Habib Jouber

Environmental, social, and governance (ESG) engagement has been identified as a strategic priority for firms. However, its impact on green innovation (GIN) remains contested. Indeed, the propensity for climate risk to shape the effectiveness of ESG-driven GIN is underexplored. This study investigates how ESG performance (ESGPerf) influences GIN and examines the moderating effect of climate physical risk within the Saudi setting over 2002–2024. Results from fixed-effects and two-stage least squares (2SLS) regressions applied to 460 firm-year observations show that ESGPerf promotes GIN, while climate risk independently stimulates innovation and dampens ESGPerf’s positive effect on GIN. These findings suggest that environmental uncertainty shifts firms’ resource allocation between long-term innovation and short-term adaptation, demonstrating that the strategic value of ESG investments is contingent on risk contexts and underscores ESG commitment as a potential strategic capability rather than mere symbolic compliance. These findings are insensitive to rigorous robustness checks, including alternative variables’ measures and estimation techniques.

Purpose: Considering corporate governance (CG hereinafter) practices' variety across Anglo-American and European countries, this study relies on contingency and complexity theories to investigate the effect of environmental sustainability performance (ESP hereinafter) on shareholder value under various configurations of board of directors (BoD hereinafter), firm and country characteristics.Design/methodology/approach: The author used the Thomson Reuters Environment Pillar Score (ASSET4) and the Total Shareholder Return to assess ESP and shareholder value respectively. The author applied a fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA hereinafter) to an unbalanced panel of 2,284 observations from 486 European and Anglo-American non-financial listed firms over the period 2016–2020.Findings: The author found a positive association between ESP and shareholder value and he displayed notable differences between Anglo-American and European economies regarding causal predictors of this positive association. Within European firms operating under civil law code where investor protection is low and family ownership is widespread, ESP creates shareholder value under configurations of causal predictors that significantly differ from those of their Anglo-American peers. The author's findings are robust to different identification strategies.Practical implications: This study assists researchers, practitioners, shareholders and policymakers the significant roles that BoD diversity, organisational and institutional traits are jointly playing as determinants of the ESP-shareholder value relationship.Originality/value: The author's study offers a more encompassing, complete and theoretically richer picture of the key drivers and outcomes of ESP.

Purpose: This study aims to investigate the impact of top management team (TMT)'s gender diversity on corporate social performance (CSP). It sheds light on inconsistent results in literature by testing the moderator effects of chief executive officer (CEO) managerial ability and corporate governance (CG) on such impact.Design/methodology/approach: A dynamic panel estimator is applied to an international sample of 8640 firm‐year observations from 2013 to 2017.Findings: The author finds reliable evidence that the critical mass of at least three women leaders has a positive impact on the firm's CSP. Obtained results suggest, moreover, the deterrence effects of CEO managerial ability and CG tools (board independence, board gender diversity, the presence of a corporate social responsibility committee and family control) on the women leaders' contribution to the firm's CSP level. These results remain consistent with alternative measures for women leaders and CEO managerial ability. However, findings are lost when women achieve the CEO position, the chairperson position or both positions, which imply that men and women leadership styles are closely similar rather than different. Furthermore, women leaders' effect on CSP seems dependent (do not) on the country (industry) which a firm belongs to.Practical implications: From a practical standpoint, the study highlights the importance of fostering the achievement of a critical mass of women leaders and the combination of CEO managerial ability – educational/professional backgrounds – and CG attributes to improve the firm's CSP. The study has important implications for investors and regulators. If investors wish to increase CSP, they should ask for more gender diversified TMTs. Furthermore, this study supports regulators in their efforts to increase senior women's quotas by providing empirical evidence of better social outcomes under leader gender diversity. The study’s evidence is also useful for companies in setting the criteria to identify CEOs who can support their strategic decisions.Originality/value: By studying the impact female leaders have on CSP under CEO managerial ability and CG as moderators, this study is the first to display complementarities and substitutions between CEO's managerial ability and selected CG attributes in the promotion of CSP by female senior executives. Furthermore, it fills the void on how TMT's gender diversity impact CSP. In fact, while it is conventionally considered that women are more likely to engage in socially responsible activities, sensitive findings of this study shed light on the brighter side of female executives when they achieve the CEO, the chairperson position or both positions.

Considering specific contextual differences (in laws, governance attributes, and CEO pay policies) found between the Anglo‐American and the European corporate governance models and controlling for institutional attributes, ownership structures, and firm's features characterizing the two settings, we aim to explore if there is a link between CEO pay slice (CPS) and corporate social responsibility (CSR). We follow Bebchuk et al. () to measure CPS. We consider sustainability indicators as proxy to capture CSR. Sustainability indicators are gathered from Global Reporting Initiative of sustainability standards (GRI's) report. Data cover the period 2010–2017 and consist of 1,440 U.S.–Canadian and Spanish–French firm‐year observations. American and Canadian (Spanish and French) firms are considered as to refer to the Anglo‐American (European) corporate governance model. Durbin–Wu–Hausman test is ruled to address endogeneity problem of dual variables and supports consistent null hypotheses of fixed effects model. Under the agency theory's “bright side” paradigm, univariate and multivariate cross‐country analysis supports that CPS is positively associated with firm's initiatives to engage in CSR and that sustainability is more pronounced under stronger investor protection, strict law enforcement, and higher corporate governance quality. Robustness checks reveal that (a) the deferred CPS–CSR causal effect seems higher for option‐based compensation than that for stock‐based compensation and (b) within the options (stocks) rewards, unvested options (restricted stocks) are the most effective to enhance firm's CSR practices.