IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ebg/iesewp/d-0577.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Sustainability in the boardroom: An empirical examination of Dow Jones sustainability world index leaders

Author

Listed:
  • Ricart, Joan E.

    (IESE Business School)

  • Rodriguez, Miguel A.

    (IESE Business School)

  • Sanchez, Pablo

    (IESE Business School)

Abstract

In recent years, there has been a virtual explosion of interest in corporate governance. Corporate scandals and the need to protect minority shareholders' interests, for example, are some of the reasons behind the development of corporate governance codes in numerous countries and corporations. At the same time, the concepts of "sustainable development", "corporate responsibility", and "corporate citizenship" have taken root in the business world. Although an extensive body of research treats the fields of corporate governance and sustainable development separately, less attention has been paid to the interaction between both fields. This paper attempts to bridge this gap by examining how corporate governance systems are evolving in order to integrate sustainable development thinking into them. We do so by analyzing the governance systems of the 18 corporations that are leading the market sectors considered by the Dow Jones Sustainability World Index (DJSWI). We present the results of our in depth analysis of the 18 cases and propose the Sustainable Corporate Governance Model that emerges from that analysis.

Suggested Citation

  • Ricart, Joan E. & Rodriguez, Miguel A. & Sanchez, Pablo, 2004. "Sustainability in the boardroom: An empirical examination of Dow Jones sustainability world index leaders," IESE Research Papers D/577, IESE Business School.
    • Handle: RePEc:ebg:iesewp:d-0577
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.iese.edu/research/pdfs/DI-0577-E.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Amy J. Hillman & Albert A. Cannella & Ramona L. Paetzold, 2000. "The Resource Dependence Role of Corporate Directors: Strategic Adaptation of Board Composition in Response to Environmental Change," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 37(2), pages 235-256, March.
    2. Jensen, Michael C. & Meckling, William H., 1976. "Theory of the firm: Managerial behavior, agency costs and ownership structure," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 3(4), pages 305-360, October.
    3. Ricart, Joan E. & Rodríguez, Miguel A. & Sanchez, Pablo, 2002. "Sustainable development and sustainability of competitive advantage: A dynamic and sustainable view of the firm," IESE Research Papers D/462, IESE Business School.
    4. Baysinger, Barry D & Butler, Henry N, 1985. "Corporate Governance and the Board of Directors: Performance Effects of Changes in Board Composition," The Journal of Law, Economics, and Organization, Oxford University Press, vol. 1(1), pages 101-124, Spring.
    5. Stuart L. Hart & Gautam Ahuja, 1996. "Does It Pay To Be Green? An Empirical Examination Of The Relationship Between Emission Reduction And Firm Performance," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 5(1), pages 30-37, March.
    6. Demsetz, Harold & Lehn, Kenneth, 1985. "The Structure of Corporate Ownership: Causes and Consequences," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 93(6), pages 1155-1177, December.
    7. Frank Figge & Tobias Hahn & Stefan Schaltegger & Marcus Wagner, 2002. "The Sustainability Balanced Scorecard – linking sustainability management to business strategy," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 11(5), pages 269-284, September.
    8. Anne D. Smith & Carl Zeithaml, 1996. "Garbage Cans and Advancing Hypercompetition: The Creation and Exploitation of New Capabilities and Strategic Flexibility in Two Regional Bell Operating Companies," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 7(4), pages 388-399, August.
    9. Brian Boyd, 1990. "Corporate linkages and organizational environment: A test of the resource dependence model," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 11(6), pages 419-430, October.
    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. Ionela-Carmen, PIRNEA & Raluca-Andreea, POPA, 2015. "Relationship Social Responsibility – Sustenability At The Enterprise Level," Management Strategies Journal, Constantin Brancoveanu University, vol. 28(2), pages 51-59.
    2. Azlan Amran & Shiau Ping Lee & S. Susela Devi, 2014. "The Influence of Governance Structure and Strategic Corporate Social Responsibility Toward Sustainability Reporting Quality," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 23(4), pages 217-235, May.

    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. Naeem Tabassum & Satwinder Singh, 2020. "Corporate Governance and Organisational Performance," Springer Books, Springer, number 978-3-030-48527-6, December.
    2. Martin Arnegger & Christian Hofmann & Kerstin Pull & Karin Vetter, 2014. "Firm size and board diversity," Journal of Management & Governance, Springer;Accademia Italiana di Economia Aziendale (AIDEA), vol. 18(4), pages 1109-1135, November.
    3. Santanu K. Ganguli & Soumya Guha Deb, 2021. "Board composition, ownership structure and firm performance: New Indian evidence," International Journal of Disclosure and Governance, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 18(3), pages 256-268, September.
    4. Afzalur Rashid, 2015. "Revisiting Agency Theory: Evidence of Board Independence and Agency Cost from Bangladesh," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 130(1), pages 181-198, August.
    5. Ayuso, Silvia & Argandoña, Antonio, 2007. "Responsible corporate governance: Towards a stakeholder board of directors?," IESE Research Papers D/701, IESE Business School.
    6. Jihwan Yeon & Seoki Lee & Phillip M Jolly & Anna S Mattila, 2023. "The impact of environmental management on firm performance in the U.S. lodging REITs: The moderating role of outside board of directors," Tourism Economics, , vol. 29(2), pages 513-532, March.
    7. Yasemin Kor & Joseph Mahoney & Sharon Watson, 2008. "The effects of demand, competitive, and technological uncertainty on board monitoring and institutional ownership of IPO firms," Journal of Management & Governance, Springer;Accademia Italiana di Economia Aziendale (AIDEA), vol. 12(3), pages 239-259, August.
    8. Attiya Y. Javid & Robina Iqbal, 2010. "Corporate Governance in Pakistan : Corporate Valuation, Ownership and Financing," Governance Working Papers 22830, East Asian Bureau of Economic Research.
    9. Mike Peng & Yi Jiang, 2006. "Family Ownership And Control In Large Firms: The Good, The Bad, The Irrelevant ??? And Why," William Davidson Institute Working Papers Series wp840, William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan.
    10. Yuan George Shan, 2019. "Managerial ownership, board independence and firm performance," Accounting Research Journal, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 32(2), pages 203-220, July.
    11. Al-Faryan, Mamdouh Abdulaziz Saleh, 2017. "The relationship between corporate governance mechanisms and the performance of Saudi listed firms," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 14(2-2), pages 338-349.
    12. Premepeh, kwadwo Boateng & Odartei-Mills, Eugene, 2015. "Corporate governance structure and shareholder wealth maximisation," MPRA Paper 68087, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    13. Konrad, Kai A., 1992. "Equilibrium corporate ownership structure with free-riding," EconStor Research Reports 112692, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics.
    14. Jimmy A. Saravia, 2014. "Why has the literature on corporate governance and firm performance yielded mixed results?," Documentos de Trabajo de Valor Público 10914, Universidad EAFIT.
    15. Misbah Azam & Dr. Ali Raza Elahi & Dr. Shahbaz-Ul-Haque, 2023. "Managerial Discretion and Corporate Governance Mechanism: A Case Study of Public Limited Firms of Pakistan," Bulletin of Business and Economics (BBE), Research Foundation for Humanity (RFH), vol. 12(4), pages 564-576.
    16. Shi, Juehui & Lin, Winston T. & Pham, Ngoc Cindy, 2021. "The Relationships Among Managerial Discretion, Firm Performance, and Chief Executive Officer Compensation: A Simultaneous Equations System Approach," American Business Review, Pompea College of Business, University of New Haven, vol. 24(1), pages 114-140, May.
    17. Jin-hui Luo & Di-fang Wan & Di Cai, 2012. "The private benefits of control in Chinese listed firms: Do cash flow rights always reduce controlling shareholders’ tunneling?," Asia Pacific Journal of Management, Springer, vol. 29(2), pages 499-518, June.
    18. Jaskiewicz, Peter & Klein, Sabine, 2007. "The impact of goal alignment on board composition and board size in family businesses," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 60(10), pages 1080-1089, October.
    19. Kor, Yasemin Y. & Watson, Sharon & Mahoney, Joseph T., 2004. "Industry Effects on the Use of Board and Institutional Investor Monitoring and Executive Incentive Compensation," Working Papers 04-0108, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, College of Business.
    20. Pugliese, A. & Bezemer, P.J. & Zattoni, A. & Huse, M. & van den Bosch, F.A.J. & Volberda, H.W., 2009. "Boards of Directors’ Contribution to Strategy: A Literature Review and Research Agenda," ERIM Report Series Research in Management ERS-2009-013-STR, Erasmus Research Institute of Management (ERIM), ERIM is the joint research institute of the Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University and the Erasmus School of Economics (ESE) at Erasmus University Rotterdam.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Corporate governance; sustainable corporate governance; sustainable enterprise; sustainable development; business in society;
    All these keywords.

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    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:ebg:iesewp:d-0577. 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: Noelia Romero (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/ienaves.html .

    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.