10. The Current Status of Korean Corporate Sustainability Management

This chapter provides key findings and particularities of the Korean Corporate Sustainability Barometer survey. The majority of companies in the Korean sample are large-sized and belong to the manufacturing sector. As external drivers, NGOs and the media/public are the stakeholders most strongly impacting corporate sustainability implementation. Furthermore, top management commitment and legislation are found to be important factors promoting sustainability implementation. Notably, Korean companies indicate that the local community is also a strong driver. Korean companies consider legislation and lack of financial capacities to be major barriers to the implementation of corporate sustainability management. With regard to the integration of sustainability into the core business and organisation, the majority of Korean companies show that they connect sustainability to most or all segments of their core business. This indicates a high level of sustainability integration into the core business and organisation of Korean companies. Driven by formal and informal institutional forces, Korean companies are aware of the importance of sustainability, and they actively adopt sustainability management tools and approaches to implement corporate sustainability management.