IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v15y2023i6p5508-d1103019.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Investigating the Factors That Determine the ESG Disclosure Practices in Europe

Author

Listed:
  • Akrum Helfaya

    (Keele Business School, Keele University, Keele, Newcastle ST5 5BG, UK
    Faculty of Commerce, Damanhour University, Damanhour P.O. Box 22511, Egypt)

  • Rebecca Morris

    (Keele Business School, Keele University, Keele, Newcastle ST5 5BG, UK)

  • Ahmed Aboud

    (Faculty of Business and Law, University of Portsmouth, Portsmouth PO1 2DA, UK
    Faculty of Commerce, Beni-Suef University, Beni-Suef P.O. Box 6251, Egypt)

Abstract

The increased focus on environmental (E), social (S), and governance (G) (ESG) disclosure has become a necessary step toward the integration of sustainability practices into firms’ culture to meet the expectations of stakeholders. The social and environmental implications of firm activities on the environment and surrounding communities have led to the growing demand for useful non-financial information. This paper investigates the impacts of the board’s corporate social responsibility (CSR) strategy and CSR orientation, GRI, and the country–cultural dimensions, based on Hofstede’s measures of ESG disclosure practices within Europe. Using a European dataset from Bloomberg and Refinitiv Eikon, this paper adopts a quantitative research methodology to test the research hypotheses through a statistical analysis of 7840 observations from European companies to analyze the extent of the relationship between micro- and macro-variables and the disclosure of company ESG. Our findings suggest that both board CSR orientation and strategy and the GRI have positively and significantly affected the overall disclosure of ESG practices within Europe. When examining country–cultural dimensions, we find that individualism and feminine cultures are positively associated with increased levels of ESG disclosure. Our findings shed light on factors affecting ESG disclosure practices within Europe and could be of interest to companies, policy makers, and other stakeholders.

Suggested Citation

  • Akrum Helfaya & Rebecca Morris & Ahmed Aboud, 2023. "Investigating the Factors That Determine the ESG Disclosure Practices in Europe," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(6), pages 1-23, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:15:y:2023:i:6:p:5508-:d:1103019
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/15/6/5508/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/15/6/5508/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Akrum Helfaya & Tantawy Moussa, 2017. "Do Board's Corporate Social Responsibility Strategy and Orientation Influence Environmental Sustainability Disclosure? UK Evidence," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 26(8), pages 1061-1077, December.
    2. Maria Baldini & Lorenzo Dal Maso & Giovanni Liberatore & Francesco Mazzi & Simone Terzani, 2018. "Role of Country- and Firm-Level Determinants in Environmental, Social, and Governance Disclosure," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 150(1), pages 79-98, June.
    3. Fama, Eugene F & Jensen, Michael C, 1983. "Agency Problems and Residual Claims," Journal of Law and Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 26(2), pages 327-349, June.
    4. Hoje Jo & Maretno Harjoto, 2011. "Corporate Governance and Firm Value: The Impact of Corporate Social Responsibility," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 103(3), pages 351-383, October.
    5. Elisa Baraibar-Diez & María D. Odriozola, 2019. "CSR Committees and Their Effect on ESG Performance in UK, France, Germany, and Spain," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(18), pages 1-20, September.
    6. Arifur Khan & Mohammad Muttakin & Javed Siddiqui, 2013. "Corporate Governance and Corporate Social Responsibility Disclosures: Evidence from an Emerging Economy," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 114(2), pages 207-223, May.
    7. Deegan, Craig, 2017. "Twenty five years of social and environmental accounting research within Critical Perspectives of Accounting: Hits, misses and ways forward," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 43(C), pages 65-87.
    8. Gunnar Friede & Timo Busch & Alexander Bassen, 2015. "ESG and financial performance: aggregated evidence from more than 2000 empirical studies," Journal of Sustainable Finance & Investment, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 5(4), pages 210-233, October.
    9. Rezaee, Zabihollah, 2016. "Business sustainability research: A theoretical and integrated perspective," Journal of Accounting Literature, Elsevier, vol. 36(C), pages 48-64.
    10. Akrum Helfaya & Phuong Bui, 2022. "Exploring the Status Quo of Adopting the 17 UN SDGs in a Developing Country—Evidence from Vietnam," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(22), pages 1-29, November.
    11. Bill Hopwood & Mary Mellor & Geoff O'Brien, 2005. "Sustainable development: mapping different approaches," Sustainable Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 13(1), pages 38-52.
    12. Maha Faisal Alsayegh & Rashidah Abdul Rahman & Saeid Homayoun, 2020. "Corporate Economic, Environmental, and Social Sustainability Performance Transformation through ESG Disclosure," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(9), pages 1-20, May.
    13. Yiming Zhuang & Xinyue Chang & Younggeun Lee, 2018. "Board Composition and Corporate Social Responsibility Performance: Evidence from Chinese Public Firms," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(8), pages 1-12, August.
    14. Akrum Helfaya & Mark Whittington, 2019. "Does designing environmental sustainability disclosure quality measures make a difference?," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 28(4), pages 525-541, May.
    15. Amama Shaukat & Yan Qiu & Grzegorz Trojanowski, 2016. "Board Attributes, Corporate Social Responsibility Strategy, and Corporate Environmental and Social Performance," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 135(3), pages 569-585, May.
    16. Lys, Thomas & Naughton, James P. & Wang, Clare, 2015. "Signaling through corporate accountability reporting," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 60(1), pages 56-72.
    17. Sakis Kotsantonis & Chris Pinney & George Serafeim, 2016. "ESG Integration in Investment Management: Myths and Realities," Journal of Applied Corporate Finance, Morgan Stanley, vol. 28(2), pages 10-16, June.
    18. Cooper, Stuart M. & Owen, David L., 2007. "Corporate social reporting and stakeholder accountability: The missing link," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 32(7-8), pages 649-667.
    19. Mohammad Badrul Muttakin & Tarek Rana & Dessalegn Getie Mihret, 2022. "Democracy, national culture and greenhouse gas emissions: An international study," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 31(7), pages 2978-2991, November.
    20. Foo Ho & Hui-Ming Wang & Scott Vitell, 2012. "A Global Analysis of Corporate Social Performance: The Effects of Cultural and Geographic Environments," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 107(4), pages 423-433, June.
    21. Nicola Raimo & Filippo Vitolla & Arcangelo Marrone & Michele Rubino, 2021. "Do audit committee attributes influence integrated reporting quality? An agency theory viewpoint," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 30(1), pages 522-534, January.
    22. Philip Brown & John Preiato & Ann Tarca, 2014. "Measuring Country Differences in Enforcement of Accounting Standards: An Audit and Enforcement Proxy," Journal of Business Finance & Accounting, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 41(1-2), pages 1-52, January.
    23. Lee Siew Peng & Mansor Isa, 2020. "Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) Practices And Performance In Shariah Firms: Agency or Stakeholder Theory?," Asian Academy of Management Journal of Accounting and Finance (AAMJAF), Penerbit Universiti Sains Malaysia, vol. 16(1), pages 1-34.
    24. Freeman, R. Edward, 1994. "The Politics of Stakeholder Theory: Some Future Directions1," Business Ethics Quarterly, Cambridge University Press, vol. 4(4), pages 409-421, October.
    25. N. Eccles & S. Viviers, 2011. "The Origins and Meanings of Names Describing Investment Practices that Integrate a Consideration of ESG Issues in the Academic Literature," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 104(3), pages 389-402, December.
    26. Chitra Sriyani De Silva Lokuwaduge & Kumudini Heenetigala, 2017. "Integrating Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) Disclosure for a Sustainable Development: An Australian Study," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 26(4), pages 438-450, May.
    27. Eduardo Schiehll & Sam Kolahgar, 2021. "Financial materiality in the informativeness of sustainability reporting," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 30(2), pages 840-855, February.
    28. Silvia Carnini Pulino & Mirella Ciaburri & Barbara Sveva Magnanelli & Luigi Nasta, 2022. "Does ESG Disclosure Influence Firm Performance?," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(13), pages 1-18, June.
    29. Beat Reber & Agnes Gold & Stefan Gold, 2022. "ESG Disclosure and Idiosyncratic Risk in Initial Public Offerings," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 179(3), pages 867-886, September.
    30. Michela Cordazzo & Laura Bini & Giuseppe Marzo, 2020. "Does the EU Directive on non‐financial information influence the value relevance of ESG disclosure? Italian evidence," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 29(8), pages 3470-3483, December.
    31. Susanne Arvidsson, 2010. "Communication of Corporate Social Responsibility: A Study of the Views of Management Teams in Large Companies," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 96(3), pages 339-354, October.
    32. Healy, Paul M. & Palepu, Krishna G., 2001. "Information asymmetry, corporate disclosure, and the capital markets: A review of the empirical disclosure literature," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 31(1-3), pages 405-440, September.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Hawkar Anwer Hamad & Kemal Cek, 2023. "The Moderating Effects of Corporate Social Responsibility on Corporate Financial Performance: Evidence from OECD Countries," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(11), pages 1-20, May.
    2. Elisabete Nogueira & Sofia Gomes & João M. Lopes, 2023. "Triple Bottom Line, Sustainability, and Economic Development: What Binds Them Together? A Bibliometric Approach," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(8), pages 1-17, April.
    3. Andreea Larisa Olteanu (Burcă) & Alina Elena Ionașcu & Sorinel Cosma & Corina Aurora Barbu & Alexandra Popa & Corina Georgiana Cioroiu & Shankha Shubhra Goswami, 2024. "Prioritizing the European Investment Sectors Based on Different Economic, Social, and Governance Factors Using a Fuzzy-MEREC-AROMAN Decision-Making Model," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(17), pages 1-46, September.
    4. Xuemei Zhou & Sifeng Nian, 2024. "Sustainable Pathways: ESG Disclosure Performance and Optimization in China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(11), pages 1-25, May.
    5. Chun Cai & Saddam A. Hazaea & Mohammed Hael & Ebrahim Mohammed Al-Matari & Adeeb Alhebri & Abdulmajeed Mawhan H. Alfadhli, 2024. "Mapping the Landscape of the Literature on Environmental, Social, Governance Disclosure and Firm Value: A Bibliometric Analysis and Systematic Review," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(10), pages 1-34, May.
    6. Sergey Zhironkin & Fares Abu-Abed & Elena Dotsenko, 2023. "The Development of Renewable Energy in Mineral Resource Clusters—The Case of the Siberian Federal District," Energies, MDPI, vol. 16(9), pages 1-28, April.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Angus W. H. Yip & William Y. P. Yu, 2023. "The Quality of Environmental KPI Disclosure in ESG Reporting for SMEs in Hong Kong," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(4), pages 1-26, February.
    2. Hoang, Thi Hong Van & Pham, Linh & Nguyen, Thanh Thi Phuong, 2023. "Does country sustainability improve firm ESG reporting transparency? The moderating role of firm industry and CSR engagement," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 125(C).
    3. Siew Peng Lee, 2023. "Board monitoring effectiveness and corporate sustainability performance: do legal system and CEO non-duality matter?," Review of Managerial Science, Springer, vol. 17(4), pages 1243-1267, May.
    4. Musa Ghazwani & Mark Whittington & Akrum Helfaya, 2023. "Assessing the Anti-Corruption Disclosure Practices in the UK FTSE 100 Extractive Firms," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(6), pages 1-33, March.
    5. Riccardo Santamaria & Francesco Paolone & Nicola Cucari & Luca Dezi, 2021. "Non‐financial strategy disclosure and environmental, social and governance score: Insight from a configurational approach," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 30(4), pages 1993-2007, May.
    6. Amir Gholami & Peter A. Murray & John Sands, 2022. "Environmental, Social, Governance & Financial Performance Disclosure for Large Firms: Is This Different for SME Firms?," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(10), pages 1-21, May.
    7. Silvia Carnini Pulino & Mirella Ciaburri & Barbara Sveva Magnanelli & Luigi Nasta, 2022. "Does ESG Disclosure Influence Firm Performance?," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(13), pages 1-18, June.
    8. Andrea Cardoni & Evgeniia Kiseleva & Simone Terzani, 2019. "Evaluating the Intra-Industry Comparability of Sustainability Reports: The Case of the Oil and Gas Industry," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(4), pages 1-23, February.
    9. Hamed, Ruba Subhi & Al-Shattarat, Basiem Khalil & Al-Shattarat, Wasim Khalil & Hussainey, Khaled, 2022. "The impact of introducing new regulations on the quality of CSR reporting: Evidence from the UK," Journal of International Accounting, Auditing and Taxation, Elsevier, vol. 46(C).
    10. Anrafel Souza Barbosa & Maria Cristina Basilio Crispim Silva & Luiz Bueno Silva & Sandra Naomi Morioka & Vinícius Fernandes Souza, 2023. "Integration of Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) criteria: their impacts on corporate sustainability performance," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 10(1), pages 1-18, December.
    11. Aladdin Dwekat & Elies Seguí‐Mas & Guillermina Tormo‐Carbó & Pedro Carmona, 2020. "Corporate Governance Configurations and Corporate Social Responsibility Disclosure: Qualitative Comparative Analysis of Audit Committee and Board characteristics," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 27(6), pages 2879-2892, November.
    12. Nicola Cucari & Salvatore Esposito De Falco & Beatrice Orlando, 2018. "Diversity of Board of Directors and Environmental Social Governance: Evidence from Italian Listed Companies," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 25(3), pages 250-266, May.
    13. María‐Florencia Amorelli & Isabel‐María García‐Sánchez, 2021. "Trends in the dynamic evolution of board gender diversity and corporate social responsibility," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 28(2), pages 537-554, March.
    14. SiJian Niu & Byung Il Park & Jin Sup Jung, 2022. "The Effects of Digital Leadership and ESG Management on Organizational Innovation and Sustainability," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(23), pages 1-20, November.
    15. Fornasari, Tommaso, 2020. "Il ruolo dei comitati di responsabilità sociale nella corporate governance [The Role of CSR Committees in Corporate Governance]," MPRA Paper 111192, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    16. Albertina Paula Monteiro & Catarina Cepêda & Cláudia Pereira & Amélia Silva, 2023. "Social Performance Disclosed by European Companies: The Role of the Board Attributes and the Country’s Legal System," JRFM, MDPI, vol. 16(6), pages 1-15, May.
    17. Rodrigo Zeidan, 2022. "Why don't asset managers accelerate ESG investing? A sentiment analysis based on 13,000 messages from finance professionals," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 31(7), pages 3028-3039, November.
    18. Ionica Oncioiu & Delia-Mioara Popescu & Anca Elena Aviana & Alina Șerban & Florica Rotaru & Mihai Petrescu & Andreea Marin-Pantelescu, 2020. "The Role of Environmental, Social, and Governance Disclosure in Financial Transparency," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(17), pages 1-16, August.
    19. Alan Kai Ming Au & Yi-Fan Yang & Huan Wang & Rui-Hong Chen & Leven J. Zheng, 2023. "Mapping the Landscape of ESG Strategies: A Bibliometric Review and Recommendations for Future Research," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(24), pages 1-26, December.
    20. Paolo Agnese & Francesca Romana Arduino & Massimiliano Cerciello & Simone Taddeo, 2024. "Does board knowledge matter for ESG performance in the European banking industry?," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 31(5), pages 4454-4468, September.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:15:y:2023:i:6:p:5508-:d:1103019. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.