Inspired by the promotion of gender balance on boards of directors of listed companies in Europe, this study seeks to understand whether the presence of women with different responsibilities is associated with gender policies disclosed in corporate social responsibility or sustainability reports. Using the data of listed companies in Italy, we find a positive association between the presence of women in the role of chairperson and the implementation with disclosure of gender policies. Consistent with gender self-schema, women believe in their values, and pay attention to conflict management when they are in the position of chairperson. We find different results when the women are in the position of chief executive officer (CEO). The position of CEO is usually a male job and our results show a non-significant perception of female problems when a woman occupies the CEO position. This study contributes to corporate social responsibility analysis of the reporting of gender policies.
Corporate governance has long been the subject of interest for researchers in business administration. Corporate social responsibility (CSR) practices decided by boards of directors are now a key issue in the decision‐making process of companies. The relationship between the governance structure and CSR policies is crucial to defining the companies' strategic view. In this paper, we identify how the characteristics of corporate governance impact CSR disclosure. Our findings show that a large board of directors reduces the probability of adhering to practices that involve stakeholders more closely in company activity, while companies with more independent directors have a higher level of stakeholder protection almost by definition. Thus, there is a need for additional ways of involving stakeholders in company activity. Our results also reveal that an overlap between the roles of the CEO and the board chairman is an undesirable influence on a CSR report.
This study investigates the relationship between the implementation of mandatory gender quotas on boards and companies' environmental indicators for Italian listed firms from 2010 to 2018. First, based on the upper echelon and resource dependence theories, we expect that the resources provided by female directors appointed under a coercive legal approach will lead to a reduction in firms' greenhouse gas emissions and an increase in recycled waste. These resources are mainly based on female personality, backgrounds and environmental commitment, which improve firms' environmental decision-making. Second, based on the gender socialisation and overconfidence theories, we expect that women's attention to stakeholders and experts will be negatively related to firms' environmental violations, which result in litigation and penalties. To test our hypotheses we used a content analysis and a staggered difference-in-difference multivariate regression model. Our results confirm our expectations for environmental performance and litigation, but not for penalties.
A benefit corporation (BC) is a for-profit company that pursues common benefits for stakeholders. Adopting institutional theory, we analyse the characteristics of the company in relation to the common benefits a BC pursue and how BC model fits with corporate social responsibility (CSR) practices defined in literature. BCs were introduced by a 2016 law in Italy, that was the first European country to approve legislation for BCs, under which a company must indicate its specific common benefit in its articles of association (AoAs). We run a multivariate regression on data from a content analysis on companies' AoA and then use questionnaire data to perform a cluster analysis and interviews to provide additional information. We show that larger and profitable firms focus on customers, while mature firm focus on the environment in the definition of common benefit in AoA. There is resistance to profit sharing. Industry and location specific are important drivers. Among first evidences, it is interesting to see that the most frequent perceived advantage of BC status is differentiation, BC and BCorp do not in practice overlap, and ownership is the main promoter of the change to become BC.
Using the signaling theory as a reference, this research conducts an in-depth analysis of the adoption of the benefit corporation model, a legal and governance framework introduced into Italian regulations in 2016 following legislation introduced by many US states between 2010 and 2013. Focusing on the experience of Italian benefit corporations, we explore how these businesses manage their signaling environment (signaler, signal, receiver, and feedback) to obtain greater transparency. The analysis focuses on companies’ bylaws, websites, and non-financial reports and suggests that the adoption of this new hybrid business model will only translate into an opportunity for greater transparency for one in four benefit corporations. The ability to strengthen the effects of adopting this model, adequate resources, and a long-term approach are required. The model, therefore, appears to present an opportunity for larger companies that have already invested adequately in the development of communication (web) and reporting (report) tools. The results seem to suggest that, on the contrary, for small companies with less experience, transformation into a benefit corporation may generate a risk of ambiguity.
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