This paper explores the relationship between board characteristics and environmental performance. We adopt a triple perspective of environmental performance, focussing on emissions (waste and CO2), resource consumption (water and energy), and the implementation of environmental initiatives. The sample comprises 644 nonfinancial European Union–based companies. The data cover the period 2002 to 2017. The results confirm that gender diversity and the existence of a corporate social responsibility committee are positively associated with the firms' environmental performance. This finding is consistent with the view that the educational background, talent, and experience of women help promote sustainable environmental initiatives. The existence of a corporate social responsibility committee reflects a company's commitment to sustainable development.

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This paper analyses the structure of boards of directors and its impact on business performance, which is approximated by economic profitability and the Tobin's Q ratio. We focus on three basic aspects of boards that have been reviewed in the recent reform of the Good Governance Code: the size of boards, their independence and their diversity. For the study of diversity, we use an index that integrates not only the gender of board members, but also their age and nationality, since these are factors that can influence the knowledge, experience and skills of the directors. The results confirm a high degree of compliance with the recommendations of the Good Governance Code, and suggest that the performance of the advisory and monitoring functions are factors that determine the composition of boards. With respect to the performance of the company, we note that there is a negative and significant relationship with the independence of boards. However, the results are sensitive to the performance measure employed.

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We investigate bidder’s short- and long-term performance in periods of high and low valuation market in response to announcements of acquisitions carried out by Spanish listed firms over the period 1991–2016. We find that acquirers of unlisted targets fully react at the announcement date in high valuation periods, meanwhile the underreaction of listed target bidders at the moment of the announcement in low valuation markets is the result of return continuations. In addition, we find that the market reaction do not depend on recent merger history. Therefore, we provide evidence that bidder reaction to acquisitions is not consistent with the predictions of market sentiment (optimism) after controlling for the listing status of the target firm, not supporting, for a thinner market as the Spanish one, the evidence observed in US and UK markets. JEL CLASSIFICATION G14; G34; L33; D81