Board characteristics and environmental disclosures: evidence from sensitive and non-sensitive industries of India

Purpose - The study aims to identify the impact of board characteristics (BC) on a firm's environmental performance, and provides future research directions in the area of BC impact on environmental disclosures (ED) in case of India's environmentally sensitive and non-sensitive industries (SI and NSI). Design/methodology/approach - The authors collect firm-level data from Prowess and Bloomberg, which cover 1,158 firm-year observations from National Stock Exchange of India (NSE) 500 listed companies from 2015 to 2020, and use a dynamic panel regression analysis to get deeper insights on the relationship of ED and BC. Findings - The study found that lagged environment disclosure score is positively and significantly associated with current environmental disclosure scores. The presence of sustainability committee, board size and frequency of meetings has a positive and significant association with ED for sensitive as well as non-sensitive industry groups. Factors such as board Independence, board gender diversity and CEO duality have no significant impact on ED of both sensitive and non-sensitive industry groups. Originality/value - Based on agency theory and stakeholder theory authors study for the first time in the context of India the effect of BC on ED using a large sample and covering an extensive period of six years. This study contributes by offering deep insights about the impact in case of “environmentally sensitive, non-sensitive and also all industries case”. The findings of this study are valuable for corporate managers and regulators who are interested in improving ED practices through a better-governed corporate mechanism.