Ownership structure and sustainability reporting: emerging economies evidence

Abstract

Purpose The purpose of this study is to empirically examine the impact of ownership structure variables on the level of sustainability reporting (SR) of listed BRICS energy firms as well as the moderating role of the board sustainability committee on this relationship. Design/methodology/approach This study used a sample of 1,260 firm-year observations from BRICS for the period 2010–2019. This study uses the Bloomberg database, companies’ annual reports and companies’ websites for data collection and the ordinary least squares (OLS) and instrutemental variables (IV) two-stage least squares (2SLS) regressions for data analysis. Findings This study provides empirical evidence that foreign ownership, managerial ownership and blockholder ownership have a positive and statistically significant impact on the level of SR. However, the results indicate institutional ownership impacts SR negatively. The findings remain qualitatively the same after addressing endogeneity concerns using the IV 2SLS regression method. Research limitations/implications This paper has some limitations. This study focuses on listed companies in BRICS. Therefore, future studies should look at non-listed small and medium enterprises. Similarly, because this study focuses on emerging economies, future studies should consider comparative studies between developed and developing economies. Practical implications This study makes significant empirical, theoretical and regulatory contributions to policymakers, investors and management on the ownership type that positively influence the level of SR. Originality/value This study contributes to the corporate governance and sustainability literature and extends existing empirical literature on the role of ownership structure on the level of SR in the context of emerging economies. This study provides important theoretical and empirical evidence for regulators and policymakers.