Critical enablers of sustainable water management (SWM): Text evidences from 10 countries

This paper explores the value of quality disclosure and identifies the vital few determinants of sustainable water management (SWM). Using textual data obtained from 2016 Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) - Water in the food and beverage industry from ten countries and text analytics tools such as probabilistic topic modelling (PTM) method and Formal Concept Analyses (FCA), we explore SWM practices associated with water risks and response strategies. Deeper meanings of critical enablers are investigated along two paths: leadership and management for firms with high or low sustainability disclosure scores. For the former, our empirical models show that five Asian firms place emphasis on risk assessment tools. A deeper analysis shows that top two tools are WBCSD Global Water Tool and internal company knowledge. However, for the management group, four firms from Brazil, USA, and South Africa recognize the importance of “risk and business processes.” From a deeper analysis, there appears to be no consensus on which risk drivers are the most important. Generally, the relevance and faithful representation of text entries appear to be lower in the management than the leadership group. Text quality at the source should therefore be emphasized.