Do Jordanian Manufacturing Shareholders Companies - Listed in Amman Stock Exchange (ASE) - Show Sustainable Development Elements within their Financial Reports? Prof. Abdel Naser Nour, Dr. Abdel-Aziz Sharabati, Dr. Mudar Abdel-Latif, and Ahmad AlArmouti, Business College, Middle East University Amman - Jordan The 2nd International Conference Business Dilemma: Green, Ethical and Performance Requirements School of Business – University of Jordan 27-29 May, 2014 Amman - Jordan

Introduction The United Nations World Commission on Environment and Development (WCED) in its 1987 report (Oxford University Press,1987) defined sustainable development as: “Development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.” United Nations Charter broadly defined, sustainable development is a systems approach to growth and development and to manage natural, produced, and social capital for the welfare of their own and future generations

Sustainable Development Elements Under the principles of the United Nations Charter the Millennium Declaration identified principles and treaties on sustainable development, including economic development, social development and environmental protection (Published in 1992 the Earth Charter) There are different domains identified for sustainable development, which are broadly defined in three or four domains, ecology, economics, politics and culture - as used by the United Nations and a number of other international organizations (http://citiesprogramme.com/archives)

Study Purpose and Objectives The purpose of the study is to investigate the implementation of sustainable development elements (environmental elements, social elements and economical elements) within financial reports in Jordanian Manufacturing Shareholders Companies listed in Amman Stock Exchange (ASE); through examining the managers’ perceptions regarding significance and potential use of sustainable development indicators to leverage Jordanian Manufacturing Shareholders Companies, and to provide sound recommendations to these companies, other organizations, governments and decision makers.

Study Importance and Scope This study presents the necessary components of sustainable development definition. A better understanding of sustainable development elements draws conclusions that can be beneficial not only for companies listed in ASE market, but also to other organizations, institutions and policy makers. The current study might be considered as initiative that presents the sustainable development elements used by Jordanian companies listed in ASE market. The content also may be of an interest to academic studies related to reporting and decision making concerning sustainable development, and it may open a discussion regarding the implementation of these elements.

Problem Statement Until now, many companies and organizations do not include sustainable development elements (indicators) within their financial reports. More worse, some of them do not allocate any resources within their budget for sustainable development activities. In Jordan, Arab Bank and Nuqul Group have started including these elements within their financial reports since 2010, while other Jordanian organization slowly following these organizations. Therefore this study is dedicated to explore the implementation of sustainable development elements (environmental elements, social elements and economical elements) within financial reports in Jordanian Manufacturing Shareholders Companies listed in Amman Stock Exchange (ASE); through examining the managers’ perceptions regarding significance and potential use of sustainable development indicators .

Study Questions This study is designed to answer the following questions: 1. Do Jordanian shareholder companies (listed in ASE market) implement (include) sustainable development elements within their financial reports? Based on the elements of the sustainable development the main question can be divided into the following sub-questions: 1.1 Does JSCs (listed in ASE market) implement (include) environmental element within their financial reports? 1.2 Does JSCs (listed in ASE market) implement (include) social element within their financial reports? 1.3 Does JSCs (listed in ASE market) implement (include) economical element within their financial reports? 2. Do JSCs (listed in ASE market) are aware about the obstacles, constrains or limitations facing implementing (including) sustainable development elements? 3. Do the sustainable development information included in financial reports help in decision making?

Study Methodology The study surveyed the managers working at the 84 companies. Practical data used in the empirical analysis collected from 280 managers, by means of a questionnaire. The questionnaire was developed and refined through experts’ interviews and the panel of judges committee. After testing its validity and reliability, statistical techniques such as descriptive statistics: mean, standard deviation and importance were employed.

Data Analysis Results Level Importance S.D Mean Element 2 High 0.696 2.87 Environmental Elements 1 0.659 3.90 Social Responsibility 3 0.733 3.81 Economical Responsibility 0.584 3.86 Sustainable Development 0.721 3.83 Awareness about Obstacles 0.887 3.78 Help Decision Making

Conclusions The results of the study indicate that there is a high implementation of sustainable development elements. The social element reported highest implementation, followed by environmental element and finally economical element. The results also indicate that the respondents are aware about the limitations/constrains that face implementing sustainable development elements. The results also show that the information included in financial reports regarding these elements help decision makers to take decisions.

Recommendations The study recommend that all Jordanian organizations should include the sustainable development elements within their financial reports as to reflect their contribution in maintaining a clean environment and supporting local communities (social responsibility) as well as supporting local economy. Government and other national and international decision making institutions have to watch/control and audit the financial reports of all organization. Government and responsible bodies such as accounting charter Associations should make inclusion of the sustainable development elements is mandatory.

Recommendations The use of the companies listed in Amman Stock Exchange in this study may limit its generalisability to other Jordanian companies (not listed in ASE). The data is also limited to Jordanian setting, therefore, generalizing results of a Jordanian setting to other countries may be questionable. Extending the analyses to other settings represent future research opportunities which will help mitigate the issue of generalizing results on other companies and countries, especially Arab countries.

Learnt lessons and Good Bye Statement God gifted us this world not to destroy it, but to build it and to enjoy with each and every thing in it. We are in transit hall and waiting to travel for next step. This world is not ours, it is for our children and next generation. Enjoy your current life without harming your and others future. God Bless You All.