RELATIOSHIP BETWEEN ENVIRONMENTAL PERFORMANCE AND ECONOMIC PERFORMANCE IN BRAZILIAN AND SPANISH COMPANIES

Based on the Signaling Theory and the Legitimacy Theory, the present research aims at investigating the relationship between economic performance and environmental performance in Brazilian and Spanish companies. Additionally, the correspondence between the levels of environmental impact and environmental performance in secondary sector companies was analyzed. It is a descriptive research of quantitative nature which analyzes data from 41 Brazilian companies and 25 Spanish companies; all of them public companies, which published GRI-G3 sustainability reports in 2010. 2009 data were also considered. ROA, ROE, ROS and ROM (Tobin’s Q) economic indexes were analyzed as well. Environmental performance was represented by index EN30 (total sum of expenditures and investments in environmental protection) in the sustainability report, divided by the total of Assets. Results point at the existence of a relationship between the variables analyzed year by year, in each country, and also using the time delay attribute. By means of the Correspondence Analysis statistical technique, and considering the two countries together, the research hypothesis was rejected since secondary sector companies with high environmental impact presented low and medium levels of environmental performance. Keywords: Economic performance. Environmental performance. Signaling theory. Legitimacy theory.