Agnieszka Matuszewska-Pierzynka

Department of International Business and Trade,

University of Lodz, Poland 

agnieszka.matuszewska@uni.lodz.pl

ORCID 0000-0003-1119-6347

Sustainability performance and dividend policies: Insights from the Fortune Global 500 companies

Aleksandra Pieloch-Babiarz

Department of International Finance and Investment,

University of Lodz, Poland

aleksandra.pieloch@uni.lodz.pl

ORCID 0000-0001-7885-1284

Abstract. The objective of the article is to identify the relationship between corporate sustainability performance and the amount of dividend payout. The research hypothesis is that improvements in the economic, environmental, social and governance scores lead to higher dividend payments. The corporate sustainability scores are used as the primary variables in the panel regression model. The analysis is conducted for the period of 2012-2023 and the sample comprises the largest companies from the Fortune Global 500 as of 2022. Over the twelve-year research period, the overall ESG score has demonstrated a positive and statistically significant impact on the dividend payout. However, the decomposition of this aggregate score revealed that only the corporate sustainability scores in the environmental and social pillars remained positive and statistically significant. Furthermore, corporate sustainability performance stopped being statistically significant when the economic sustainability score was incorporated into the models for the seven-year research period.

Received: March, 2025

1st Revision: January, 2026

Accepted: March, 2026

DOI: 10.14254/2071-8330.2026/19-1/5

JEL Classification: F23, G35, M14

Keywords: dividend payout, ESG performance, global companies, sustainability performance