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This paper aims to investigate the effects of board model and board independence on corporate social responsibility (CSR) disclosure of multinational corporations (MNCs).

The authors developed an empirical model in which CSR disclosure is the dependent variable and board model (two-tier vs one-tier), board independence (a proportion of independent directors on a board) and the interaction variable of board model and board independence together with several variables conventionally used as control variables are independent variables. The authors collated the panel dataset of 244 Fortune World’s Most Admired (FWMA) corporations from 2005 to 2011 of which 117 MNCs use the one-tier board model, and 127 MNCs use the two-tier board model from 20 countries. They used the random-effect regression method to estimate the empirical models with the data they collated and also ran regressions on the alternative models for robustness check.

The authors found a significantly positive effect of a board model on CSR disclosure by MNCs. Two-tier MNCs tend to reveal more CSR information than one-tier MNCs. The results also confirm the significant moderating impact of board model on the effect of board independence on CSR disclosure. The effect of board independence on CSR disclosure in the two-tier board MNCs tends to be higher than that in the one-tier board MNCs. The results do not support the effect of board independence on CSR disclosure in general for all types of firms (one-tier and two-tier board). The impact of board independence on CSR disclosure is only significant in two-tier board MNCs and insignificant in one-tier board MNCs.

The authors advise the MNCs who wish to improve CSR reporting and transparency to consider the usage of two-tier board model and use a higher number of outside directors on board. They note that once a firm uses one-tier model, number of IDs on a board does not matter to the level of CSR disclosure. They advise regulators to enforce an application of two-tier board model to improve CSR reporting and transparency in MNCs. The authors also recommend regulators to continue mandating publicly traded companies to include more external members on their boards, especially for the two-tier board MNCs.

This paper is the first that investigates the role of board model on CSR disclosure of MNCs.

This paper is motivated by the absence of rules that govern the practice of corporate social responsibility disclosure (CSRD). The purpose of this paper is to investigate the corporate governance factors that impact the quality of CSRD. This study further examines the moderating role of family ownership and educational qualifications of female directors on the relation between board gender diversity and CSRD quality.

This study adopts a sample of 94 non-financial companies listed on the Amman Stock Exchange to collect data on CSRD based on a checklist of 41 items for seven years from 2010–2016. The quality of CSRD is measured using a four-dimensional method that encompasses relative quantity, disclosure intensity, degree of accuracy and management outlook.

This study finds that CSRD quality is far from satisfactory in Jordan. The results also suggest that board size, auditor type, company size and profitability are positively associated with CSRD quality. On the other hand, factors such as chief executive officer duality, board diversity, ownership concentration and financial leverage are negatively associated with CSRD quality. In addition, the results of the empirical analysis suggest that the negative relationship between the quality of CSRD and the presence of female board members is stronger for family-owned companies. By contrast, the negative relationship between the quality of CSRD and the presence of female board members is weakened when the company has more educated, skilled and qualified female directors.

The originality of this study is manifested in the development of a quantitative measurement of CSRD quality.

This study aims to understand the antecedents of export performance at the firm level. Building on agency theory but taking into account emerging market settings and institutional differences, the authors investigate how the board composition determines the export competitiveness of the firms operating in an emerging country from the point of view of corporate governance mechanisms.

Using data from 221 exporting firms for four years (2007-2010), the authors find that there is a significantly positive relationship between board size and all measures of export performance, while a higher presence of outside directors on the board is negatively associated with export performance, consistently with expectations. The separation of chairman of board of directors and chief executive officer (CEO) positions has significantly positive impact on export performance. On the other hand, the authors find no support for the position that inside director professional representation neither reduce nor increase all measures of export performance of firms. In other words, the convergence with Western practices and consistently with agency theory’s claims is evident for both board size and CEO duality. However, the effects of inside professional and outside directors are no consistent with agency theorists’ expectations.

Using data from 221 exporting firms for four years (2007-2010), the authors find that there is a significantly positive relationship between board size and all measures of export performance, while a higher presence of outside directors on the board is a negatively associated with export performance, consistently with expectations. The separation of chairman of board of directors and CEO positions has significantly positive impact on export performance. On the other hand, the authors find no support for the position that inside director professional representation neither reduce nor increase all measures of export performance of firms. In other words, the convergence with Western practices and consistently with agency theory’s claims is evident for both board size and CEO duality. However, the effects of inside professional and outside directors are no consistent with agency theorists’ expectations.

Export performance is one of the most widely researched areas within international marketing research but least reached topic of management. However, exporting continues to be an important mode of internationalization for multinational companies, especially operating an emerging economy. This study is one of the first studies on the impact of governance factors such as board structure on only export performance rather than overall (firm) performance in light of international management. In other words, the study of the determinants of exports in the context of an emerging economy is an important contribution to the literature, given that our understanding of how the board composition determines the export competitiveness from the point of view of firms operating in an emerging country such as Turkey. Moreover, this research investigates this relationship at objective export performance dimensions using primary data set from listed and non-listed export firms.

The current study offered in-depth information to multinational companies that aim to gain a competitive exporting advantage in Turkey. Further, the results of this study give managers an opportunity to see the reasons behind the success of the exporting firms from the point of view of corporate governance mechanism.

In this paper, the authors contribute to this recent stream of research providing evidence on the effects of governance mechanism on the export performance from the point of view of emerging countries. Building on agency theory but taking into account emerging market settings and institutional differences, and international management, the authors provide a new framework that models the linkages between board composition and export performance. This work helps us to gain a deeper understanding of how board dynamics contribute to the internalization of firms. Research in this area has been sparse, although some studies have linked governance with export intensity. In this effort, the authors differentiate from previous studies in several ways.

This study aims to investigate the determinants of the extent and quality of corporate social responsibility disclosure (CSRD) in Jordan. The study examines a number of factors that influence the extent and quality of CSR disclosure, such as corporate characteristics, corporate governance and ownership structure.

A quantitative approach and a content analysis technique is used to measure the extent and quality of CSRD from annual reports. The sample is drawn from the annual reports of 118 Jordanian companies between 2010 and 2015. A CSRD index is constructed, which includes the disclosures of the following categories: environmental, human resources, product and consumers, and community involvement. This is the first study that presents a new measurement for CSR disclosure quality by using images and charts in a seven-point scale measurement.

The result reveals that the extent of CSRD is higher than quality in Jordan. Regarding the determinants of CSR disclosures, the following factors were found to have a significant relationship with both the extent and quality of CSRD: board size, non-executive directors, age of firm, foreign members on the board, number of boards meetings, the presence of audit committees, big 4, government ownership, size of firm and industry type. Non-executive directors was found to have a significant correlation with the extent of CSRD.

The current study has some limitations; first, the study findings are limited to the Jordanian environment. Second, the study adopted a purely quantitative method, and future research could include interviews and questionnaires to gather data from financial managers and chief executive officers (CEOs). Third, the potential influences on the level and quality of CSR are not limited to the variables tested in this study. Future research can be done on new determinants, such as CEO interlocking and profitability. Finally, the sample included companies from two main sectors – the services and industrial sectors; thus, this limited the results to these two main sectors.

Practitioners, as firms, should develop new strategies and ensure that CSR is included in their reports. Thus, companies can achieve legitimacy for their products and activities. Policymakers must consider introducing new laws that mandate CSRDs since it has many advantages for companies and society. In addition, this research suggests amending the law to require companies to have 33% of their directors be non-executives since this will remove the negative effect on CSR disclosure. Investors must pay attention to the social activities of the companies they invest in, as CSR could have a positive effect on their market value.

The study has indicated that Jordanian companies became increasingly more involved in CSR activities, as this growth in CSRD is linked with global increases in CSR. Moreover, the study has revealed that the highest category of CSR disclosures is related to products or services and employee information. On the other hand, the lowest category of CSR disclosures is related to community and other disclosures (extent) and environmental disclosures (quality). Furthermore, the results show that the services sector was found to have more disclosures regarding employees and community, whereas the industrial sector was more concerned about environmental and product information.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study that presents a new measurement for CSR disclosure quality by using images and charts in a seven-point scale measurement. This new seven-point scale will be adopted to distinguish between poor and excellent disclosures. In addition, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study in Jordan which examines the determinants of the extent and the quality of CSR for three categories, namely, corporate characteristics, corporate governance and ownership structure.

To investigate the impact of board characteristics (board gender diversity, board chair age, board subcommittees, board meetings, board skill, board size and board independence) on corporate social responsibility disclosures (CSRD) of state-owned enterprises (SOEs) in Kenya during the period 2015–2018.

The study employed fixed-effects balanced panel data to examine the impact of board characteristics on CSRD. The analysis is repeated using two regression estimators (robust least square and random effects) and the four CSRD subcomponents to evaluate the robustness of the main analysis.

The results established that board gender diversity, board chair age and board subcommittees had significant negative effects on CSRD. The impact of the remaining board characteristics was found to be insignificant.

The study was limited to the disclosures included in the annual reports, which means that information disclosed in other media, like websites, was not considered. The second limitation concerns mediating and moderator variables that were not considered.

There is a need for a stricter corporate governance implementation mechanism, as opposed to the “comply or explain” principle, since results suggest that most of the board characteristics do not appear to be impactful. Additionally, the low level of reported CSRD calls for the establishment of Corporate Social Responsibility or related committees.

The evidence suggests that SOEs are reluctant to report on issues such as ethics, health and safety initiatives, environment and social investments.

The paper extends the literature on the impact of board characteristics on CSRD in unlisted non-commercial SOEs in a developing country context.

The purpose of this study is to examine whether firms from countries presenting higher levels of corruption are more likely to have higher levels of earnings management than their counterparts from countries with lower levels of corruption. It also explicitly examines how this relationship compares between emerging and developed economies.

Using multiple regression analysis, this study tests the hypothesis of positive association between the countries’ level of corruption and the level of earnings management using a sample of foreign firms with American Depositary Receipts in the US market.

Findings indicate that higher corruption perception is related to higher incentives for firms to manipulate earnings in the case of emerging countries. Such results are not identified in developed countries where the level of minority investors’ protection is higher. Findings also indicate that in developed countries earnings management is negatively related to investor protection, which is not the case for emerging countries.

As far as the authors are aware, this study is the first to examine the effects of corruption on earnings management on the basis of accounting firm-level data.

This study aims to investigate the association between corporate governance (CG) and the corporate social responsibility (CSR) information disclosure as well as the moderating role of state-ownership between CG and CSR disclosure.

To examine the relationship between CG and CSR disclosure, this study used the feasible general least squares and generalized method of moments method on a sample of 165 non-financial quoted companies over the 2015–2018 period, which account for about three-fourths of the Vietnamese stock exchange.

The findings suggest that enterprises with smaller board size consisting mainly of independent directors have a higher CSR disclosure level. Moreover, when the chief executive officer is concurrently the chairman of the board, the level of CSR disclosure falls. Additionally, the moderating role of state ownership enhances CSR disclosure.

The empirical results of this study form a solid foundation for policymakers and other stakeholders’ decisions in investing or establishing policies.

This study provides empirical evidence on the relationship between CG and CSR disclosure in Vietnam – a developing country with no legal requirement on CSR disclosure. Moreover, this study emphasizes the moderating role of state ownership between CG and CSR disclosure, which clarifies the role of state ownership in establishing CG mechanisms.

This paper aims to explore the nexus between family involvement and environmental, social and governance (ESG) performance based on socioemotional wealth theory, and it also analyzes the potential influence mechanism.

Based on the categorization of China Stock Market & Accounting Research database, this study divides the Chinese listed firms into family and nonfamily firms and applies multiple regression methods to test the theoretical hypotheses.

Family involvement can incentivize corporations to enhance corporate transparency, which can in turn enhance their ESG performance. The role of family involvement in bolstering corporate ESG performance is negatively contingent on external financing constraints.

There are insufficient studies on the nexus between family ownership and ESG performance. The findings provide insights into helping policymakers formulate targeted measures to encourage corporations to be more active in promoting ESG initiatives.

This paper aims to investigate whether and how better corporate governance practices can lead to philanthropic behavior among companies in the UK. In particular, this study attempts to determine whether corporate governance quality in general, as well as its specific mechanisms, affects corporate giving.

The analysis is based on a sample of Financial Times Stock Exchange All-Share nonfinancial companies. Data on firm donations, including donations amount and donations intensity, were manually collected from companies’ annual reports for the period 2018–2020. This paper uses panel data models to examine the research hypotheses.

The results of this study indicate that both donations amount and donations intensity are positively associated with the practice of better corporate governance. Board independence is positively associated with donations amount, but not with the intensity of donations. Furthermore, board size, board gender diversity and the establishment of a corporate social responsibility (CSR) committee are likely to have a positive impact on the amount and the intensity of firms’ donations. However, neither the chief executive officer board membership nor the audit committee’s independence is related to the firm’s donations.

This study sheds light on specific governance factors that affect firm donations in the context of UK companies. This allows regulators and legislators to evaluate the donations activities in the country and issue more directives to reinforce corporate governance practices that support corporate donations. In addition, the findings of this study are considered crucial to investors who prefer investing in companies with significant CSR-related activities to improve the value relevance of their investments.

This study provides a shred of unique evidence on the impact of corporate governance practices on firms’ donations.