The Relationship between Environmental (E), Social (S), and Governance (G) Disclosures and Borrowing Costs in the MAI Stock Exchange of the Technology Industry Group

Abstract

This research aimed to study the level of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) information disclosure of listed companies on the Market for Alternative Investment (MAI).          It also aimed to test the relationship between environmental, social and governance (ESG) information disclosure and the borrowing costs of listed companies as the technology industry group on the MAI Stock Exchange. Data collection was drawn from an annual report between 2019 and 2023 of 115 listed companies. The descriptive statistics, i.e., percentage, mean, standard deviation, and multiple regression analysis techniques were employed to analyze the relationship of variables. The results of this study illustrated that disclosure of environmental, social and governance (ESG) information was not related to the borrowing costs of listed companies on the MAI Stock Exchange. However, disclosure of environmental information was positively related to the size of enterprise. Moreover, the results of this study were tested by using the stakeholder theory to explain that almost businesses were unable to satisfy all the needs of the stakeholder groups.  The main contribution of this study is to explore the disclosure of environmental, social, and governance information which can be used as a guideline for businesses to express their responsibility on the needs of stakeholders and beneficial for decision-making without causing damage to communities, society, and environment.