directing the largest efforts for public (non-domestic) systems, and for the highest human concentrations where costs are not borne directly by water users (e.g., schools, shopping service stations, hospitals, hotels, swimming pools, stadiums, airports, restaurants, laundries). – Reduce the use of drinking water to a minimum in activities that may perform water of alternative quality and of sources other than the public drinking water network, promoting the use of rainwater and the possible re-use of treated wastewater. – Promote the use of standardized and certified equipment for the efficient use of water. – Establish official awards and distinctions for equipment, installations and systems that demonstrate their added value at the level of efficiency and that prestige the entities that produce equipment and systems managers. Source: Adapted from PNUEA (2012) 44 The National Program for the Efficient Use of Water (PNUEA, 2012) established two strategic objectives and three specific objectives by sector and, for example, in Table 2 is enumerated for the Agricultural Sector. Table 2. Strategic and specific objectives of PNUEA for agricultural sector Strategic objectives Specific objectives – Reduction of water losses in irrigation water management systems and gross irrigation appropriations. – Gradual articulation of revenues associated with tariffs and the real cost of water, with emphasis on volumes without losing competitiveness in the sector. Increase the overall efficiency of irrigation systems by: – Improvement of the quality of the projects (capture, exploitation, watering). – Reduction of water losses in storage, transport and distribution (rehabilitation of dams, waterproofing of channels, construction of compensation tanks at strategic points and in the channels, automation of regulatory structures, etc.), for example through ProDeR, or other successor programs (after 2013). – Reduction of losses in the application of groundwater (introduction of warning and agrometeorological systems, reconversion of irrigation methods, with automation and adequacy of procedures in gravity irrigation, sprinkling and location). Source: Adapted from PNUEA (2012) 45 The National Program for the Efficient Use of Water (PNUEA, 2012) established two strategic objectives and six specific objectives by sector and, for example, in Table 3 is enumerated for the Industrial Sector. Table 3 Strategic and specific objectives of PNUEA for industrial sector Strategic objectives Specific objectives – Optimization of water use in the industrial unit, without prejudice to the efficiency of the processes and operations in this use, as in the application of best available techniques (BAT) in context of the integrated pollution prevention and control (IPPC) regime. – Limitation of the environmental impacts associated with discharges of industrial wastewater, achieved by better management of the water cycle, towards prevention linked to greater foreseen in the PCIP. – Reduction of the consumption of water and the volumes of wastewater generated through the adaptation of procedures, more efficient use of equipment and devices and reuse / recirculation of water. – Reduction of water consumption in the industrial unit by reducing actual losses in distribution systems. – Reduction of the water consumption in the industrial unit rationalizing the water through changes made at the level of industrial manufacturing processes. – Use in the industrial unit of residual or residual water from other cooling systems and equipment washing. – Reduction of water consumption in the industrial unit by changing user habits. – Reduction of water consumption in the industrial unit by recovering the water vapour generated in the heating unit. Source: Adapted from PNUEA (2012) Finally, water management must contribute to outcome-oriented public policies, based on mutually reinforcing and complementary dimensions. One of these dimensions is efficiency as seen in the contribution of such governance to the maximization of the benefits of sustainable water management on welfare at the least cost to society. 46 However, it must be allowed in attention that water efficiency is a developing “science”, whose proposals for assistance must be supported by appropriate technical and scientific studies, which taking into account economic, comfort, performance of networks and public health. There is still a very important nexus between efficiency and energy efficiency, which should be priority attention in Portugal. 3.4. Final Considerations In contemporary society, the uncertainties and risks are dominant concerns in the business environment, as well as, in the management of public assets. Increasing problems of water scarcity and drought clearly require a more sustainable approach to water resource management across Europe; this need is already reflected in water related policy and legislation. The water is a general interest feature, so implementing technologies and practices that either conserves water or use it more efficiently plays a key role in the demand-side approach to water management, it’s also important, the protection and sustainable management of this resource into other community policies, such as environmental, agricultural, energy and among others in the industry, in which the rational use it’s important, not only to contribute for sustainability of the water, but also the business of the companies. In this context, the pressure to appeal to the rationalization of water use, the frequent changes in the sector, with a public, private, or mixed management, the need to increase the price of water services, to maintain their sustainability, leads to the conversion of water into an economic good, causing a discuss about water’s identity, as an entitlement for citizens, or as commodity for customers. In Portugal, it is imperative to increase efficiency and effectiveness in water use, for environmental and sustainability reasons, for being a strategic necessity of Portugal, due to the risks of water stress, and because it corresponds to an economic interest of all (citizens and entities), which can be achieved without damage and protection of public health. 47 In order to contribute to a future understanding of water management, the authors aim to research about the new water management approach that takes into account the five pillars of good governance: accountability, adaptability, participation, rule of law and transparency. There are much to be done about the water itself. 48 Chapter 4 – Digital Corporate Social Responsibility Reporting in the Water Industry 4.1. Introduction Globalization and the growing competition in international markets have forced organizations to develop their communications in the field of environmental protection. The relationship between companies and the information published in digital technologies is a very important element to achieve sustainable development, to disclosure their commitment with the environmental protection and to improve their relationships with the stakeholders (Michalska-Szajer et al. 2021). In addition, access to digital information allows consumers to access a clearer volume of information and, subsequently, make a better and more suitable decisions in fewer time, giving a competitive benefit to the companies (Kerras et al. 2020). This assumption led the bottle water industry start to intensify the use of the internet as a fundamental tool to disseminate digital information, to promote their products, to manage their online reputation, to rise their transparency, to disclosure non-financial information, and to improve communication with stakeholders (Helbergera et al. 2018; Johnson et al. 2017). The intensification of digital CSR disclosure in current years has formed a new rich information environment, as increasing competitive improvement of companies that offer vital information not only about firms’ products, services, but also about financial, social, and environmental performance (Dutot et al. 2016; Okazaki et al. 2020). Nowadays, companies’ websites are one of the most cost-effective resources to communication CSR initiatives, since can be the perfect network to send indicators concerned to the CSR level as they provide quickly updated data allowing companies to link all types of reports and data (Annual Report, Financial Report, Site-specific Reports, and Sustainability Reports) in a updated version, which makes it an attractive instrument for companies and his stakeholders at a low cost (Lakatos et al. 2011; Salvi et al. 2021). 49 According with the survey developed by KPMG International Cooperative (KPMG 2020), the definition of the 2030 Agenda, consisting of 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) contributed significantly to an increase in companies disclose between 2017 and 2020. In turn, 80 percent of the companies in worldwide now report on Sustainability and GRI remains the dominant global standard for sustainability reporting (KPMG 2020). But the rate of sustainability reporting in Europe has remained at 77 percent since 2017, while the American continent leads the Sustainability reporting rates with 90% (KPMG 2020). In Portugal, the sustainability reporting rate are below the global average (less than 77%), and in the past three years decrease of 8% (KPMG 2020), so digital CSR disclosure was reflected as “incipient” according to Neves and Bento (2005) but is recognized an increase on CSR practices in the companies (Branco and Delgado 2011). According with Branco and Delgado (2016), the research about CSR and Social Responsibility Disclosure (SRD) in Portuguese field is not abundant, exceptionally low investigations are known about the drivers of SRD in Europe, particularly in Portugal. As such, this research pretends to address this gap allowing determining the level of CSR practices in Portuguese context and by identifying the factors that influence that disclosure. The authors chose to investigate the bottle water market in Portugal, for several reasons, such as: The digital corporate social responsibility reporting in bottle water companies is vital and crucial to sustainability development framework since this activity contributes significantly to local societies’ economic growth, through the creation of direct and indirect jobs, indirectly downstream and upstream of the activity (suppliers, services, distributors), helping to mitigate Portugal's regional asymmetries, since bottling plants must be in proximity of the springs (PIANSMW 2022). The bottle water industry is an important sector to Portuguese economy in the beverage market, representing, according to official data for 2019, a turnover of approximately 224 million EUR and a production of over 1,490 million litres (PIANSMW 2022). By on hand, this is a sector under increasing pressure to manage several contemporary CSR factors, such as an exploration of a natural resource, product safety and concerns relating to the environment, including packaging. By other hand, these factors are increasingly 56 provided relevant environmental advantages in the production and transport using smaller quantity raw materials looking for new packaging solutions through the design and innovation (PIANSMW 2022). The sustainable water resource management is the priority of this industry through the protection of the water source areas avoiding contaminations, preserve and improve the biodiversity in the areas where our sector operates and use efficiently the water in all the operations to ensure its natural renewal, in quantity and in quality (NMWE 2022). Considered the heart of the bottle water industry, this scarce resource, vital for the human being, must be used without compromising the future needs, the ecosystems and the continuity of water courses (Barnes and Alatout 2012). For these reasons, bottled water is an important topic for research on CSR disclosure, since the environmental, economic, and social consequences of this sector have an increasing attention from the society, governments, policymakers, and stakeholders. Concerns about waste discharge, proper use of groundwater, hydrologic effects on local surface and groundwater, economic costs, energy used in production and transport can influence the sustainability of this business (Gleick and Cooley 2009). These factors bring hard goals on packaging, carbon-neutrality, resource-efficiency, and biodiversity commitment to the bottle water sector (NMWE 2022). To overcome these challenges the sector must develop their activity including CSR practices in this business strategy, focus on the innovation of their products, efficiency of their process and investing in new technology to guarantee their sustainability. In view with the above considerations, the next research’s questions arise: R1: What is the current state of digital CSR report in bottle water companies in Portugal? R2: What are the factors that influence the level of CSR disclosure in bottle water companies in Portugal? To answer these questions, the following approach was adopted. 57 Sample and Data Collection This section aims to detail the research methodology develop to get answers to this research focus about all companies of the water industry that operate in Portugal in 2021. The population has a total of 20 companies, but only 15 had accessible websites. The data of the research was based on the digital CSR information provided in each company websites. The analysis of the web pages was done in the most objective and rigorous way possible, and all web pages were analysed in a similar way to avoid subjective analysis (Hackson et al. 1996). The content analysis of the companies' websites was performed from March 8th to 12th, 2021. For the construction of our CSR disclosure index, the authors used data hand-collected from firms' voluntary CSR information provided within the firms' web pages of bottle water companies, which published annual reports, follow-ups documents of standards certification, news, brochures, prints, bulletins, and others) available on webpages, as well as evidence contained in other related pages whose access link is expressly mentioned in the companies' pages. After collecting the digital data of the bottle water companies based on Hinson et al. (2010) has been built a scoring method to assess the measure with quantitative index level of CSR disclosure. The scoring system involved assigning a point for each corporate social responsibility disclosure theme connect to any of the categories based on a list of 20 items, divided into 4 categories or blocks of information: general information, economic, environmental, and social information, in accordance with the GRI food sector guidelines presented in Table 4. 58 Table 4. Categories of GRI food sector guidelines Figure 4. Proposed CSR Disclosure Model This research employs a model adopted from by the Hossain and Reaz (2007) and Lipunga (2014) based on the dichotomous procedure: a score of ―1 was awarded if an item was reported; if not, a score of zero was awarded as the model presented above in figure 4. 𝐶𝑆𝑅 𝑆𝑐𝑜𝑟𝑒 =∑𝑑𝑗 𝑛 𝑗=1 Where: dj= 1 if item j is disclosed; 0 if item j is not disclosed and n = number of items Hypothesis The authors test statistically the relationship between CSRD (score of disclosure per company) as the dependent variable with the following independent variables: firm age, number of employees, turnover, return on equity (ROE), return on assets (ROA) and size of the company. The information on the independent variables was collected from the Category Item 1: General Information Organizational Profile Strategy and Analysis Stakeholder Engagement Ethics, Integrity, and Transparency 2: Economic Information Economic Performance Market Presence 3: Environmental Information Energy Water Emissions Effluents and Waste Compliance Transport Overall Supplier Environmental Assessment Environmental Grievance Mechanisms 4: Social Information Labour Practices and Decent Work Human Rights Society Local Communities Product Responsibility 59 base Balance Sheet Analysis System Iberians (SABI). The Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS: version 23) was used to analyse the collected data and to examine the variables in research. All statistical and econometric analysis developed has been based on Greene (2018) and Hair et al. (2018). Pearson correlation was done to find the association between variables in each case before determining the regression model. The research only considered independent variables that showed a significant correlation (p>0,05) with the dependent variable CSRD. In table 5 are presented the correlation test (Greene, 2018). According with Table 2 the variables that presents significant correlations are: company size (COMPS), employees and turnover. Company Size (COMPS): The National Statistics Institute (NSI 2021), defined the size of the companies in accordance with Decree-Law Nº 372/2007. Thus, a large company is defined as a company that employs more than 250; a medium company is defined as a company that employs more than 50; small company is defined as a company that employs less than 50; and a micro company is defined as a company that employs less than 10 people. The number of employees is characterized by the number of persons employed at full time in one year (Baehr and Renck 1958). The turnover is the measure for business's performance and reflects the total sales made by a business in a certain period (Burja and Burja 2009). 60 Table 5. Pearson correlation test FIRMA GE EMPLOYEES COMPD TURNOVER ROE ROA CSRD FIRMAGE Pearson Correlation 1 Sig. (bilateral) N 20 EMPLOYEES Pearson Correlation ,064 1 Sig. (bilateral) ,789 N 20 20 COMPD Pearson Correlation ,304 ,678** 1 Sig. (bilateral) ,192 ,001 N 20 20 20 TURNOVER Pearson Correlation -,051 ,965** ,591** 1 Sig. (bilateral) ,830 ,000 ,006 N 20 20 20 20 ROE Pearson Correlation -,097 -,104 -,193 -,083 1 Sig. (bilateral) ,683 ,663 ,414 ,729 N 20 20 20 20 20 ROA Pearson Correlation -,044 ,102 ,259 ,152 ,018 1 Sig. (bilateral) ,854 ,669 ,269 ,522 ,941 N 20 20 20 20 20 20 CSRD Pearson Correlation ,127 ,466* ,545* ,550* -,257 ,045 1 Sig. (bilateral) ,595 ,039 ,013 ,012 ,273 ,849 N 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 Legend: ** Sig correlation at 0,01 level, * Sig correlation at 0,05 level A regression model was developed to measure the factors that influence the CSRD in bottle water companies. The multiple linear regression analysis is a technique for modelling the linear relationship between a dependent and one or more independent variables, which is one of the most widely used of all statistical methods (Ongore and Kusa 2013; Sharifi and Akhter 2016; Nataraja 2018). The following research model was utilized to test the causal hypotheses of the research which is presented in an econometric form showed above. Figure 5. Regression Model of the CSR Disclosure Model CSRD=β_0+β_1 X_1+β_2 X_2+β_3 X_3+⋯+β_k X_k+ ε Where: Y = dependent (explained variable) and Xi = ith independent (explanatory variable), i = 1, 2…k β0, β1, β2, β3…βk are the partial regression coefficients of independent variables. The coefficient of independent variable reflects how dependent variable Y changes when the 61 independent variable, Xi (i =1, 2…k), changes by one unit, while the other independent variables continue constant (Nataraja 2018). 4.4. Result Analysis Exploratory Analysis The variables distribution of the CSR Disclosure Model is presented in Table 6. The most relevant are summarized: 15 companies of bottle water industry, in a total of 20 have an accessible website, 25% of bottle water companies are not emphasizing their websites as a tool for improving this communication with their stakeholders. The authors find that, in terms of space devoted to topics, organization profile (85,71%), market presence (71,43%), effluents and waste (71,43%), environmental information overall (78,57%) and society information (71,43%), as opposed to Environmental Grievance Mechanisms (0,00%), Ethics, Integrity and Transparency (7,14%) Stakeholder Engagement, Labour Practices and Decent Work, Human Rights and Product Responsibility (14,29%) are the most prominent. Finally, the research finds a lack of CSR reporting since the total of the information disclosed is 27% mainly in aspects related to Stakeholder Engagement, Labour Practices and Decent Work, Human Rights and Product Responsibility. It´s clear the sector in research is very related with environmental aspects and in the last years the companies of bottle water have developed several activity’s is this field. By other hand it´s clear the last EU legislation about the plastic packaging and the led companies to disclose more information related to environmental aspects. 62 Table 6. Variables distribution by the CSR Disclosure Model Confirmatory Analysis The confirmatory analysis has been supported on the methods propose by Greene (2018) and Hair et al. (2018). From Table 7, it is evident that CSRD has positive correlation with all other explanatory variables. This indicates that CSRD increases when the variables company size (COMPS), employees and turnover increases. Table 7. Summary of the CSR Disclosure Model Model R R square Adjusted square R Standard error of estimate Durbin-Watson 1 ,758a ,575 ,495 19,81448 2,150 Where: a. Predictors: (Constant), TURNOVER, COMPD, EMPLOYEES The adjusted R2 value in the above Table 4 clearly tells us that 57,50% of variation in the dependent variable (CSRD) is explained by the explanatory variables. This indicates a reasonably good power of the regression model (Greene 2018; Hair et al. 2018). The value Category Item CSR disclosure (%) 1: General Information Organizational Profile 85,71 Strategy and Analysis 57,14 Stakeholder Engagement 14,29 Ethics, Integrity and Transparency 7,14 2: Economic Information Economic Performance 21,43 Market Presence 71,43 3: Environmental Information Energy 57,14 Water 35,71 Emissions 28,57 Effluents and Waste 71,43 Compliance 42,86 Transport 21,43 Overall 78,57 Supplier Environmental Assessment 21,43 Environmental Grievance Mechanisms 0,00 4: Social Information Labour Practices and Decent Work 14,29 Human Rights 14,29 Society 71,43 Local Communities 42,86 Product Responsibility 14,29 63 obtained in Durbin-Watson test (1,5<2,150<2,5) also indicates the independence of the residuals, that is, the differences between the predicted value and the observed value. Table 8 gives the results of the ANOVA technique applied to test our hypothesis against the null hypothesis. The sig. value clearly indicates that model is significant at 5% chosen level of significant (0,003<0,05). Table 8. ANOVA results of the CSR Disclosure Model Model Total Squares gl Medium Square F Sig. 1 Regression 8488,183 3 2829,394 7,207 ,003b Residual 6281,817 16 392,614 Total 14770,000 19 Where: a. Dependent Variable: CSRD b. Predictors: (Constant), TURNOVER, COMPD, EMPLOYEES Thus, the hypothesis number 2, 3 and 4 are accepted which states that turnover, company size and the number of employees have significant impact on CSRD of bottle water companies. Further, the significance of each explanatory variable on CSRD can be also assessed through t sig value provided in the Table 9. Table 9 tells us that the explanatory variables turnover, company size and the number of employees have significant impact on CSRD (t sig values < 0,05). Table 9. Coefficient test of the CSR Disclosure Model Model Nonstandard coefficients Standardized coefficients t Sig. Correlations Collinearity Statistics B Standar d Error Beta Zero order Partial Tolerance VIF (Constant) -29,709 21,182 -1,959 -1,403 ,180 EMPLOYEES -,287 ,105 -2,730 ,015 ,466 -,564 ,052 19,369 COMPS 26,885 9,521 ,662 2,824 ,012 ,545 ,460 ,484 2,067 TURNOVER 1,106E-6 ,000 2,049 3,133 ,006 ,550 ,617 ,062 16,091 64 According with the results in figure 6, the histogram for the residues has a normal distribution. Figure 6. Histogram of the CSR Disclosure Model Figure 7. P-PPlot Regression of the CSR Disclosure Model 65 According with the results in figure 7 presents the residues have proximity to the normal distribution. Figure 8. Scatterplot of the CSR Disclosure Model According with the results in figure 8 reveals the existence of homoscedasticity, so the statistical inference is valid. As per the results obtained, the model can be fit as: CSRD=β_0+β_1 EMPLOYEES+β_2 COMPD+β_3 TURNOVER+ ε The analysis developed allows to summarize results of all hypotheses expressed in table 10. Table 10: Summary of hypotheses results of the CSR Disclosure Model Hypotheses Related variables Expected sign Actual sign Supported or not 1 CSRD Firm’s Age Positive (+) Negative (-) Akin and Yilmaz, 2016 2 CSRD Employees Positive (+) Positive (+) Akin and Yilmaz, 2016 3 CSRD Firm´s Size Positive (+) Positive (+) Font et al. 2012 4 CSRD Turnover Positive (+) Positive (+) Font et al. 2012 5 CSRD ROE Positive (+) Negative (-) Not 6 CSRD ROA Positive (+) Negative (-) Not 72 Commercial Performance The commercial performance controls the number of days that a customer be able to wait before paying an invoice (Garrett and James, 2013). The performance is especially important because it indicates the amount of working capital that a business is willing to invest in its accounts receivable in order to generate more sales and services (Neves, 2002, Rojo, 2007, Brealey et al., 2017). Thus, a longer credit period equates to a larger investment of the company and may affect the quality of receivables (Stickney et al., 2010) and it can be compared with the industry practices of commercial credit, for example: more and less liberal policy of extending trade credit (Khan and Jain, 2007). The relevance of commercial performance to this paper is due the fact this performance determines the strength of the bottled water company position in the beverage market and evaluate their attitude about their competitors, their practice in the beverage industry, the attitude to risk and the desire to increase sales (Gotze et al., 2008, Pratt and Niculita, 2008, Matos, 2009, Stickney et al., 2010, Pike et al., 2018). Therefore, the objective of this paper is to assesses the sustainability of the Portuguese Bottled Water companies and based on the relevant literature, such as: Neves, 2002, Rojo, 2007, Fernández, 2008, Gotze et al., 2008, Pratt and Niculita, 2008, Matos, 2009, Damodaran, 2012, Penman and Tae-hee, 2015, Ross et al., 2015, Brealey et al., 2017, Pike et al., 2018, the authors detail the second hypothesis: H2. Commercial performance (CP) positively impacts on sustainability (ROCE) of the Portuguese Bottled Water Company. Financial Performance The financial performance evaluates the bottled water company’s capital structure (Ng and Wang, 2010). Also, known as the leverage, is key performance indicator of financial performance that shows how creditor financing or equity capital supports the bottled water company’s activities. It presents an indicator that compares borrowed funds to owner’s equity (Kassi et al., 2019) and total liabilities with total assets (Psillaki and Daskalakis, 2009; Jõeveer, 2013). 73 The relevance of the gearing to this paper is due the fact this financial performance shows the extent to which the bottled water companies depends on debt to continue investing and financing current operations (Kara et al., 2019). The information can be used to evaluate the risk of failure of bottled water industry (Stickney et al., 2010). Therefore, the objective of this paper is to assesses the sustainability of the Portuguese Bottled Water companies and based on the relevant literature, such as: Neves, 2002, Rojo, 2007, Fernández, 2008, Gotze et al., 2008, Pratt and Niculita, 2008, Matos, 2009, Damodaran, 2012, Penman and Tae-hee, 2015, Ross et al., 2015, Brealey et al., 2017, Pike et al., 2018, which allow the authors detail the following hypotheses focus on broader set of stakeholders beyond just its shareholders (McKinsey et al., 2020). H3: Financial performance (G) positively impact on sustainability (ROCE) of the Portuguese Bottled Water Company. Operational Performance The operational performance is related with the value of bottled water company's sales and revenues relative to the value of the net assets. This assessment of the operational performance allows to use the net asset turnover as a key performance indicator of the sustainability which bottled water companies may use it as efficiency of the production, knowing that net assets generate sales revenue calculated as sales revenue divided by capital employed (Stickney et al., 2010). The relevance of operational performance to this paper is due to the fact, that the Net Assets Turnover measures efficiency of the bottled water company in generating revenue to net assets. By one hand, if the bottled water company has a lower net asset turnover, then it does not efficiently use its net assets to generate sales revenue. By the other hand, if the bottled water company has a higher net asset turnover, thus it does efficiently use its net assets. In line, a too high value may indicate too little investment while too low value relative to comparable companies suggests inefficient management (Stickney et al., 2010). Therefore, the objective of this paper is to assesses the sustainability of the Portuguese bottled water companies and based on the relevant literature, such as: Neves, 2002, Rojo, 2007, Fernández, 2008, Gotze et al., 2008, Pratt and Niculita, 2008, Matos, 74 2009, Damodaran, 2012, Penman and Tae-hee, 2015, Ross et al., 2015, Brealey et al., 2017, Pike et al., 2018, which allow the authors detail the following hypotheses focus on broader set of stakeholders beyond just its shareholders (McKinsey et al., 2020). H4. Operational performance (NAT) in 2006-2016 positively impact on sustainability (ROCE) of the Portuguese Bottled Water Company. The status of corporate sustainability practices in Portugal Corporate sustainability practices have become increasingly important in Portuguese industry (Branco and Rodrigues, 2008; Dias-Sardinha and Reijnders, 2005; KPMG, 2006). However, only few Portuguese companies are included in sustainability indices (e.g. Dow Jones Sustainability Index (DJSI) or the FTSE4Good Index) and most are ranked low in terms of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) reporting and the adoption of voluntary standards (Branco and Rodrigues, 2008). Several papers were conducted to analyse the Portuguese reality. Ferreira (2004) appraised in a qualitative way the environmental reporting in Portuguese companies from the accounting perspective, based on the annual reports and accounts of ten companies, from 1997 to 2001. Therefore, Deloitte (2003) conducted a survey on sustainable development practices in the Portuguese business sector, surveying 35 companies, mainly members of Business Council for Sustainable Development (BCSD) Portugal. Further, KPMG (2007) also carried out a survey on sustainability reporting practices in the major Portuguese companies, offering a more complete study, when compared with the previous ones. Giving the general results of these works the Portuguese scenario on sustainability reporting registers a poor performance, despite several significant initiatives. Additionally, Branco and Rodrigues (2008) linked the corporate web pages and annual reports as media of social responsibility disclosure and studied what influenced disclosure. Furthermore, Monteiro and Aibar- Guzmán (2010) focused on the environmental disclosures made in the annual reports (financial statements) by a sample of large companies operating in Portugal. Finally, Fifka (2011) conducted an extensive international literature review about corporate sustainability reporting and found that in countries like Portugal, environmentalism and social systems were traditionally weak. 75 Moreover, Ramos et al. (2013) develop a survey to assess how sustainability measurement and reporting practices have been adopted in organizations that operate in a Southern European country, like Portugal, and to analyse the association between the companies’ reporting profile and the environmental management systems (EMS) and environmental performance evaluation (EPE). The paper concludes that most of companies do not disclose their environmental/sustainability performance, but majority indicate that they intend to produce reports in the future and most intend to produce standalone reports, with sustainability reports as the first option. Sustainable bottled water companies’ accounting Since 2015, the research and practice have been increasing their attention to the sustainable performance with the introduction of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) Agenda by the United Nations (UN), which goal to promote and develop activities crucial for humanity and the planet over the following 15 years (United Nations, 2016). Over the past two decades an increasing framework of the accounting research for sustainability has been researched on broad concerns focus on water and the water sector (e.g. Chalmers, Godfrey, and Lynch, 2012; Crowther, Carter, and Cooper, 2006; Egan, 2014a; Hazelton, 2013; Jollands and Quinn, 2017). Water has been the subject of a growing volume and scope of studies in accounting for sustainability (Russell and Lewis, 2014). Water-related accounting research has provided insights into several aspects, including water reporting, water accountability, water and human rights, and the role of accounting in the organisational change of water utilities (Passetti and Rinaldi, 2020). Accounting has also been used to afford the market and industrial orders in support of organisational decisions linking to the long-term economic sustainability of water governance and management. For example, Christ (2014) research about the water management across supply chain and proves that the wine producers are affecting beyond reporting water-related matters to external parties, thus he demonstrates the potential to impact their economic and environmental performance. Adopting a different perspective, Egan (2014b) analysed the search for water efficiency initiatives during severe scarcity conditions. The analysis discloses that some companies perceived the implementation of a range of practices focused on maximising water 76 efficiencies as an opportunity to achieve some competitive advantage. Finally, Tello, Hazelton, and Cummings (2016) revealed the perceptions of potential users of water accounting reports prepared under the Australian General-Purpose Water Accounting framework (which regards water as a financial asset). They show that the water accounting framework was considered an instrument to improve managerial performance, rather than to simplify the discharge of duties of water accountability outside organisational limitations (Passetti and Rinaldi, 2020). Nevertheless, most of these studies did not provide facts about bottled water industry, so this paper aims to fill this gap. 5.3. Research methods Sample and data collection This paper deals with a sample of companies, but truly is the complete beverage industry, because the other companies do not have accounting data due to close or insolvency. Undeniably, the sample size of the paper is based on 23 bottled water companies with available annual report, 253 company-year observations was used for the analysis of 75 Key Performance Indicators (KPI). The accounting information system used to collect the data was the Balance Analysis System Iberians (BASI), as a web-based platform that provides extensive cross-company financial information over multiple time periods. This paper demands the case study methodology (Yin, 2019) to conjoin the exploratory data from the accounting information system into confirmatory data with panel data methodology (Wooldridge, 2010, Greene, 2018). The SAS 9.4 was used to test the hypothesis (SAS, 2015). The period of analysis with range of eleven years (2006-2016) is due to the availability and the accessibility of the accounting data that it has been the main difficulty faced, particularly due to retrospective and prospective data to prepare the procedures conducted to ascertain whether the assumptions and development of the econometric model were appropriate. Research method Panel data models with fixed effects have strained considerable attention in the last decade (Feng et al., 2019). In macroeconomics, interactive fixed effects can be 77 incorporated to account for the heterogeneous influences of unobservable common hocks that affect all countries or companies (Floro and Van Roye, 2017; Boneva and Linton, 2017). In microeconomics, panel data models with interactive fixed effects can also find wide applications. For instance, in earning studies, interactive fixed effects can be involved to account for unmeasured skills or unobservable characteristics such as innate ability, perseverance, motivation, and industrious (Bai, 2009). In addition, the model with interactive fixed effects can be commonly used in several sub-fields of economics such as production economics, economic development, international trade, between others (Feng et al., 2019). Consider the issue to be examined in the application of this paper — the issue of sustainable of Portuguese Bottled Water Companies based in the key performance indicators the authors consider the panel data models with fixed effects the most reasonable choice because this paper is not a sample of companies but the complete beverage industry. Furthermore, founded on whether the individual effects being correlated with the observed explanatory variables of the panel data model can be separated into two classes. One is the random effects panel data model in which the individual effects are random and uncorrelated with the explanatory variables, and the other is the fixed effects panel data model in which the individual effects are not random, or the individual effects are random but are correlated with the explanatory variables (Hu et al., 2014). But, if the individual effects are fixed, using random effects panel data modelling method will result in an inconsistent estimator. If the individual effects are random, using the fixed effects panel data modelling method will still result in a consistent estimator although it is not efficient. Thus, the fixed effects panel data modelling way is more robust than the random effects panel data modelling. Fixed effects panel data modelling has been a hot topic in econometrics since it was proposed (Hu et al., 2014; Baltagi, 2013). For this reason, panel data models with interactive fixed effects have strained considerable attention in the last decade and have been widely used in practice (Feng et al., 2019). In panel fixed effects models, the idiosyncratic errors are assumed to be mutually independent both within the individual and between individuals. Due to an increasing availability of data, serial correlations and cross-sectional dependences are common in large panel data, where both the cross-section dimension (N) and the time series dimension (T) are large (Qiu et al., 2019). Finally, the observations in panel data can 78 include at least two dimensions: a cross-sectional dimension and a time series dimension. Such two-dimensional data set makes the researchers be able to construct complex models and conduct efficient statistical implications using pure cross-section data or time-series data (Hu et al., 2014). Dependent variable Several studies observe that accounting information system are important since they are used to construct and support the accounting information system of the sustainability presented in financial reports and investor presentations. This accounting information system includes the analyst reports on sustainable performance used to inform asset management (Barth, 2000). These annual reports employ several metrics including the sustainability (ROCE). This metric shares a common platform in that they employ earnings and capital employed in their computations (Andersson et al., 2006). ROCE is a metric normally used to support accounts of the sustainable value presented by management in their financial reports and to investor presentations (Andersson et al., 2006), for this reason deals with accountability in this paper. In addition, ROCE is a measure of a company’ sustainability linked to the capital employed to accomplish this result (that could be positive or negative). This is calculated by dividing the earnings before interest and tax (EBIT) by the capital employed. Capital employed is usually defined as total assets fewer current liabilities. The higher the ROCE, the more efficient the company is in using available capital (MacDiarmid et al., 2018). Independent variables This research considers for independent variables the financial performance who present significant correlations (r > 0.1) with dependent variable (sustainability (ROCE)). The correlations are presented in table 11. Table 11. Correlations with dependent variable Correlations with dependent variable, N = 253 EP CP CE CPd G NAT PM PE ROA SR ROC E 0.374 87 - 0.1577 5 - 0.2577 8 - 0.4162 1 0.130 43 - 0.2540 3 0.465 00 0.181 56 0.375 05 0.102 57 79 According with Table 11 the variables that presents positive and significant correlations dependent variable (sustainability (ROCE)) are: 0.465 with Profit Margin (PM) characterizes the percentage of sales has turned into results (profit when positive and losses when negative) (Thacker et al., 2020); 0.37505 with ROA (Return on assets) indicates the actual company performance and looks carefully at how efficiently the business is by the shareholder assets to earn returns, his measurement is a well-understood decision of the Board of the company. ROA is established as net income before interest expense for the fiscal period divided by total assets for equal period (Thacker et al, 2020); 0.37487 with Economic profitability (EP) represents the difference between the revenue received from the sale of an output and the costs of all inputs used and any opportunity costs (Heo et al., 2020); 0.18159 with Profit per Employee (PE) roughly measures how much money each employee generates for the company (Garrett and James, 2013); 0.13043 with financial performance (G) is the leverage that shows how creditor financing or equity capital supports the company’s activities. It generates information that allow to compare borrowed funds to owner’s equity (Kassi et al., 2019): 0.10257 with the Solvency Ratio (SR) measures the total debts (liabilities) by the total assets (e.g., Garman and Forgue, 2018, Garrett and James, 2013, Kim and Lyons, 2008, Lee and Kim, 2016). The higher the result, the greater the debt burden (Heo et al, 2020). According with Table 11 the variables that presents negative and significant correlations dependent variable (sustainability (ROCE)) are: -0.46121 with Credit period in days (CPd) that control the number of days that a customer is allowed to wait before paying an invoice (Garrett and James, 2013); -0.25778 with Commercial performance (Collection period-CP) that characterizes the amount of time it takes for a business to receive payments owed by its clients in terms of accounts receivable (Garrett and James, 2013); -0.25403 with Operational performance (Net Asset Turnover-NAT) who measures the value of a company's sales or revenues relative to the value of its assets. The asset turnover can be used as an indicator of the efficiency with which a company is using its assets to generate revenue (Thacker et al., 2020); -0.15775 with costs of employee (CE) that determine aspects of the compensation, benefit, and travel and entertainment costs of employees, and aggregate this information by employee (Garrett and James, 2013). 80 Research model A pooled fixed effects panel model was developed using sustainability (ROCE) as the dependent variable and an Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) regression test was used to estimate the model. The OLS multiple regression was considered appropriate for the testing hypotheses of the paper. According to Baltagi (2013), Hsiao (2014), Hair et al. (2018) and Wooldridge (2010) the following research model was utilized to test the causal hypotheses of the research which is presented in an econometric form showed in Equation (1). 𝑅𝑂𝐶𝐸𝑖𝑡 =𝛽𝐸𝑃𝑖𝑡 +𝛽𝐶𝐸𝑖𝑡 +𝛽𝐶𝑃𝑑𝑖𝑡 +𝛽𝐶𝑃𝑖𝑡 +𝛽𝐺𝑖𝑡 +𝛽𝑃𝑀𝑖𝑡 + 𝛽𝑃𝐸𝑖𝑡 +𝛽𝑅𝑂𝐴𝑖𝑡 +𝛽𝑆𝑅𝑖𝑡 +𝛽𝑁𝐴𝑇𝑖𝑡+ 𝛼0 (1) where ROCEit is sustainability (return on capital employed) in year t for company i , 𝛽𝐸𝑃𝑖𝑡is the economic performance (economic profitability), the 𝛽𝐶𝐸𝑖𝑡 is the costs of employee, 𝛽𝐶𝑃𝑑𝑖𝑡 is the commercial performance (collection period), 𝛽𝐶𝑃𝑖𝑡 is the credit period, 𝛽𝐺𝑖𝑡 represents the financial performance (gearing), 𝛽𝑃𝑀𝑖𝑡 represents the profit margin, 𝛽𝑃𝐸𝑖𝑡 is the profit per employee, 𝛽𝑅𝑂𝐴𝑖𝑡 is the return on total assets, the 𝛽𝑆𝑅𝑖𝑡 is the solvency ratio, 𝛽𝑁𝐴𝑇𝑖𝑡 is the operational performance (net assets turnover) and, finally, 𝛼0 indicates the constant term. 5.4. Results and discussions Descriptive statistical analysis Table 12 shows the descriptive statistics of variables Economic performance (EP); Commercial performance (Collection period-CP); Costs of employee (CE); Credit Period (CPd); Financial performance (G); Operational performance (NAT); Profit Margin (PM); Profit per Employee (Th.) (PE); Return on Total Assets (ROA) and Solvency Ratio (SR). The bottled water companies in the sample earned low sustainability level due to the ROA mean was 0.5 percent, and the capacity to generate profit is also low 0.59% (economic profitability). In addition, these companies have a negative percentage of revenue (-5.44) indicated by the profit margin ratio. According to values, this segment of business has a larger mean collection period (186 days) and consequently a higher credit period (113 81 days), because they have not enough cash to meet their financial obligations since their clients demand considerable amount of time to pay. Table 12. Descriptive statistics (N=253) Variable Mean Std. Sum Minimum Maximum EP 0.59 13.20 149.00 -46.00 86.00 CP 186.07 269.22 47.08 0.00 1.74 CE 9.26 15.95 2.34 -32.00 101.00 CPd 113.11 294.84 28.62 0.00 3.86 G 99.76 629.93 25.24 -8,88 2.57 NAT 1.14 2.83 290.00 -32.00 25.00 PM -5.44 47.39 -1.38 -547.00 165.00 PE 3.83 27.69 971.00 -45.00 237.00 ROA 0.50 13.17 126.00 -46.00 86.00 SR 26.09 38.94 6.60 -238.00 90.00 By other hand, the values of the company's solvency ratio (26.09), indicate a greater the probability that the companies will default on its debt obligations. Finally, the lower ratio (1.14) on net assets turnover shows the inefficiency of companies in generating sales and revenues. These statistics indicate that on mean, the sustainability of the Portuguese bottled water companies has lower level of efficiency. Pearson correlation coefficients The Pearson's correlation matrix was performed to test for multicollinearity among the independent variables (Weisberg, 2005). The results of the table 3 reported two collinearities with the variables Profit Margin (PM) and Return on Total Assets (ROA), so they were eliminated. 88 the annual report of the company will see this indicator as power information to stakeholders. The society benefits from the results of this paper since this type of industry is rarely studied and this investigation recognise the reality of the sector in terms of sustainability, and the difficulties that the sector is going through, since is a relevant sector for the country and his activity depends for a natural resource with great impact on the environment. This paper reviews the relevant literature that use sustainability (ROCE) as metric to contribute to the assessment of the sustainability of Portuguese Bottled Water Companies. It also contributes to the sustainability disclosure research by showing that sustainability (ROCE) is related with Economic performance (EP), credit period in days, net assets turnover and gearing. Powerful drivers of sustainability (ROCE) were Economic performance (EP) and gearing with a positive influence and credit period in days and net assets turnover with a negative influence. The paper highlights the role of the accounting information system in generating relevant information to assessment the performance of the company and their sustainability through fixed effects panel model as legitimacy model to the sustainability accounting research. This paper demands, despite its importance, several future perspectives of research. First, the paper context was on the Portuguese Bottled Water Industry and, in the future, it will highlight other countries to assess sustainability on the water industry. Undeniably, it is also recommended to research performance integrated in context of the Global Reporting initiative (GRI) and then could incorporate the new corporate sustainability reporting standards. 89 CONCLUSIONS 90 Conclusions The growing number of empirical and theoretical works that analyse sustainable issues are currently receiving more attention in scientific research in various industrial sectors since the heterogeneous results obtained. In order to expand the existing literature, this investigation study a sector under increasing pressure to manage several contemporary factors, such as an exploration of a natural resource identifying the drivers, barriers, and good sustainable practices carried out by bottle water companies from a CSR perspective. CSR in water sector literature has been discussed from various perspective but these issues are rarely mentioned in context of bottle water industry. The present study addresses this issue by demonstrating the impact of CSR practices employed in bottle water companies in Portugal to overcame the competitive environment challenges and the recent environmental policies in Portugal and Europe. The implementation of good CSR practices increases transparency of company’s operations ensures accountability and improves firm’s profitability. It also helps to defend the interest of the shareholders by supporting their interest with the managers. This investigation concludes that the CSR is the main driver of firm performance and that it is an important concept because deals with the way how firms are managed and controlled his accountability, so an efficient CSR business strategy support bottle water companies to scope its financial performance, as well as their sustainability. The general objective of this doctoral thesis is to study the factors that influence the sustainability of bottle water sector in Portugal in line with the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) practices, through a review of the theoretical foundations that support these work, and the methodology used, providing insights on the link between CSR and sustainable development in the bottle water context. In the first place, the investigation about Water as a Public or Private Good: The Future of Water in Portugal allow to explore the geography of water definitions across the Portuguese region and to identify how water is defined in relevant national legislation. 91 However, the intense bureaucratic and political context in Portugal difficult the management of water resources, as well as its Mediterranean climate, the limitations of the large river basins common with Spain, and the restrictions subsequent from administrative division and spatial planning. Additionally, the economic and social development of Portugal in various sectors like irrigation, hydroelectric power generation, ports, water supply and sanitation impact the water policies, but with the consequent Portugal’s admission into the European Union (EU) in 1986, water policy progressively shifted to concerns with institutional and normative environmental demands more focused on the sustainable and integrated use of water resources. Furthermore, the research related with the Digital Corporate Social Responsibility Reporting in the Water Industry, highlighting the websites as a tool for improving CSR practices and to demonstrate to their stakeholders their commitment with the social, environmental, and financial aspects. The results indicate generally low level of disclosure on the websites of the Portuguese bottle water companies, and the main factors that influence the level of disclosure are the companies’ size, number of employees and turnover. The results of this study also indicate, all the CSR practices disclosed are implemented superficially by the companies of bottle water industry, and there are ample opportunities for improvement. In line with the literature review that related an incipient CSR disclosure in Portugal, there is still much to be done to ensure that CSR practices are properly disclosure in bottle water companies and the principles linked to sustainable development need to be correct applied inside to all organizations. Moreover, the bottle water managers need to understand that the gains due to the disclosure of CSR practices, go far beyond simple social and environmental activities, and allow to improve their communication with the stakeholders, to manage their online reputation, to rise their transparency, to disclosure non-financial information, to demonstrating their commitment with environmental policies since this sector is very compromised with the environmental impacts, principally with the last developments in this field in Europe and Portugal. 92 The last investigation developed highlighted that economic performance (economic profitability) and financial performance (gearing) have the maximum positive impact on the sustainability (ROCE). This evidence related with two performances demand significant attention for the efficient management. So, the bottled water managers can carry out activities for enhancing and improving the level of efficiency, through a smaller capital investment. After analysing the different investigations it’s evident that CSR is the main tool to implement sustainable development in bottled water companies and ensure their sustainability in implementing the sustainable development goals established by the European Union in the 2030 Agenda. The dissemination of corporate social responsibility practices in the bottled water sector can create favourable conditions to improve the reputation of these companies, making them more transparent, aiming at sustainable development, especially at an environmental level through increased efficiency in the use of water resources, use of energy in the production process and transport, as well as in packaging. These conclusions suggest the following implications at various standpoints. Discussion and Implications of the PhD Thesis This thesis contributes to the literature by investigating the value relevance of strategic CSR disclosures in the websites of bottle water companies under the background of GRI standard in the context of an important market for the Portuguese economy. The findings have practical implications for Portuguese regulators of bottle water companies, since the research presents important conclusions to understand the factors that influence the level of digital CSR disclosure in their companies and areas underreporting that need to be improved. This research is also relevant to the accounting and finance departments of the Portuguese Bottled Water Industry because it deals with the way how companies are managed and controlled his accountability, so an efficient sustainable practice in bottled water 93 companies support the business to scope its goals, as well as its economic, commercial, financial, and operational performance. By other hand, the research assists managers of the Portuguese Bottled Water Industry to understand the influence of the KPI of the performance of the bottled water. Indeed, the challenges of the relationship of the sustainability and ROCE allow managers to develop strategies for improving the overall efficiency of their industry. The workers of the bottled water companies can benefit from the results of this paper because through this research they took note of the sector's reality in terms of economic performance and the bottled water company´s profitability. Also, the company will be able to sustain its employees through better salaries, rewards, working conditions and job security in terms of financial performance. In addition, such bottled water companies can allow clients to delay payments of goods/service to increase sales and services in terms of commercial performance. Shareholders of the Water Bottled Companies benefit from the results of this paper because the findings show the most suitable key performance indicators to measure the sustainability of these companies, crucial for investment decisions. This investigation also supports in knowing how bottled water companies has been performing. According to the results obtained sustainability (ROCE), Economic performance (EP), Gearing, Credit Period days and Net Assets Turnover are the most important key performance indicators for sustainable value to validate bottled water companies. Policymakers benefits from the results of this paper, following the most suitable financial indicators that effect the performance of bottled water companies in time, they can prove to investors, in their effort to attract them, that the industry is sustainable in the long run. ROCE is arguably the fairest and most important metric of sustainability. Thus, the annual report of the company will see this indicator as power information to stakeholders. Society benefits from the results of this paper, since this type of industry is rarely studied and this investigation recognise the reality of the sector in terms of sustainability, and the difficulties that the sector is going through, since is a relevant sector for the country and his activity depends for a natural resource with great impact on the environment. 94 In line, this investigation has an important scientific contribution to stakeholder theory by proposing a model to evaluate the CSR disclosure in the websites of the companies, based on the need to meet stakeholders’ expectations, which can be used by the scientific community to other research, and empower CSR policies in the academic field to achieving a more sustainable business. Our results suggest that the Portuguese government needs to provide more detailed guidance regarding CSR activities and disclosures to firms to proactively integrate CSR into business, since the importance for CSR disclosure for the sustainability of a business, mainly for the bottle water sector whose activity is dependent on environmental protection and from a resource fundamental to life, currently subject to the various climate changes on the planet. Stakeholders of the Water Bottled Companies benefit from the results of this paper because the findings show the companies with more commitment with CSR practices in a sector frequently related to the impact on the environment, issue with current attention since the launch of 2030 Agenda in the European Union. This paper is also relevant for entities that promote social responsibility in Portugal (such as APEE - Portuguese Association for Business Ethics, Global Compact Network Portugal, and CEEP Portugal – Services General Interest), which defend the extension of the social responsibility and sustainability practices to small and medium-sized companies, contrary to the existing trend of only being applied to large companies, as this paper has shown. Through this investigation, these entities can help their associates to improve the social responsibility practices disclosed on their websites. Limitations of the PhD Thesis The conclusions of this PhD Thesis must be interpreted regarding the following limitations. First, this research is restricted to a sample of companies that operate in market of bottle water industry, which may limit the generalisation of the findings to companies outside the Portuguese bottle water market. 95 Second, the limitation could be related with variables, models and standards chosen to develop the current research, however the methodology used are based in the literature review. Future lines of PhD Thesis Several future studies can be done on this topic. For example, a larger database including other beverage sector can be combined with other statistical methods, potential variables, methods, and standards. Further research could also be performed in a different country because of the multiplicity of factors that influence the implementation of CSR practices, such as the local cultural context, government support and management skills. 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