Board Sustainability Committees, Climate Change Initiatives, Carbon Performance, and Market Value

We examine the interrelationships among board sustainability committees, process-based climate change initiatives, outcome-based carbon performance, and market value through the lens of economic- and social-based theoretical perspectives. Using a panel dataset of 8,408 observations from 35 countries between 2002 and 2019, we find that higher levels of actual greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions are negatively associated with market value. Further, we reveal a positive association between process-based climate change initiatives and market value. We then provide evidence that process-based climate change initiatives are positively related to increased levels of GHG emissions. We also observe that the presence of a board sustainability committee has a positive impact on market value, but does not seem to improve outcome-based carbon performance. Finally, we show that the predicted relationships vary across different country-groups, sector-groups, and periods. Our empirical findings are robust to alternative measures, endogeneities, and sample selection bias. Overall, our evidence supports the symbolic legitimation/greenwashing view in that firms are likely to employ process-based climate change initiatives under a symbolic approach to create positive impressions among stakeholders and protect their legitimacy

Corporate governance, national governance quality, and biodiversity reporting: Global evidence

We explore the effects of corporate governance and national governance quality on corporate biodiversity reporting and investigate whether national governance quality moderates the relationship between corporate governance and biodiversity reporting practices. Using a sample of global firms across 36 countries for the 2009 to 2020 period, we find that the overall quality of corporate governance and individual governance dimensions, such as management effectiveness, corporate social responsibility (CSR) practices, and shareholder treatment are positively associated with biodiversity reporting. Our results suggest that firms operating in countries with strong national governance systems tend to disseminate extensive biodiversity information. We also find that national governance quality positively moderates the relationships of CSR practices and shareholder treatment with biodiversity reporting practices, but has no impact on the link between management effectiveness and biodiversity reporting. Our findings have a number of implications for regulators, policymakers, and organizational stakeholders. Overall, our results support the dynamic capabilities view in that internal and external governance mechanisms/systems can motivate and compel boards of directors and management teams to develop dynamic capabilities, engage in sustainability practices, and enhance biodiversity transparency

Understanding the relation between climate change risks and biodiversity disclosures: An international analysis

This study explores the relation between firm-level climate change risks, measured by carbon emissions and waste generation, and the level of biodiversity disclosures. Drawing on an international sample from 2009 to 2021, our study employs panel regression models to assess the effects of climate change risks on biodiversity disclosures. We also conduct a range of sensitivity analyses, including additional proxies, endogeneity tests, and alternative samples to examine the robustness of our inferences. We find that firms with higher carbon emissions and waste generation levels tend to disclose extensive biodiversity information. Furthermore, we provide evidence that the disaggregated components of carbon (Scope 1 and 2) emissions and waste (hazardous and non-hazardous) generation volumes are positively associated with biodiversity disclosures. Our results also reveal that the effects of climate change risks on biodiversity disclosures are stronger for firms from environmentally sensitive industries. Finally, our results show that climate and biodiversity protection regulations appear to be effective in limiting legitimation efforts. Consistent with legitimacy theory, our findings suggest that high carbon and waste emitting firms tend to utilize increased biodiversity disclosures as a legitimizing tool to conform to societal expectations and protect their legitimacy