María Consuelo Pucheta‐Martínez

This study examines the institutional determinants of environmental disclosure in the context of sustainable development and analyses the moderating role of board gender diversity in this relationship. Using an international sample of 26 countries over the period 2014–2023, we explore how macro‐level socioeconomic, cultural, political, and environmental conditions influence firms' environmental reporting practices. The results show that environmental disclosure is higher in firms operating in countries with greater public investment in education, more developed cultural characteristics associated with long‐term orientation and lower levels of individualism, uncertainty avoidance, power distance, masculinity, and indulgence, as well as stronger institutional quality, higher levels of economic development and freedom, and greater natural capital endowments. In addition, the presence of female directors on corporate boards positively moderates the relationship between these institutional conditions and environmental disclosure. Overall, our findings highlight the importance of adopting a holistic perspective to understand how country‐level institutional environments shape corporate environmental reporting and contribute to sustainable development, while also emphasizing the role of gender‐diverse boards in promoting transparency and sustainability‐oriented disclosure.

Purpose: The objective of the study is to explore the combined impact of cash holding and Corporate Social Responsability (CSR) disclosure. This research also explores the moderating role of female directors on corporate boards in the association between cash holding and CSR disclosure. Design/methodology/approach: The sample comprises 13,266 international firm-year observations over the period 2012–2021, covering 38 countries and 9 different industries. The model proposed in this study is estimated through the generalised method of moments estimator. Findings: The findings show that companies with cash holdings have higher CSR disclosure, due to reduced agency conflicts and, at the same time, higher investment in CSR reporting. Our findings also find that board gender diversity negatively moderates the relationship between cash holding and CSR disclosure. Originality/value: This is the first study to explore the moderating effect of female directors on the association between cash holding and CSR disclosure. The study provides actionable insights for helping policymakers, regulators and stakeholders to emphasise the relevance of cash holding in CSR matters.

This research investigates how board characteristics such as the number of women directors and the tenure of board members affect carbon footprint reporting and the moderating role that CEO influence plays in such relationships. Applying stakeholder and legitimacy theories, the analysis furthers a comprehensive view of how internal governance mechanisms contribute to firms' environmental transparency. A panel data estimation provides robust evidence of the influence that women directors and board tenure have on carbon footprint reporting, with the main findings indicating that both correlate positively and showing that CEO influence positively moderates women directors' presence and this reporting, but does so negatively between board tenure and reporting, thereby evidencing that the favourable influence of board tenure on such reporting is reduced in the event of influential CEOs.

This paper investigates the impact of Corporate Governance mechanisms (gender board diversity, independent board directors, and the presence of a CSR/Sustainability Committee) on the level of digitalization disclosure, including whether CEO duality moderates this relationship. An international sample of 323 listed and unlisted non-financial companies, collected by the Integrated Reporting Example Database for the period 2017–2022, was analysed. The findings show a positive relationship between the board’s gender diversity, board independence, the presence of the CSR/Sustainability Committee, and the level of digitalization disclosure. Additionally, the results suggest that CEO duality plays a complex moderating role in the relationship between governance variables and digitalization disclosure. While it limits the effectiveness of gender diversity and the presence of a CSR/sustainability committee on the board, it appears to have a non-significant effect on independent directors. This study significantly advances our theoretical knowledge of the complex relationship between Corporate Governance and digitalization, filling a gap in existing literature. This research provides practical insights by informing companies on how to improve their governance and digitalization plans. Better governance and the right application of digital technologies will enable corporate leaders to improve transparency, accountability, and effectiveness.

This study investigates the phenomenon of corporate social responsibility (CSR) decoupling, wherein firms' CSR disclosures diverge from their actual CSR performance, often resulting in misleading portrayals of environmental and social commitments commonly associated with greenwashing. Drawing on resource dependence and agency theories, the research examines how specific board attributes—board tenure, board‐specific skills and board cultural diversity—function as governance mechanisms to reduce CSR decoupling by enhancing board effectiveness in aligning managerial actions with stakeholder expectations. Using a large international sample of 14,004 firm‐year observations from 34 countries between 2012 and 2023, the study also explores the moderating role of board gender diversity, an area underexplored in prior research. The results confirm that longer board tenure, greater board‐specific skills, and higher board cultural diversity significantly reduce CSR decoupling. However, the presence of female directors unexpectedly weakens these beneficial effects, indicating a complex and nuanced interaction between board gender diversity and other board characteristics in shaping CSR outcomes. These findings contribute to the literature by clarifying how corporate governance mechanisms influence the authenticity of CSR engagement, highlighting the importance of considering gender diversity as a moderator in governance studies.

The purpose of this study is to provide evidence of the impact of civil liberties and political rights on corporate innovation, through the lens of institutional theory. Moreover, the research also analyses the moderating role of the CSR committee in the relationships between civil liberties and innovation, and political rights and innovation. The sample consisted of 13,235 international firm‐year observations from 2012 to 2022, including 36 countries and nine industries. The proposed model in this research is estimated using the generalised method of moments (GMM), which addresses potential endogeneity and unobserved heterogeneity in panel data. The findings show that a positive association exists between civil liberties and political rights, respectively, and innovation. The results also show that CSR committees positively moderate the relationship between political rights and innovation, but not the relationship between civil liberties and innovation. The study is the first to examine the moderating role of CSR committees in these relationships, addressing a gap in the literature on institutional theory and corporate governance. From a policy point of view, the findings suggest that policy‐makers looking to promote innovation should enhance democratic institutions and safeguard political and civil liberties, since these contexts allow businesses to innovate more successfully. Furthermore, regulators and governments should promote the formation and strengthening of CSR committees, as these governance structures can improve the innovative outputs of companies functioning in environments with strong political rights.

This study investigates the effect of a females' critical mass on firm boards and the moderating role of board tenure for environmental disclosure using an international firms panel for the period 2012-2022. Empirical results reveal that at least three female directors seriously increase environmental disclosure as women tend to endorse sustainability through amplified ethical awareness and active involvement. In addition, board tenure positively mediates this association by providing a seasoned, homogenous environment that facilitates better strategic decision-making as well as the effective implementation of environmental initiatives. The implications are for policymakers, business leaders, and stakeholders and consist of gender quotas seeking participative rather than symbolic representation and retaining experienced members on the board can lead to sustainable governance.

The influence of civil liberties and political rights on environmental disclosure, and the moderating effect of board gender diversity on the relationship between civil liberties and political rights and environmental disclosure, have not to date been studied in detail, as evidenced by the previous literature available. Therefore, this study aims to analyse how these institutional factors affect corporate environmental disclosure practices across different countries. The firms in our sample operate in 36 countries, spread across all the continents, and the period covered is 2009–2019. The database used to collect economic, social, environmental and governance data is Thomson Reuters' ASSET4, while the items for measuring civil liberty and political rights scores come from the Freedom House organisation (https://freedomhouse.org). The method used for estimating the model is the generalised method of moments (GMM) proposed by Arellano and Bond. The main findings of the study show that levels of civil liberty and political rights in the countries where the firms operate are positively associated with environmental disclosure. Furthermore, according to our evidence, the presence of female directors on boards plays a positive moderating role in the relationship between the level of civil liberty and environmental disclosure and between political rights and environmental disclosure. Additional robustness analyses corroborate our findings.