CEO characteristics and environmental disclosure of listed firms in an emerging economy: Does sustainability reporting format matter?

Abstract

The study's purpose examines chief executive officer (CEO) characteristics, sustainability reporting format, and environmental disclosure of listed firms in India. Eight hundred firm‐year observations across India's firms applied panel regression with random effect assumptions and general method of moment. The first findings show that reporting format has a positive and statistically significant association with environmental disclosure. The second findings show that CEO age and CEO tenure have an insignificant association, but CEO duality negatively associates with environmental disclosure. The third findings show that CEO characteristics (tenure and duality) × report format is insignificant. However, the CEO age × report format has a positive and statistically significant association with listed firms' environmental disclosure in India. The strategic implication shows that the choice of a stand‐alone sustainability reporting in environmental communication disclosure is a strategic benefit that secures strategic investors and investment in the firm. For the firm to be recognized as a strategic partner in global sustainable development goals, CEOs with longer tenure and aged CEOs engagements are an unsuitable investment, which Indian firms must not pursue. Endogeneity problems across panels are addressed in this study. This study's novelty examines the interactive effect of CEO characteristics and sustainability report format on environmental disclosure in India.

CEO Characteristics, Family Ownership and Corporate Social Responsibility Reporting: The Case of Saudi Arabia

“…The standard deviation of CSR was 9.685, indicating that there are significant differences in the performance of CSR across the firms sampled in this study. The mean (median) CEO tenure was 11.449 (8), indicating that a CEO in a Saudi firm has an average tenure of 11 years. Table 3 also shows that the percentage of CEOs of Saudi nationality is 77.67%, while the percentage of other nationalities is 22.33%.…”

“…However, CSR reporting continues to vary greatly across firms, which has prompted several investigations into the determinants of a firm's CSR commitment. Previous studies have shown that the CEO of a firm can significantly influence CSR reporting; thus, the incentives and characteristics of the CEO can explain the differences in the reporting of CSR activities across firms [6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13].…”

The Impact of Board Structure on Voluntary Environmental and Energy Disclosure in an Emerging Market

“…In contrast, Gerged (2021), Prado-Lorenzo and Garcia-Sanchez (2010), and Jizi et al (2014) emphasized the beneficial correlation between CEO duality and environmental disclosure. However, they occasionally result in a decline in environmental disclosure (Oware and Awunyo-Vitor, 2021;Hassan et al, 2020;Jizi et al, 2014). More powerful CEOs advocate for social and environmental transparency to be considered effective and boost their tenure or salary possibilities (Jizi et al, 2014).…”

Do foreign chief executive officers spend more on corporate social responsibility in Vietnam?

“…Within the realm of the CSR literature, researchers have predicted that factors that improve a firm's corporate social performance. These include financial slack (Boso et al, 2017; Julian & Ofori‐Dankwa, 2013), managerial attitudes (Adomako & Amankwah‐Amoah, 2021; Roxas & Coetzer, 2012), managerial characteristics (Oware & Awunyo‐Vitor, 2021; Walls & Berrone, 2017), and stakeholder pressure (Adomako & Tran, 2022; Nguyen & Adomako, 2021). In addition, the upper echelons theory suggests that top management (e.g., chief executive officers) plays an important role in the decision‐making process which ultimately affects the performance of the firm (Hambrick, 2007; Hambrick & Mason, 1984).…”

“…These include financial slack (Boso et al, 2017;Julian & Ofori-Dankwa, 2013), managerial attitudes (Adomako & Amankwah-Amoah, 2021;Roxas & Coetzer, 2012), managerial characteristics (Oware & Awunyo-Vitor, 2021;Walls & Berrone, 2017), and stakeholder pressure (Adomako & Tran, 2022;Nguyen & Adomako, 2021).…”