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With the recent conclusion of the United Nations Conference of the Parties (COP) 28 in the United Arab Emirates, this study aims to investigate the tweeting behaviour of firms surrounding COP events. The authors analyse the environmental, social and governance (ESG) tweets from the COP 26 and COP 27 events, aiming to deepen the understanding of the complex relationships between social media communication, industry characteristics and financial performance. This timely analysis is critical for assessing how the latest global discussions on climate change are influencing corporate communication strategies on sustainability, offering fresh insights into the evolving dynamics of ESG engagement in the context of these pivotal international meetings.

In this study, the authors embrace a grounded theory approach to gain insights into the ESG and sustainability initiatives presented by companies on social media, with an intensified focus on climate change discourse. Leveraging advanced social media analytics, this study expands its scope by conducting a thorough examination of ESG-related tweets from Standard and Poor’s (S&P) 500 companies. In addition, the authors explore the relationships between such communication efforts and financial performance, applying an advanced cumulative abnormal returns (CARs) model. This methodological enhancement enables a more sophisticated understanding of how ESG communication on Twitter correlates with, and potentially influences, a firm’s market valuation and financial health, offering invaluable insights into the strategic importance of digital sustainability discourse.

The research findings introduce four novel distinct groups – Unengaged, Catalysts, Cautious and Shapers – based on firms’ proactive or reactive sustainability communication patterns. The results explore the potential impact of COP event locations on tweeting behaviour, proposing that conferences held in different regions, such as Asia versus Europe, may elicit varied reactions from S&P 500 firms. Despite no significant inter-industry differences in tweeting habits, the authors discover a significant link between firms’ financial metrics, specifically CARs, and their categorised communication styles. The results challenge the simplistic view that higher social media engagement leads to positive financial outcomes, suggesting instead that lower financial performance may drive firms to adopt more extreme communication patterns, possibly as a strategic move to enhance corporate legitimacy.

This study offers new insights into how companies use social media during significant climate change events, namely, COP events. By classifying firms according to their ESG communication approaches, the results reveal uncharted correlations between how companies communicate on social media, namely, Twitter, and the correlation to financial performance.

This study uses meta-analysis to examine the relationship between corporate sustainability reporting (CSR) and stock price crash risk (SPCR) and to discern the moderating effects of country-level institutional quality and cultural dimensions on this link.

The study used mean correlation coefficients to test the relationship between CSR and SPCR and meta-regressions to test the moderating effects. The analysis considers 65 effect sizes from 24 empirical studies.

The results showed that CSR reduces the chances of SPCR. The inverse relationship between CSR and SPCR is stronger in masculine, high power distance and long-term oriented cultures and is less pronounced in individualistic, uncertainty avoidance and indulgent cultures. The inverse relationship is also stronger in countries where high-quality institutions exist.

This study is based on correlation coefficient analysis and excludes studies publishing only regression results. Furthermore, it provides guidance to lessen SPCR. Findings suggest that such initiatives may mitigate the risk of stock price crashes for firms. Through meta-analysis, this research investigates the correlation between environmental, social and governance (ESG) disclosure and stock price crash occurrences, offering insights with significant implications for the European financial landscape and globally.

This is a pioneer meta-analysis that investigates the link between CSR and SPCR and the moderating effects of country-level institutional quality and cultural dimensions. Our study sheds light on the potential impact of promoting a sustainable and responsible business environment in Europe through comprehensive ESG disclosure under the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD).

This study aims to examine the impact of firm-level corporate social responsibility (CSR) governance characteristics on the extent, quality and comprehensiveness of CSR reporting of Pakistani listed enterprises.

This study used content analysis of corporate annual reports and stand-alone CSR reports available on corporate websites in 2021 to identify CSR-related governance features and to calculate CSR reporting scores. Multivariate regression is used to test relationships. In addition, the analysis tested the moderating role of profitability in these relationships.

Firm-level CSR governance characteristics contribute to the extent, quality and comprehensiveness of CSR reporting in a developing country. Further, results confirm that profitability moderates the relationship between CSR governance and the extent and comprehensiveness of CSR reporting.

This study employed cross-sectional data and focused on a single developing country. Future studies might include a cross-national sample and longitudinal data to demonstrate the broader relevance of these findings. The outcomes of this study are restricted to CSR disclosures based on CSR reports and annual reports. Future research may examine additional corporate communication channels, such as websites and social media platforms.

This research validates the important role of CSR governance mechanisms as a driver of comprehensive CSR reporting. Business leaders and policymakers can facilitate improved corporate reporting by requiring companies to implement CSR-related governance mechanisms.

This is the first study to test the influence of firm-level CSR governance mechanisms in promoting the quantity, quality and comprehensiveness of CSR reporting in a developing country.

We investigate the integration of the United Nation's Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) into the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI)– based reporting thus exploring the factors that influence the adoption of the SDGs by organizations.

We analyzed the GRI dataset provided by the GRI data secretariat. We analyzed 14,308 reports provided by 9,397 organizations between 2016 and 2017.

Larger organizations are more likely to integrate the SDGs into their reporting than smaller organizations. Secondly, publicly listed firms are more likely to address the SDGs. Thirdly, industries with higher sustainability impacts are more likely to address the SDGs in their reporting. Fourthly, our data confirm a regional effect with regard to SDG reporting. Moreover, organizations that follow international sustainability guidelines and standards such as becoming a member of the GRI Gold Community or using the GRI Content Index services and having external assurance are more likely to report on the SDGs.

Corporations play an essential role in the achievement of the SDGs, which shape the future of the world's sustainable development. Nevertheless, SDGs reporting needs more research to analyze the factors that can influence it. The study contributed to the academic literature on CSR and legitimacy theory by analyzing institutional and regional factors that impact SDGs reporting.

The study provides insights about the integration of the SDGs into organizational reporting and accounting, including the adoption of the SDGs by small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and the benefits of the SDGs as a framework for strategic corporate sustainability.

A global sustainability framework, such as the SDGs can be integrated into organizations sustainability reporting and accounting in a meaningful way.

This is the first study that analyzes the integration of the SDGs into GRI-based reporting. The study contributes to legitimacy theory by highlighting the factors, which contribute to the legitimacy-based adoption of the SDGs, including organizational size, being publicly listed, being from high-impact industries and certain global regions, etc. SDG reporting can help firms increase their organizational legitimacy across their stakeholders.

The purpose of this study is to explore the disclosure of sustainable development goals (SDGs) by Indian firms and to examine the association between sustainable business practices and the disclosure of SDGs.

The study is based on large Indian non-financial firms listed in Bombay Stock Exchange 200 for six years from 2016–2017 to 2021–2022. Sustainable business practices are measured using four important indicators - the quality of sustainability discourse, compliance with Global Reporting Initiative guidelines, adoption of the guidelines of the International Integrated Reporting Council and external assurance of published reports. Content analysis is used to compute the disclosure score of SDGs and corporate sustainability performance. The authors have used a fixed effects regression model followed by Tobit model and two-stage least square model to examine the association between sustainable business practices and the disclosure of SDGs.

The results indicate an increasing trend of disclosure of SDGs by Indian firms. The empirical findings suggest a positive impact of sustainable business practices on the SDGs disclosure after controlling for firm-specific and corporate governance variables. Among the components of corporate sustainability, social and environmental factors positively influence the SDGs.

The study is a noble attempt to enrich the extant literature by providing empirical evidence on the association between sustainable business practices and disclosure of SDGs considering four important indicators of sustainable practices. The findings are useful for theoretical and practical implications.

Although publicly listed firms in Sri Lanka have been increasingly adapting sustainability reporting into their annual reporting practices, a limited number of firms prepare sustainability reports by integrating sustainable development goals (SDGs) into reporting mechanisms. This study attempts to develop an index to monitor firms' sustainability reporting practices based on Global Reporting Institute (GRI) guidelines integrating SDGs.

This paper develops a sustainability score index using the 17 SDGs utilising the results of content analysis of corporate annual reports of a selected sample of 100 firms listed on the Colombo Stock Exchange (CSE). Principal component analysis was employed to examine the reliability of data in the developed index.

Findings show that the developed scoring index is efficient for evaluating the contents of the sustainability reports of Sri Lankan firms. Sustainability reporting practises with regard to the SDGs were observed to have a turbulent period from 2015 to 2019 and the SDGs 12 and 15 were identified to be mostly reported in Sri Lankan corporate sustainability reports.

The results of the study add to knowledge on the monitoring of sustainability reporting practises with reference to SDGs. The study outcomes are useful for the investors, stakeholders, and statutory bodies to measure the sustainable performance of business firms and assess the firm’s commitment towards the global sustainability agenda.

To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study that constructs a sustainability reporting score index integrating SDGs.

A model on the cognitive elements of engagement is adopted and content analysis, along with sentiment analysis, has been used to explore the post characteristics and the levels of stakeholders' interactions in controversial and non-controversial European industries through three Poisson regressions. At last, an ANOVA test has been used to check the level of interaction regarding the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19)-related aspects.

The intrinsic characteristics of controversial industries cause the stakeholders’ skepticism about their corporate social responsibility (CSR) strategies. This results in the need to elaborate proper involvement strategies to approach industries' stakeholders. Such need has assumed relevance during the COVID-19 crisis and has traced a certain border between the companies that are more sensitive to the social side of the surrounding environment and the ones that are less involved in risky sectors. The present paper aims to understand the role of social media in stakeholder engagement, and social media's characteristics, and tries to elaborate on companies' CSR communication readiness to the challenges shown by the pandemic.

The study reveals how the success of stakeholder engagement in CSR communication is affected by both controversial sector membership and the characteristics of the posts such as the inclusion of the sustainable development goals (SDGs). In addition, the study emerges how the European companies have focused on social aspects in companies' communication, revealing a certain readiness for the COVID-19 challenges.

Building on a model of cognitive elements of engagement, the present study provides useful insights for companies' next engagement strategies on social media. Moreover, the thematic analysis provides a benchmark for the improvement of current corporations' communication strategies in light of the pandemic effects.

This paper contributes to the literature by investigating the role of Twitter as a stakeholder engagement tool and identifies the drivers for an effective Twitter content strategy. Moreover, the paper provides a useful proxy for current and future research on the COVID-19-related CSR communication.

The lack of transparency contributes to the growing corruption problem in various spheres of society. This paper aims to analyse the sustainability report disclosures published by Czech companies in 2021 and registered by the Association of Social Sustainability of the Czech Republic.

Based on three hypotheses, the relationships between the level of disclosed anti-corruption information and selected variables related to the corporate environment are tested using content analysis and the Mann–Whitney test.

This paper reveals that Czech firms provide more information if they operate in a higher-risk environment (energy, materials and financial services) or are state-owned (or with a state ownership stake). It also reveals that companies participating in corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives (UN Global Compact and Global Reporting Initiative) increase their credibility and social responsibility with more disclosed information.

A limitation of this paper is the smaller number of selected companies matching the chosen criteria. In addition, a certain degree of subjectivity is likely to have manifested in the process of coding the reports and in the use of the content analysis method.

The paper contributes to research that addresses the fight against corruption and CSR issues with a specific study in a small, Central European country and provides new empirical data on the anti-corruption fight problem.

This study aims to explore the impact of the chief executive officer’s (CEO) age on adopting global reporting initiative (GRI) framework for corporate social responsibility (CSR) reporting. It also underlines how board social capital moderates the relationship between CEO age and the adoption of the GRI framework.

Chinese A-listed companies during 2010–2018 were used. The authors applied a logistic regression model due to the binary nature of the dependent variable. For robustness, two-step generalized method of moments (GMM) and lagged independent variables are used.

The study finds that CEO age negatively impacts the firm’s choice of GRI reporting framework. The social capital of the board positively moderates this relationship. This finding is based on the notion that as a CEO grows older or headed toward retirement age, his/her interest in CSR diminishes due to a shorter career horizon. Boards with external links provide better advice on CSR issues and mitigate the negative impact of CEO age.

The study results are important for understanding the GRI framework’s development and implementation, particularly in China.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study that deeply examines how CEO age affects GRI adoption in the Chinese context and how the board’s social capital moderates this relationship.

The purpose of this paper is to assess online corporate communication around commitments to sustainable development goal (SDG) 12, sustainable production and consumption.

Guided by legitimacy theory, a qualitative directed content analysis was conducted on 13 companies' webpages (81 webpages, 78,947 words).

Companies broadly failed to communicate about all 11 SDG 12 targets, neglected to consistently address multiple stakeholder groups, missed opportunities to provide concrete evidence of progress and relied on a mix of substantive and symbolic legitimation strategies.

SDG 12 has been under-researched and this paper is one of the first to offer an in-depth analysis of corporate communication regarding SDG 12.