Corporate social and environmental disclosure as a sustainable development tool provided by board sub‐committees: Do women directors play a relevant moderating role?

Abstract

The aim of this research is to examine the impact of three audit committee characteristics on corporate social and environmental responsibility (CSR) disclosure: the existence of an audit committee, audit committee independence, and audit committee financial expertise. Moreover, this research analyzes the moderating effect of board gender diversity between these audit committees' attributes and CSR reporting. The results of analyzing 13,178 firm-year observations of non-financial companies show that the presence of an audit committee and audit committee financial expertise are positively associated with CSR disclosure. However, a higher proportion of non-executive directors in audit committees has a negative effect on the disclosure of CSR information. These findings suggest that some audit committees' features play an important role in ensuring the reporting of environmental, social, and economic information. Our evidence also indicates that the presence of female directors on boards increases the positive impact of financial expert membership of audit committees on CSR disclosure, while women directors moderate any negative effect of the percentage of independent directors on audit committees on CSR reporting by increasing the latter. In addition, female directors moderate the positive impact of the existence of an audit committee on the disclosure of CSR information by reducing the latter.

Sustainability assurance practices: a systematic review and future research agenda

“…The independence of AC members and gender diversity among auditors is positively related to ensuring sustainability, while there is a negative correlation with the size of ACs (Adegboye et al 2020 ). The research was taken a step further by Pucheta-Martínez et al ( 2021 ), who evaluated the moderating role of gender diversity on the impact of ACs, which appeared to be statically significant. Due to the inconclusive findings of the prior studies on the role of AC attributes in sustainability assurance, future investigation is highly warranted in this area.…”

Are firms with better sustainability performance more resilient during crises?

“…A higher level of debt reduces financial performance (Grove et al, 2011). We use the natural log of total assets as a control for firm size (García‐Sánchez et al, 2020; Lu, Yu, et al, 2021; Pucheta‐Martínez et al, 2021; Ren et al, 2021; Ullah, 2021). At the country level, we control for gross domestic product (GDP) growth and country‐level corporate governance, following Jacoby et al (2019) and Lu and Wang (2021).…”

The role of the audit committee in enhancing the credibility of CSR disclosure: Evidence from STOXX Europe 600 members

“…More recently, Dwekat, Seguí-Mas, Tormo-Carbó, and Carmona (2020) state that AC independence is one of the most critical AC configurations that would improve the CSRD level. Haniffa and Cooke (2005), using a sample of 139 Malaysian companies, revealed an inverse relationship between CSRD and AC independence, a finding which is also supported by Pucheta-Martínez et al (2021). A plausible explanation for this negative relationship is that independent members may play an ineffective supervisory role due to the absence of real independence, an excessive workload, and limited industry experience (Abdul Rahman & Mohamed Ali, 2006).…”

“…A study by Zaman et al (2021) provides recent empirical evidence; they state that the presence of industry expert members on the AC would enhance the quality and credibility of CSRA. Other studies, such as those of Pucheta‐Martínez et al (2021), Mohammadi et al (2021) and Dwekat, Seguí‐Mas, Tormo‐Carbó, and Carmona (2020), argue that the existence of financial expert members on ACs would improve CSR reporting. However, Appuhami and Tashakor (2017) found no association between CSRD and AC financial expertise.…”

“…Other studies, such as those of Pucheta-Martínez et al (2021), Mohammadi et al (2021) and Dwekat, Seguí-Mas, Tormo-Carbó, and Carmona (2020), argue that the existence of financial expert members on ACs would improve CSR reporting. However, Appuhami and Tashakor (2017) found no association between CSRD and AC financial expertise.…”