Jibriel Elsayih, Rina Datt and Ali Hamid
Research suggests that chief executive officers (CEOs) play an important role in enhancing a firm’s legitimacy with regard to environmental performance. The purpose of this paper…
Abstract
Purpose
Research suggests that chief executive officers (CEOs) play an important role in enhancing a firm’s legitimacy with regard to environmental performance. The purpose of this paper is to use the upper echelons theory and stakeholder theory to investigate whether the characteristics of CEOs are associated with carbon performance (CP).
Design/methodology/approach
This paper uses a sample of 128 firm-year observations from Australian companies that participated in the carbon disclosure project from 2011 through 2014.
Findings
Two-stage least squares estimation reveals that CEO executive experience and CEO duality are positively associated with CP. By contrast, CEO tenure, CEO functional background experience and CEO industry experience are negatively related to CP, and CEO ownership is not related to CP.
Practical implications
The results might provide evidence for investors, policymakers and regulators with respect to the effectiveness of CEO characteristics for addressing carbon risks and possible linkages between CEO characteristics and carbon emission levels. In addition, the results give support CEO accountability regarding the carbon emissions.
Originality/value
This study provides the first empirical evidence of the impact of CEO characteristics on CP. Furthermore, this study contributes to the existing literature by showing how the characteristics of CEOs can impact corporate CP and provides a more in-depth understanding of whether such characteristics play important roles in determining corporate carbon action.
Details
Keywords
Jibriel Elsayih, Qingliang Tang and Yi-Chen Lan
The purpose of this paper is to explore the association between corporate governance (CG) mechanisms and the extensiveness of carbon disclosure.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to explore the association between corporate governance (CG) mechanisms and the extensiveness of carbon disclosure.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper uses Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) regression model with data from 2009 to 2012 for largest Australian companies that voluntarily disclose their information to the carbon disclosure project.
Findings
The authors find that board independence, board diversity and managerial ownership are significantly correlated with the degree of carbon transparency, while the existence of environmental committee is not.
Practical implications
The findings of this paper should be useful for government and capital market regulators who concern the quality of CG and carbon actions. First, the evidence in this paper suggests that current CG practice that emphasize board diversity and independence seems encouraging an environment friendly decision and adopt carbon reduction initiatives. Second, however, the current version of CG codes need more stress on none financial goals that should help corporate executives to balance value enhancement vis-à-vis ecosystem protection. Finally, another implication for policy-makers is CG should be re-structured so as to motivate firms to pursue long-term sustainable development instead of taking short-sight view of firm performance.
Originality/value
This paper contributes in the increasing body of literature indicating that CG encourages a proactive corporate strategy in general and carbon disclosure in particular. The authors add new empirical evidence which has policy implication that CG should be improved so as to encourage executives to engage in more sustainable development and stakeholder long-term value protection.