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For almost half a century, society has been aware of the existence of a glass ceiling, a term that describes the invisible barriers that hinder women’s access to power positions despite having equal or greater qualifications, skills and merits than their male counterparts. Nowadays, although there are signs of slow progress, women are still underrepresented in the upper echelons of large corporations and the risk of reversing the progress made in gender parity has increased because of the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. This paper contributes to previous literature by analysing the impact that the uncertainty and cognitive effects associated with COVID-19 in 2020 had on the presence of women on the board of directors and whether this impact has been moderated by the regulatory and policy system on gender quotas in place at the time.

To test the authors' research hypotheses, the authors selected the major global companies worldwide with economic-financial and non-financial information available in the Thomson Reuters EIKON database over the 2015–2020 period. As a result, the authors' final sample is made up of 1,761 companies from 52 countries with different institutional settings that constitute an unbalanced data panel of 8,963 observations. The nature of the dependent variables requires the use of logistic regressions. The models incorporate the terms to control for any unobservable heterogeneity and the error term. Any endogeneity issues were addressed by considering the explanatory variables with a time lag.

The authors find that almost 30% of the companies downsized their boards in 2020. This decision resulted in more female than male directors being made redundant, causing a reversal in the fulfilment of gender quotas focussed on ensuring balanced boards with a female presence of 40% or more. This effect was enhanced in countries with hard-law regulation because the penalty for non-compliance with gender quotas had led to a significant increase in the size of these bodies in previous years through the inclusion of the required number of female directors. In contrast, the reduction in board size in soft-law countries does not differ from that in laissez-faire countries, lacking any moderating effect or impact on the number of female board members dismissed as a result of the pandemic.

This paper aims to contribute to current knowledge by analysing the impact that the countries' regulatory and normative systems on gender parity on boards of directors have had on the decisions made in relation to leadership positions, moderating the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on gender equality at a global level.

The purpose of this study is to analyse the role played by institutional investors in a firm’s decision to hire sustainability assurance services and to determine the benefits of sustainability assurance for the functioning of the capital market. This analysis is complemented by examining the quality of the sustainability assurance service that institutional investors demand.

The authors selected a sample of 1,564 multinational firms from 2002 to 2017. Panel data logit and generalised method of moments (GMM) regressions were estimated to consider decisions about hiring sustainability assurance services or not, and the assurance quality indexes constructed by a checklist based on the academic literature, respectively.

Institutional pressures associated with the environmental and social impacts of a firm’s activities lead to the convergence of institutional investor attitudes towards corporate sustainability, so that, regardless of their investment horizon, they promote the hiring of sustainability assurance services by corporate boards, which favours analyst precision and a reduction in the cost of capital. Long-term (LT) institutional investors exert influence through a selection mechanism, whereas short-term (ST) institutional investors exert influence through their presence on the board. Once the company has decided to provide assurance about its sustainability report, both types of institutional investors promote a higher quality of such service, although this is not well valued by the stock market.

This paper extends research on the monitoring role of institutional investors into the sustainability assurance context. Researchers may benefit from this paper’s findings when they examine the factors that drive the hiring of sustainability assurance services and their characteristics. This paper also shows that sustainability assurance services are a significant weakness due to the lack of standardisation in comparison with financial auditing, which complicates the assessment of their quality by stock market participants, thereby penalising those companies that provide more complete sustainability assurance reports.

Considering this paper’s findings, it seems advisable that regulators establish a normative framework to standardise sustainability assurance processes. The results can also be used as an orientation for both companies, to design their sustainability disclosure policies and regulators, to improve the running of the capital market.

Sustainability assurance services have a positive effect on the running of the capital market and improve external stakeholder decision-making by providing more reliable information, which, in turn, will favour the implementation of more sustainable actions that contribute to the attainment of sustainable development goals.

This is one of the first papers to analyse the effect of institutional ownership on a firm’s decision to hire sustainability assurance services and consider the effect of the institutional investors’ investment horizon – LT versus ST – and the channel – selection methods and/or active engagement – used by them to exert their influence. The authors also propose several measures of sustainability assurance quality to demonstrate the relevance of the contents of the assurance statement for the capital market in general and the institutional investors in particular.

The purpose of this paper is to develop environmental accounting and reporting practices (EARPs) by Portuguese local entities and their determining factors.

Data were obtained through a postal survey. In order to measure the degree of development of environmental accounting and reporting practices index was developed, which reflects the extent to which a set of eight EARPs have been implemented by the 69 Portuguese local entities included in the sample. Three variables are considered in this study as possible factors that drive the development of environmental management practices (EMPs) by local entities, namely, size of entity, accounting framework, degree of development of EMPs.

Results indicate the degree of development of EARPs in Portuguese local entities is low. Additionally, accounting regulation and the degree of development of EMPs are explaining factors of the degree of development of environmental accounting practices in Portuguese local entities.

This study adds to the international research on environmental accounting in public sector by providing empirical data from a country, Portugal, where empirical evidence is still relatively limited.

The purpose of this paper is to analyse the development of environmental management practices by Portuguese local entities and their determining factors.

The data were collected by sending a postal questionnaire. In order to measure the degree of development of environmental management practices, an index of environmental management practices (EMPI) was developed, which reflects the extent to which a set of 16 environmental management practices have been implemented by the entities included in the sample. In total, four variables are considered in this study as possible factors that drive the development of environmental management practices by local entities: type of entity; size; proactive environmental strategy; and Local Agenda 21.

Results indicate the degree of development of environmental management practices in Portuguese local entities is low. Additionally, entity size, the adoption of proactive environmental strategies and the implementation of Local Agenda 21 are explaining factors of the degree of development of such practices.

The paper adds to the international research on environmental management in the public sector by providing empirical data from a country, Portugal, where empirical evidence is still relatively limited.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the extent to which Portuguese local entities have implemented a set of environmental accounting practices, and to analyse some potential determining factors of their use.

The data were collected by sending a postal questionnaire to a sample of medium‐sized and large city councils and the municipal companies belonging to those municipalities. Three variables were considered as possible factors that drive the development of environmental accounting practices in the local public sector.

The degree of development of environmental accounting practices in Portuguese local entities is low. Organisational size and the degree of development of environmental management practices are positively and statistically related to the level of development of environmental accounting practices. However, the findings suggest that the existence of compulsory environmental accounting standards is not positively associated with the development of environmental accounting practices by Portuguese local entities.

The study limits itself to Portugal and, therefore, its results could not be applicable in other settings.

Portugal is experiencing a phase of development of regulatory environmental disclosure requirements. Understanding the environmental accounting and reporting practices currently developed by Portuguese local entities, as well as their drivers, may help regulators to develop more suitable standards for the sector.

The majority of empirical studies on environmental accounting practices in public organisations are focused largely on an Anglo‐Saxon context. This paper attempts to address this gap in the literature by providing a snapshot of the environmental accounting practices developed by Portuguese local entities.

The purpose of this study is to examine the existence of greenwashing and sustainable development goal (SDG)-washing processes by comparing ex ante (SDG Compass) and ex post (SDG Compliance) indicators and investigating whether the limitations associated with these indicators encourage companies to engage in washing processes.

The authors use a sample of 1,154 companies included in the S&P Sustainability Yearbook (formerly the RobecoSAM Yearbook). The authors test for the presence of greenwashing by comparing ex ante and ex post indicators for each SDG, whereas to test for SDG-washing, the authors compare the two ex ante and ex post approaches considering the full set of SDGs.

The results show that there is no consistency between the two types of indicators to measure the level of SDG implementation in organisations. This lack of consistency may facilitate both greenwashing and SDG-washing processes, which is due to the design and limitations of these measurement tools.

Companies may choose those indicators that paint their commitment to the SDGs in the best light, but they may also select indicators based on the SDGs they want to report on. These two options would combine greenwashing and SDG-washing.

The shift towards improved standards and regulations for measuring SDG achievement is the result of several social factors such as investor scrutiny, regulatory reform, consumer awareness and increased corporate accountability.

Few previous studies have analysed in detail the interaction between greenwashing and SDG-washing. They focus on the use of ex ante or ex post indicators separately, with samples composed of local companies, and without considering the whole set of SDGs.

This study aims to explore the connection between sustainability and non-financial reporting (NFR) settled by the Directive 2014/95/EU, aiming to shed light on how institutional isomorphic pressures (mimetic, coercive and normative) are expressed in terms of sustainability issues influenced its enactment at the European Union (EU) level.

Empirically, the contribution of this study relied on the complexity of the research design that uses the same statistical methods and techniques (e.g. principal component analysis, correlation and regression analysis) within two stages of analysis (main and robustness) to increase the trustworthy of the results reached.

The results reveal that countries with sound sustainable management pillars (economic, environmental and social) and development goals promoting economic prosperity, environmental protection and societal well-being (prosperity, planet and people) are more likely to bring active support in enhancing NFR by regulating its framework.

The empirical nature of the research left space for some limitations, as long as it relied on country-level data, thus being quite challenging to gauge the commitment to harmonization with the new Directive. Moreover, the model’s explanatory power remains questionable, as the explanatory variables might be measured differently in the model specifications.

The study addresses academia/regulators/practitioners by ascertaining their potential to better understand/promote/apply the new Directive. Thus, each could support the steps toward standardized sustainability reporting by keeping up to date with the latest improvements/addressing cross-country inconsistencies in the transposition/managing future implementation in a more effective and accountable way.

This paper approaches the harmonization process of NFR across Europe in connection with sustainability issues, grounding on institutional isomorphism. Thus, it fills an existing literature gap, as research studies approaching the new Directive from the institutional theory’s perspective are still scarce and focused on particular countries.

This study aims to explore the linkages between sustainable development and sustainability reporting by approaching the UN’s 2030 Agenda in connection with the Integrated Reporting (IR) and Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) frameworks. It aims to outline a theoretical model able to support the achievement of sustainable development goals (SDGs) through appropriate reporting.

The research methodology follows a qualitative approach, combining content and benchmarking analyses of the official documents in question. It aims to provide a better understanding of the conceptual matches between the “5 Ps” of sustainable development and the two sustainability reporting frameworks (IR and GRI) by breaking them down into components and overlapping their constituents to highlight the connections.

The results reveal that both sustainability reporting frameworks provide prerequisites to ensure SDGs achievement due to the embedded sustainability issues. As there are more matches between SDGs and the capitals implied in the pursuit of value creation, IR better fits to become part of the sustainable development strategy as a valuable option for reporting on SDGs.

The study addresses academia through a better understanding of the connections between SDGs and sustainability reporting. It might help regulators to improve their latest efforts to enhance transparency and comparability through the enactment of Directive 2014/95, as long as it has not imposed a standardised report yet. It could guide practitioners to face future challenges and support their steps towards standardised reporting practices.

This paper approaches the newsworthy topic of sustainable development, outlining a conceptual model meant to support the SDGs achievement through appropriate standardised reporting. It might also fill the gap of the Directive 2014/95 on non-financial information disclosure as it identifies the most suitable type of reporting to enhance the harmonisation at the European level.

Given growing concerns about water scarcity, this study aims to investigate the extent and quality of corporate water management disclosures (hereafter water disclosures) in countries and jurisdictions facing extremely high water-stress levels. Contextual factors, at a macro/country, meso/stock exchange and micro/company level, influencing water disclosures, are examined.

The authors adopted an institutional perspective, integrating multi-level organizational fields, including micro/company-level, meso/stock exchange-level and macro/national-level influences while considering factors such as corporate governance (CG), regulatory stringency, cultural traits, advocacy for environmental management, environmental performance and sustainability indices. The authors use a GRI 303-based index to evaluate water disclosures of the top 100 listed companies from 12 stock-exchanges based in extremely high water-stress countries over a five-year period from 2016to 2020. While checking for robustness, the authors evaluate the impact of normative, coercive and mimetic forces on water disclosures at country, stock exchange and company levels.

Overall, water disclosure rates/extent and quality remain low with only incremental improvements observed over the five-year period. In terms of drivers, at a micro-level, the authors find that robust CG positively impacts water disclosure quality. At a meso level, regulatory stringency, environmental advocacy and the presence of a sustainability index positively influence water disclosure quality. At a macro level, power distance, uncertainty avoidance and masculinity negatively impact water disclosure quality, whereas long-term orientation and uncertainty avoidance positively impact it. Furthermore, countries characterized by robust governance and high environmental performance negatively influence disclosure quality in water sensitive industries.

The findings may prove useful to policymakers and regulators, including stock exchanges, in strengthening water disclosure requirements. Standard-setters may consider introducing more guidelines to assist reporters in improving the quality of their disclosures. Practitioners (managers and assurance providers) may use the findings to benchmark corporate reporting practices.

The research provides insights that can inform policies promoting transparency and accountability around corporate use of societies’ scarce water resources. The study advances responsible water stewardship, aligning corporate actions with global sustainability goals, particularly around water scarcity. In doing so, these findings have implications that extend beyond corporate disclosure practices, impacting broader environmental conservation and resource management efforts.

The study examines corporate water disclosure rates and qualities in extremely high water-stress countries and jurisdictions. The evaluation of these disclosures using a GRI 303-based index generates a unique dataset that is analysed from a multi-level institutional perspective (micro, meso and macro) to provide insights into the factors influencing corporate water disclosure practices.

This paper aims to assess the impact of regulatory changes on corporate environmental disclosure practices in Europe. More specifically, the authors perform a difference-in-differences analysis to study the impact of the Paris agreement (United Nations Climate Change Conference, COP21) and of the French Law 2015-992 on energy transition for green growth.

The sample consists of the listed companies belonging to the Euro Stoxx 50 index, and they are analysed over the 2010–2019 time horizon by means of an expert validated environmental disclosure dictionary and difference-in-differences analysis.

The main results show that both regulatory interventions contributed to improving corporate environmental disclosure. The authors also show that firms belonging to the most polluting sectors tend to provide more information on environmental matters, likely in an attempt to divert stakeholders’ attention.

By analysing an under-investigated topic, the paper calls for significant efforts by regulators to find the most suitable solutions to induce firms to increase their levels of transparency on the impact of environmental risks and on how these risks are managed.