As global environmental and humanitarian issues increase, businesses are striving hard to tackle these challenges at the global level and preserve the ecosystem. Agenda 2030 and the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) have made sustainability reporting (SR) more imperative for both developing and emerging economies (EEs), igniting interest in literature. The primary purpose of this article is to conduct a comparative study of the state of SR in relation to the UN SDGs. The article analysed data extracted from the Global Reporting Initiative’s (GRI) sustainability disclosure database as submitted by small and medium enterprises (SMEs) for the reporting years 2016–2020. In all 172 SME reports from EEs and Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) were analysed using a multivariate multiple regression. The findings show that the listed SMEs are more likely to address the SDGs to address the SDGs than non-listed SMEs. Again, firms with higher sustainability impacts are more likely to integrate the SDGs in their reporting. Lastly, the data confirm regional effects with regard to SDG reporting. Moreover, firms from low-income economies are more likely to report on the SDGs. This study aims to find how sustainable disclosure in EE and SSA is contributing towards SME growth and survival.

中文翻译：

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可持续发展目标与中小企业：新兴经济体与撒哈拉以南非洲的比较研究

随着全球环境和人道主义问题的增加，企业正在努力在全球范围内应对这些挑战并保护生态系统。2030 年议程和联合国可持续发展目标 (SDG) 使可持续发展报告 (SR) 对发展中经济体和新兴经济体 (EE) 都变得更加重要，从而激发了人们对文学的兴趣。本文的主要目的是对与联合国可持续发展目标相关的社会责任状况进行比较研究。该文章分析了从全球报告倡议组织 (GRI) 可持续发展披露数据库中提取的数据，这些数据是由中小企业 (SME) 提交的 2016-2020 报告年度。在所有 172 份来自 EE 和撒哈拉以南非洲 (SSA) 的 SME 报告中，均使用多元多元回归进行了分析。调查结果表明，与未上市的中小企业相比，上市中小企业更有可能解决可持续发展目标以应对可持续发展目标。同样，具有较高可持续性影响的公司更有可能将可持续发展目标纳入其报告中。最后，数据证实了可持续发展目标报告方面的区域影响。此外，来自低收入经济体的公司更有可能报告可持续发展目标。本研究旨在发现 EE 和 SSA 中的可持续披露如何促进中小企业的发展和生存。