IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/wly/corsem/v30y2023i5p2490-2506.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Board of Directors' characteristics and environmental SDGs adoption: an international study

Author

Listed:
  • Jonathan Taglialatela
  • Kevin Pirazzi Maffiola
  • Roberto Barontini
  • Francesco Testa

Abstract

Drivers of environmentally conscious firm behaviour have gained increasing attention over past decades. The Board of Directors holds a central role in corporate decision‐making, and previous empirical evidence suggests that its characteristics could influence corporate environmental performance. This paper contributes to the literature with the first evidence of the influence certain board characteristics have on whether a firm ultimately supports one or more environmental SDGs. Our focus is on board size, gender diversity, board independence and CEO duality. Logistic and fractional regressions on 4417 globally listed firms highlight that board size, the share of female directors, and the share of independent directors are significant drivers of support for environmental SDGs. The results and insights revealed in this study should be helpful to policymakers, investors and corporations in evaluating the effectiveness of corporate governance characteristics and fostering corporate contributions to the 2030 Agenda.

Suggested Citation

  • Jonathan Taglialatela & Kevin Pirazzi Maffiola & Roberto Barontini & Francesco Testa, 2023. "Board of Directors' characteristics and environmental SDGs adoption: an international study," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 30(5), pages 2490-2506, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:wly:corsem:v:30:y:2023:i:5:p:2490-2506
    DOI: 10.1002/csr.2499
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1002/csr.2499
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1002/csr.2499?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
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Isabel‐María García‐Sánchez & Lázaro Rodríguez‐Ariza & Beatriz Aibar‐Guzmán & Cristina Aibar‐Guzmán, 2020. "Do institutional investors drive corporate transparency regarding business contribution to the sustainable development goals?," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 29(5), pages 2019-2036, July.
    2. Carol A. Adams, 2017. "Conceptualising the contemporary corporate value creation process," Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 30(4), pages 906-931, May.
    3. Dahlmann, Frederik & Grosvold, Johanne, 2017. "Environmental Managers and Institutional Work: Reconciling Tensions of Competing Institutional Logics," Business Ethics Quarterly, Cambridge University Press, vol. 27(2), pages 263-291, April.
    4. Francesca Manes‐Rossi & Giuseppe Nicolo', 2022. "Exploring sustainable development goals reporting practices: From symbolic to substantive approaches—Evidence from the energy sector," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 29(5), pages 1799-1815, September.
    5. Ranjita Islam & Erica French & Muhammad Ali, 2022. "Evaluating board diversity and its importance in the environmental and social performance of organizations," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 29(5), pages 1134-1145, September.
    6. Samuel Drempetic & Christian Klein & Bernhard Zwergel, 2020. "The Influence of Firm Size on the ESG Score: Corporate Sustainability Ratings Under Review," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 167(2), pages 333-360, November.
    7. Jensen, Michael C, 1986. "Agency Costs of Free Cash Flow, Corporate Finance, and Takeovers," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 76(2), pages 323-329, May.
    8. repec:eme:aaaj00:aaaj-04-2016-2529 is not listed on IDEAS
    9. Benjamin Richardson, 2009. "Keeping Ethical Investment Ethical: Regulatory Issues for Investing for Sustainability," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 87(4), pages 555-572, July.
    10. Francesco Rosati & Lourenço Galvão Diniz Faria, 2019. "Business contribution to the Sustainable Development Agenda: Organizational factors related to early adoption of SDG reporting," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 26(3), pages 588-597, May.
    11. Giovanna Michelon & Antonio Parbonetti, 2012. "The effect of corporate governance on sustainability disclosure," Journal of Management & Governance, Springer;Accademia Italiana di Economia Aziendale (AIDEA), vol. 16(3), pages 477-509, August.
    12. Simone Pizzi & Francesco Rosati & Andrea Venturelli, 2021. "The determinants of business contribution to the 2030 Agenda: Introducing the SDG Reporting Score," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 30(1), pages 404-421, January.
    13. Tobias Hahn & Frank Figge & Jonatan Pinkse & Lutz Preuss, 2018. "A Paradox Perspective on Corporate Sustainability: Descriptive, Instrumental, and Normative Aspects," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 148(2), pages 235-248, March.
    14. Roberta Provasi & Murad Harasheh, 2021. "Gender diversity and corporate performance: Emphasis on sustainability performance," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 28(1), pages 127-137, January.
    15. Pratima (Tima) Bansal & Sylvia Grewatsch & Garima Sharma, 2021. "How COVID‐19 Informs Business Sustainability Research: It’s Time for a Systems Perspective," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 58(2), pages 602-606, March.
    16. Natalie Slawinski & Pratima Bansal, 2015. "Short on Time: Intertemporal Tensions in Business Sustainability," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 26(2), pages 531-549, April.
    17. Catherine M. Daily & Dan R. Dalton, 1993. "Board of Directors Leadership and Structure: Control and Performance Implications," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 17(3), pages 65-81, April.
    18. Maretno Harjoto & Indrarini Laksmana & Robert Lee, 2015. "Board Diversity and Corporate Social Responsibility," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 132(4), pages 641-660, December.
    19. Corinne Post & Noushi Rahman & Cathleen McQuillen, 2015. "From Board Composition to Corporate Environmental Performance Through Sustainability-Themed Alliances," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 130(2), pages 423-435, August.
    20. Giuseppe Nicolò & Gianluca Zanellato & Adriana Tiron-Tudor & Paolo Tartaglia Polcini, 2022. "Revealing the corporate contribution to sustainable development goals through integrated reporting: a worldwide perspective," Social Responsibility Journal, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 19(5), pages 829-857, May.
    21. Mahmoud Arayssi & Mustafa Dah & Mohammad Jizi, 2016. "Women on boards, sustainability reporting and firm performance," Sustainability Accounting, Management and Policy Journal, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 7(3), pages 376-401, September.
    22. Maria Federica Izzo & Mirella Ciaburri & Riccardo Tiscini, 2020. "The Challenge of Sustainable Development Goal Reporting: The First Evidence from Italian Listed Companies," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(8), pages 1-18, April.
    23. Lintang D. Sekarlangit & Ratna Wardhani, 2021. "The Effect of the Characteristics and Activities of the Board of Directors on Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) Disclosures: Empirical Evidence from Southeast Asia," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(14), pages 1-17, July.
    24. Jan Anton van Zanten & Rob van Tulder, 2021. "Improving companies' impacts on sustainable development: A nexus approach to the SDGS," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 30(8), pages 3703-3720, December.
    25. Jennifer Martínez‐Ferrero & Emma García‐Meca, 2020. "Internal corporate governance strength as a mechanism for achieving sustainable development goals," Sustainable Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 28(5), pages 1189-1198, September.
    26. Fabrizio Cerbioni & Antonio Parbonetti, 2007. "Exploring the Effects of Corporate Governance on Intellectual Capital Disclosure: An Analysis of European Biotechnology Companies," European Accounting Review, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 16(4), pages 791-826.
    27. United Nations UN, 2015. "Transforming our World: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development," Working Papers id:7559, eSocialSciences.
    28. Fama, Eugene F & Jensen, Michael C, 1983. "Separation of Ownership and Control," Journal of Law and Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 26(2), pages 301-325, June.
    29. repec:eme:jaar00:jaar-04-2021-0100 is not listed on IDEAS
    30. Sarah Birrell Ivory & Simon Bentley Brooks, 2018. "Managing Corporate Sustainability with a Paradoxical Lens: Lessons from Strategic Agility," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 148(2), pages 347-361, March.
    31. Papke, Leslie E & Wooldridge, Jeffrey M, 1996. "Econometric Methods for Fractional Response Variables with an Application to 401(K) Plan Participation Rates," Journal of Applied Econometrics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 11(6), pages 619-632, Nov.-Dec..
    32. Giuseppe Nicolò & Giovanni Zampone & Giuseppe Sannino & Serena De Iorio, 2021. "Sustainable corporate governance and non-financial disclosure in Europe: does the gender diversity matter?," Journal of Applied Accounting Research, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 23(1), pages 227-249, July.
    33. Sarah Birrell Ivory & Simon Bentley Brooks, 2018. "Erratum to: Managing Corporate Sustainability with a Paradoxical Lens: Lessons from Strategic Agility," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 148(2), pages 363-363, March.
    34. MuiChing Chan & John Watson & David Woodliff, 2014. "Corporate Governance Quality and CSR Disclosures," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 125(1), pages 59-73, November.
    35. Mahmoud Arayssi & Mustafa Dah & Mohammad Jizi, 2016. "Women on boards, sustainability reporting and firm performance," Sustainability Accounting, Management and Policy Journal, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 7(3), pages 376-401, September.
    36. Mohammad Jizi, 2017. "The Influence of Board Composition on Sustainable Development Disclosure," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 26(5), pages 640-655, July.
    37. Veronica Tibiletti & Pier Luigi Marchini & Katia Furlotti & Alice Medioli, 2021. "Does corporate governance matter in corporate social responsibility disclosure? Evidence from Italy in the “era of sustainability”," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 28(2), pages 896-907, March.
    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. Maria Elena Latino & Marta Menegoli & Maria Chiara De Lorenzi, 2024. "A pattern‐based tool to support companies in sustainability‐oriented business strategies: grounded theory research in agribusiness," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 31(4), pages 3348-3367, July.
    2. Andrea Lippi & Riccardo Torelli & Andrea Caccialanza, 2024. "Relationship between governance diversity and company growth: Evidence from the FT 1000 Europe's fastest growing companies," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 31(1), pages 650-658, January.

    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. Nicolo, Giuseppe & Zampone, Giovanni & Sannino, Giuseppe & Tiron-Tudor, Adriana, 2023. "Worldwide evidence of corporate governance influence on ESG disclosure in the utilities sector," Utilities Policy, Elsevier, vol. 82(C).
    2. Lucrezia Songini & Anna Pistoni & Patrizia Tettamanzi & Fabrizio Fratini & Valentina Minutiello, 2022. "Integrated reporting quality and BoD characteristics: an empirical analysis," Journal of Management & Governance, Springer;Accademia Italiana di Economia Aziendale (AIDEA), vol. 26(2), pages 579-620, June.
    3. Jose Manuel Diaz‐Sarachaga, 2021. "Shortcomings in reporting contributions towards the sustainable development goals," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 28(4), pages 1299-1312, July.
    4. Nurshahirah Abd Majid & Amar Hisham Jaaffar & Raed Hussam Mansour Alzoubi, 2023. "The Impact of Women’s Role in Corporate Governance on Carbon Disclosure Performance: A Descriptive Study of Top 100 Global Energy Leaders," International Journal of Energy Economics and Policy, Econjournals, vol. 13(6), pages 404-417, November.
    5. Francesca Manes‐Rossi & Giuseppe Nicolo', 2022. "Exploring sustainable development goals reporting practices: From symbolic to substantive approaches—Evidence from the energy sector," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 29(5), pages 1799-1815, September.
    6. Silu Cheng, 2023. "Are superstar directors effective in corporate social responsibility performance? An empirical analysis of sustainable development goals," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 30(2), pages 487-503, March.
    7. Muhammad Kaleem Khan & R. M. Ammar Zahid & Adil Saleem & Judit Sági, 2021. "Board Composition and Social & Environmental Accountability: A Dynamic Model Analysis of Chinese Firms," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(19), pages 1-18, September.
    8. Simone Pizzi & Francesco Rosati & Andrea Venturelli, 2021. "The determinants of business contribution to the 2030 Agenda: Introducing the SDG Reporting Score," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 30(1), pages 404-421, January.
    9. Chiara Mio & Silvia Panfilo & Benedetta Blundo, 2020. "Sustainable development goals and the strategic role of business: A systematic literature review," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 29(8), pages 3220-3245, December.
    10. Rupjyoti Saha & K. C. Kabra, 2020. "Corporate Governance and Voluntary Disclosure: A Synthesis of Empirical Studies," Business Perspectives and Research, , vol. 8(2), pages 117-138, July.
    11. Marika Arena & Giovanni Azzone & Sara Ratti & Valeria Maria Urbano & Giovanni Vecchio, 2023. "Sustainable development goals and corporate reporting: An empirical investigation of the oil and gas industry," Sustainable Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 31(1), pages 12-25, February.
    12. Dewan Muktadir‐Al‐Mukit & Firoz Haroon Bhaiyat, 2024. "Impact of corporate governance diversity on carbon emission under environmental policy via the mandatory nonfinancial reporting regulation," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 33(2), pages 1397-1417, February.
    13. Elías Domingo‐Posada & Pilar L. González‐Torre & Marta M. Vidal‐Suárez, 2024. "Sustainable development goals and corporate strategy: A map of the field," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 31(4), pages 2733-2748, July.
    14. Giovanna Gavana & Pietro Gottardo & Anna Maria Moisello, 2023. "Board diversity and corporate social performance in family firms. The moderating effect of the institutional and business environment," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 30(5), pages 2194-2218, September.
    15. Jonathan Taglialatela & Ivan Miroshnychenko & Roberto Barontini & Francesco Testa, 2024. "Talk or walk? The board of directors and firm environmental strategies," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 33(4), pages 2890-2910, May.
    16. 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.
    17. Shubham Singhania & Jagvinder Singh & Deepti Aggrawal, 2023. "Gender diversity on board and corporate sustainability: a quantitative review based on bibliometric mapping," International Journal of System Assurance Engineering and Management, Springer;The Society for Reliability, Engineering Quality and Operations Management (SREQOM),India, and Division of Operation and Maintenance, Lulea University of Technology, Sweden, vol. 14(1), pages 267-286, February.
    18. Mohammad Badrul Haider & Kimitaka Nishitani, 2022. "Ownership structure, corporate governance, and assurance in sustainability reporting: evidence from Japan," International Journal of Disclosure and Governance, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 19(4), pages 374-388, December.
    19. Ayman Issa & Mohammad A. A. Zaid & Jalal Rajeh Hanaysha, 2022. "Exploring the relationship between female director's profile and sustainability performance: Evidence from the Middle East," Managerial and Decision Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 43(6), pages 1980-2002, September.
    20. Mariasole Bannò & Emilia Filippi & Sandro Trento, 2023. "Women in top echelon positions and their effects on sustainability: a review, synthesis and future research agenda," Journal of Management & Governance, Springer;Accademia Italiana di Economia Aziendale (AIDEA), vol. 27(1), pages 181-251, March.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    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:wly:corsem:v:30:y:2023:i:5:p:2490-2506. 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: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://doi.org/10.1002/(ISSN)1535-3966 .

    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.