THE PERIPHERAL PLACE OF SUSTAINABILITY IN THE AGENDA AND PROFESSIONAL LEGACY OF BRAZILIAN CFOS

Abstract

Objectives: To examine whether sustainability is central or peripheral in the agenda and legacy of Chief Financial Officers of large Brazilian firms, read against the attributes of responsible leadership.   Theoretical framework: The study draws on responsible leadership theory, upper echelons theory and the institutional account of symbolic and substantive adoption known as decoupling.   Method: A cross sectional survey of 106 CFOs of large Brazilian firms was analysed with descriptive statistics, comparing the prioritised ESG pillar, the weekly agenda for sustainability and technology, the professional legacy and the ethical self assessment.   Results and discussion: Technology took more of the weekly agenda than sustainability, 21.1% against 15.2%. ESG was read as governance by 77.4%, against 16.0% environmental and 6.6% social, and sustainability figured in none of the legacies CFOs would leave. Ethics was rated high by 80.2% yet rested on conduct rather than structures. The finance apex enacts the individual attributes of responsible leadership and leaves the systemic ones symbolic.   Research implications: Advancing the Sustainable Development Goals inside firms depends less on endorsement than on moving sustainability from a professed value to an operative priority and from governance towards the environmental and social dimensions.   Originality and value: The study relocates the symbolic and substantive distinction from firm disclosure to the finance leader's stated agenda, with emerging economy evidence on a role the literature has overlooked.