Corporate Governance Configurations and Corporate Social Responsibility Disclosure: Qualitative Comparative Analysis of Audit Committee and Board characteristics

Abstract

Drawing on the complexity theory and responding to the recent calls to use such creative methods that mix between a quantitative and qualitative approach. Therefore, this study fills the literature gap, adding novelties, showing evidence from the unexplored (or underexplored) European context and, consequently, shedding light to inconclusive results in previous research concerning the effect of audit committee (AC) and board characteristics on corporate social responsibility (CSR) disclosure by applying a novel research methodology: the fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis. The data were collected from Eikon database for a sample of the top 69 nonfinancial European companies (based on market capitalisation) for the period 2016-2018. The study results support the equifinality and complexity tenets of complexity theory. It also suggests that CSR disclosure relies on a complex configuration of some AC attributes, for example, independence, financial expert member, chair independence, size and activity, and other board characteristics (independence, gender, size, activity, and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) duality). These characteristics play a leading part as a recipe ingredient and, in an appropriate combination, promote achieving high CSR disclosure levels. Our empirical results offer multidimensional and valuable insights for professionals, regulators, and policymakers in establishing and revising the guidelines regarding the AC and board of directors' composition.

The effect of the board on corporate social responsibility: bibliometric and social network analysis

“…As shown in Table 10, board independence, gender diversity, and board size are the most used variables with frequency of 101, 95, and 71, respectively. On the other hand, few studies on the field of the board of directors and CSR have studied other board variables for example; audit committee characteristics (Dwekat et al, 2020), board age, board education and experience, board tenure, board interlocking, board compensations, CSR committee characteristics. Thus, it could be useful for future research to focus on these variables.…”

Audit Committee Formation: The Case of Poland

“…This article can be considered a direct response to these calls as we study ACs in the European economy. Moreover, this article adds to our understanding of the divergent practices related to ACs across European countries, so this study fills the gap in the literature by providing new information and evidence from the unexplored European context (Dwekat et al, 2020).…”

The Impact of Audit Committee Characteristics on Corporate Biodiversity Disclosure: An Analysis of Japanese Firms

“…One of the most crucial variables that affect the functioning of AC is the independence of its chair. The decisions of an AC are directly affected by AC chair as the chair is the responsible for the planning of entire agenda, AC meetings, coordinating with the board and other committees, setting the objectives of internal audit, and also outline entire audit activities (Appuhami & Tashakor, 2017;Dwekat et al, 2020). Generally, it is suggested that the chairman/chair-person of an AC should be an independent person that have no chair or key position in corporate board.…”