IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/snbeco/v5y2025i1d10.1007_s43546-024-00766-8.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Advancing environmental, social, and governance disclosure in emerging economies: does regulatory environment and ownership structure matter?

Author

Listed:
  • Desmond Bayong

    (Simon Diedong Dombo University of Business and Integrated Development Studies)

  • Bernard Bawuah

    (Simon Diedong Dombo University of Business and Integrated Development Studies)

  • Elizabeth Amoah

    (Simon Diedong Dombo University of Business and Integrated Development Studies)

Abstract

Against the necessity of greater corporate transparency and accountability in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), this paper investigates under what conditions ownership structure is associated with Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) disclosure in the SSA manufacturing sector. The analysis employs secondary data on 246 SSA manufacturing firms for 2010–2022 that are guided by stakeholder, institutional, and legitimacy theories. Fixed and random effects models were tested on hypotheses, and endogeneity was dealt with using Two Stage Least Squares (2SLS Propensity Score Matching (PSM). Results suggest that managerial, state and foreign ownership increases the quality of ESG disclosures more than block ownership, and block ownership does not appear to have any meaningful impact. More importantly, regulatory frameworks shape the relationship between ownership structures and ESG disclosure. This implies that a strong policy framework is critical in facilitating ESG reporting. Regarding SSA’s manufacturing sector, this study is limited in its generalizability. Nevertheless, the insights suggest that well-defined regulatory policies play an essential role in giving corporations the strength to be transparent and accountable for the ESG. This study contributes to the field by uncovering the interplay between ownership structure and regulatory context critical for advancing sustainable practices in emerging markets stakeholders and policymakers.

Suggested Citation

  • Desmond Bayong & Bernard Bawuah & Elizabeth Amoah, 2025. "Advancing environmental, social, and governance disclosure in emerging economies: does regulatory environment and ownership structure matter?," SN Business & Economics, Springer, vol. 5(1), pages 1-45, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:snbeco:v:5:y:2025:i:1:d:10.1007_s43546-024-00766-8
    DOI: 10.1007/s43546-024-00766-8
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s43546-024-00766-8
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s43546-024-00766-8?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Indra Gunawan & Nurchasanah, 2024. "Exploring factors influencing the microfinance program sustainability," SN Business & Economics, Springer, vol. 4(9), pages 1-17, September.
    2. Pesaran, M. Hashem, 2015. "Time Series and Panel Data Econometrics," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780198759980.
    3. Takuriramunashe Famba & Lloyd Chiriseri & Grace Chituku-Dzimiro & Ophias Kurauone, 2024. "Two-tier corporate board structure, corporate governance reforms and financial performance of firms listed on the China stock market," SN Business & Economics, Springer, vol. 4(11), pages 1-32, November.
    4. Godfred Matthew Yaw Owusu & Philomina Acquah & Rita Amoah Bekoe, 2023. "Earnings management and tax avoidance research: a 30-year retrospective analysis," SN Business & Economics, Springer, vol. 3(9), pages 1-21, September.
    5. Abednego Osei & Andrew Osei Agyemang & Joseph Owusu Amoah & Inusah Sulemana, 2023. "Empirical study on the impact of working capital management on going concern of manufacturing firms in Ghana," Cogent Business & Management, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 10(2), pages 2218177-221, December.
    6. Jennifer Martínez-Ferrero & María-Belén Lozano, 2021. "The Nonlinear Relation between Institutional Ownership and Environmental, Social and Governance Performance in Emerging Countries," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(3), pages 1-16, February.
    7. Hashem Pesaran, M. & Yamagata, Takashi, 2008. "Testing slope homogeneity in large panels," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 142(1), pages 50-93, January.
    8. Antoncic, Madelyn, 2021. "Is ESG investing contributing to transitioning to a sustainable economy or to the greatest misallocations of capital and a missed opportunity?," Journal of Risk Management in Financial Institutions, Henry Stewart Publications, vol. 15(1), pages 6-12, December.
    9. Mohammed Ibrahim & Amirah Jamal Arabi & Zakariya’u Gurama, 2024. "Corporate attributes, audit committee and financial reporting quality of listed non-financial firms in Nigeria," SN Business & Economics, Springer, vol. 4(11), pages 1-28, November.
    10. Eunsoo Kim, 2024. "The Relationship between the Greenhouse Gas and Energy Target Management System and Foreign Ownership: Investor Sensitivity to the Implementation of the System," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(6), pages 1-17, March.
    11. 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.
    12. Zouheyr Gheraia & Mehdi Abid & Habib Sekrafi & Hanane Abdelli, 2022. "The moderating role of ICT diffusion between financial development and economic growth: a bootstrap ARDL approach in Saudi Arabia," Information Technology for Development, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 28(4), pages 816-836, October.
    13. Ahmed Mohamed Habib & Nahia Mourad, 2024. "The Influence of Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) Practices on US Firms’ Performance: Evidence from the Coronavirus Crisis," Journal of the Knowledge Economy, Springer;Portland International Center for Management of Engineering and Technology (PICMET), vol. 15(1), pages 2549-2570, March.
    14. Nejla Ould Daoud Ellili, 2020. "Environmental, Social, and Governance Disclosure, Ownership Structure and Cost of Capital: Evidence from the UAE," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(18), pages 1-23, September.
    15. Hamzeh Al Amosh & Saleh F. A. Khatib, 2021. "Corporate governance and voluntary disclosure of sustainability performance: the case of Jordan," SN Business & Economics, Springer, vol. 1(12), pages 1-22, December.
    16. María del Mar Miras-Rodríguez & Domingo Martínez-Martínez & Bernabé Escobar-Pérez, 2018. "Which Corporate Governance Mechanisms Drive CSR Disclosure Practices in Emerging Countries?," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(1), pages 1-20, December.
    17. Mac Junior Abeka & Eric Andoh & John Gartchie Gatsi & Seyram Kawor & David McMillan, 2021. "Financial development and economic growth nexus in SSA economies: The moderating role of telecommunication development," Cogent Economics & Finance, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 9(1), pages 1862395-186, January.
    18. Phemelo Tamasiga & Helen Onyeaka & Malebogo Bakwena & El houssin Ouassou, 2024. "Beyond compliance: evaluating the role of environmental, social and governance disclosures in enhancing firm value and performance," SN Business & Economics, Springer, vol. 4(10), pages 1-38, October.
    19. Muhammad Ali Musarat & Muhammad Irfan & Wesam Salah Alaloul & Ahsen Maqsoom & Maria Ghufran, 2023. "A Review on the Way Forward in Construction through Industrial Revolution 5.0," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(18), pages 1-26, September.
    20. Hend Alregab, 2023. "The role of corporate governance in attracting foreign investment: An empirical investigation of Saudi‐listed firms in light of vision 2030," International Journal of Finance & Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 28(1), pages 284-294, January.
    21. Peterson K. Ozili, 2021. "Corporate governance research in Nigeria: a review," SN Business & Economics, Springer, vol. 1(1), pages 1-32, January.
    22. Yang Liu, 2022. "Paradigmatic Compatibility Matters: A Critical Review of Qualitative-Quantitative Debate in Mixed Methods Research," SAGE Open, , vol. 12(1), pages 21582440221, March.
    23. Andrew Osei Agyemang & Kong Yusheng & Angelina Kissiwaa Twum & Emmanuel Caesar Ayamba & Maxwell Kongkuah & Mohammed Musah, 2021. "Trend and relationship between environmental accounting disclosure and environmental performance for mining companies listed in China," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 23(8), pages 12192-12216, August.
    24. Jules-Eric Tchapchet-Tchouto & Joseph Pasky Ngameni, 2024. "Better Environmental Tax Regulations, better Structural Change and Innovation: Evidence from CFA Franc countries along Africa’s green industrialization outlook," SN Business & Economics, Springer, vol. 4(11), pages 1-23, November.
    25. Abraham Deka, 2024. "The role of investment in energy and industry value added in the presence of financial resources in fostering sustainable economic growth of China," SN Business & Economics, Springer, vol. 4(9), pages 1-18, September.
    26. Elisa Chioatto & Paolo Sospiro, 2023. "Transition from waste management to circular economy: the European Union roadmap," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 25(1), pages 249-276, January.
    27. Hagen Kruse & Emmanuel Mensah & Kunal Sen & Gaaitzen Vries, 2023. "A Manufacturing (Re)Naissance? Industrialization in the Developing World," IMF Economic Review, Palgrave Macmillan;International Monetary Fund, vol. 71(2), pages 439-473, June.
    28. Nebyu Adamu Abebe & Navkiranjit Kaur Dhaliwal, 2024. "An empirical investigation of corporate governance attributes and firm performance: evidence from the ethiopian insurance industry," SN Business & Economics, Springer, vol. 4(10), pages 1-25, October.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. Prempeh Kwadwo Boateng & Frimpong Joseph Magnus & Yeboah Samuel Asuamah, 2024. "The dynamics of financial development, environmental degradation, economic growth and population health in the Economic Community of West African States," Environmental & Socio-economic Studies, Sciendo, vol. 12(2), pages 13-27.
    2. Wu Ning & Ummar Faruk Saeed & Angelina Kissiwaa Twum & Abednego Osei, 2024. "Can ESG disclosures promote firms going concern? Evidence from BRICS countries," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 31(5), pages 3792-3803, September.
    3. Liying Yang & Yi Qian & Hui Xie, 2024. "Handling Endogenous Marketing Mix Regressors in Correlated Heterogeneous Panels with Copula Augmented Mean Group Estimation," NBER Working Papers 33265, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    4. Bishnuprasad Mohapatra, 2024. "Exploring barriers to corporate social responsibility policy and practices in India: an empirical analysis," SN Business & Economics, Springer, vol. 4(12), pages 1-32, December.
    5. Muhammad Khalid Anser & Qasim Raza Syed & Hooi Hooi Lean & Andrew Adewale Alola & Munir Ahmad, 2021. "Do Economic Policy Uncertainty and Geopolitical Risk Lead to Environmental Degradation? Evidence from Emerging Economies," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(11), pages 1-15, May.
    6. Lu, Xun & Su, Liangjun, 2023. "Uniform inference in linear panel data models with two-dimensional heterogeneity," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 235(2), pages 694-719.
    7. Zheng, ShiYong & Liu, Kang & Li, Yuming & Li, Biqing & Usman, Ahmed, 2024. "How does hydrogen energy technology help to achieve carbon neutrality targets?," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 227(C).
    8. Naiping Zhu & Abednego Osei & Andrew Osei Agyemang, 2024. "Do board attributes influence environmental sustainability disclosure in manufacturing firms? Evidence from sub‐Saharan Africa," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 31(5), pages 4759-4771, September.
    9. Palazzo, Gabriel & Rapetti, Martín, 2023. "From macro to micro and macro back: Macroeconomic trade elasticities in a developing economy," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 65(C), pages 223-252.
    10. Muhammad Imran & Muhammad Kamran Khan & Salman Wahab & Bilal Ahmed & Zhang Jijian, 2025. "The paradox of resource-richness: unraveling the effects on financial markets in natural resource abundant economies," Financial Innovation, Springer;Southwestern University of Finance and Economics, vol. 11(1), pages 1-30, December.
    11. Doshi, Medha & Jain, Riidhi & Sharma, Dipasha & Mukherjee, Deepraj & Kumar, Satish, 2024. "Does ownership influence ESG disclosure scores?," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 67(PA).
    12. J. Paul Elhorst & Marco Gross & Eugen Tereanu, 2021. "Cross‐Sectional Dependence And Spillovers In Space And Time: Where Spatial Econometrics And Global Var Models Meet," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 35(1), pages 192-226, February.
    13. Liu Geng & Olivier Joseph Abban & Yao Hongxing & Charles Ofori & Joana Cobbinah & Sarah Akosua Ampong & Muhammad Akhtar, 2024. "Do military expenditures impede economic growth in 48 Islamic countries? A panel data analysis with novel approaches," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 26(7), pages 18725-18759, July.
    14. Claudia García-García & Catalina B. García-García & Román Salmerón, 2021. "Confronting collinearity in environmental regression models: evidence from world data," Statistical Methods & Applications, Springer;Società Italiana di Statistica, vol. 30(3), pages 895-926, September.
    15. Fereshteh Mahmoudian & Johnny Jermias, 2022. "The influence of governance structure on the relationship between pay ratio and environmental and social performance," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 31(7), pages 2992-3013, November.
    16. Ghosh, Soumya Kanti & Nath, Hiranya K., 2023. "What determines private and household savings in India?," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 86(C), pages 639-651.
    17. Zhongwei, Huang & Liu, Yishu, 2022. "The role of eco-innovations, trade openness, and human capital in sustainable renewable energy consumption: Evidence using CS-ARDL approach," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 201(P1), pages 131-140.
    18. Chudik, Alexander & Pesaran, M. Hashem, 2019. "Mean group estimation in presence of weakly cross-correlated estimators," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 175(C), pages 101-105.
    19. Manuchehr Irandoust, 2019. "Saving and investment causality: implications for financial integration in transition countries of Eastern Europe," International Economics and Economic Policy, Springer, vol. 16(2), pages 397-416, April.
    20. Nicholas M. Odhiambo & Talknice Saungweme, "undated". "Does International Tourism Spur International Trade In Ssa Countries? A Dynamic Panel Data Analysis," Working Papers AESRI07, African Economic and Social Research Institute (AESRI).

    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:spr:snbeco:v:5:y:2025:i:1:d:10.1007_s43546-024-00766-8. 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: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.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.