Corporate sustainability through non-financial risk management

Abstract

Purpose – This paper aims at highlighting the significance in developing non-financial risk management, emphasizing the need of managing environmental and social issues for enhancing corporate sustainability. Particularly, through discussing the implications of non-financial risk management, its benefits, opportunities and challenges will also be presented. Design/methodology/approach – Drawing on authoritative academic literature, reports of corporations’ studies, current articles and documents, the researcher has managed to examine and construe the development and implications of non-financial risk management. Findings – Several key findings are covered in this article. First of all, environmental and social concerns are usually being deemed as intangible issues that need to be properly articulated and managed by an effective non-financial risk management system for enhancing corporate sustainability. Second, through different interpretations of sustainability, links could be drawn for highlighting the significance of non-financial risk management and corporate sustainability. Third, by explaining the impacts from non-financial risk management to sustainable development and profits, the article has illustrated corporate sustainability as a clear business case for any corporation. Fourth, challenges are also portrayed for the effective management of non-financial risk management by corporations. Finally, and most importantly, the need of a systematic and strategic non-financial risk management system for helping businesses to be more competitive, thus, moving closer to sustainable development, is discussed in this paper. Originality/value – The contribution of the article is thought to be significant. Although there exists a wide body of research on sustainable development, risk management and corporate sustainability, there is limited insight into how the corporations can effectively conceptualize such intangible or non-financial risk in relation to sustainability. Integrating environmental and social risks is critical to the effective management of any corporation’s real risks, and to improve resources allocation in a sustainable fashion. This demands a systematic and strategic identification of issues through non-financial risk management. Most significantly, this article has shown the way this can be achieved by any corporation, and the concepts can be applied globally.