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Corporate social responsibility (CSR) in India includes education, environment, healthcare and rural development. In post-liberalized India, the healthcare sector (services and facilities) has grown in leaps and bounds over last two decades. The purpose of this paper is to reveal and explain the CSR profile of select healthcare companies of India and reveal gaps and scope of healthcare activities with a special consideration towards maternal health.

Primary data are collected from seven listed companies of Goa state which were willing to participate in the study. In total, 67 companies constituting the Healthcare Sector Index of Standard & Poor of the Bombay Stock Exchange are considered as secondary source. Data of 59 companies that come within the threshold of Companies Act, 2013, are studied. CSR guidelines (with a turnover of Rs 10bn or a market capitalization of Rs 5bn or a net profit of Rs 50m) are taken as an initial frame of reference.

In total, 89.83 per cent of these companies have initiatives related to health care. Structured companies (contribute to the company’s overall mission and goals) with CSR policy have committee size varying from three to five directors with an independent director. During 2016–2017, they were mandated to spend Rs 4.2613bn out of which only 74.59 per cent was spent. Geographical spread of CSR initiatives is skewed, with majority of companies focussing on the states of Maharashtra and Gujarat, whereas the states of Odisha and North-Eastern being neglected. The focus areas of CSR are education, healthcare and rural development. The variation of MMR in different states of India is an indicator for corporate as to which state needs more attention. The corporate sector in India needs to focus on SDG3 target of MMR and move towards a newer dimension and direction.

The originality of this paper lies in the recognition of the initiative of Government of India of weaning out CSR activities outside the purview of business sense and towards instilling a social sense in company behaviour. This is a dimensional and directional change in the evolution of CSR practices in companies and countries. To this end, 59 healthcare sector companies under the threshold of Companies Act 2013 were studied and results were outlined.

This study aims to attempt to evaluate and establish the relationship between gender diversity (GD) on the board and corporate sustainability performance.

A sample of 212 non-financial companies listed on the National Stock Exchange has been considered for a period of 2013–2014 to 2018–2019. For the purpose of the analysis, this study has conducted the static panel data model analysis and also some diagnostics tests to arrive at robust results.

This study, from its analysis, interprets that GD or the proportion of women directors in the company plays a significant role in the decisions related to the sustainability performance of the company. Alongside GD, the profitability of the company, measured in terms of Tobin’s Q, and firm size are also seen to have a positive impact on the sustainability performance of the company.

This study from its findings contributes to the existing works of literature by highlighting the impact of GD on the sustainability performance of the firm. This study thus recommends the recruitment of an ample number of females in the top-notch positions of the board to create a gender-diverse management team to reap the benefits of leadership styles of both genders.

Very few studies have been conducted on the dynamics of women’s directorship, especially in an emerging economy like India. This study thus tries to fill this important gap in the literature by examining the relationship between board GD and sustainability performance of Indian firms.

The purpose of this study is to develop a method to assess social performance. Traditionally, environment, social and governance (ESG) rating providers use subjectively weighted arithmetic averages to combine a set of social performance (SP) indicators into one single rating. To overcome this problem, this study investigates the preconditions for a new methodology for rating the SP component of the ESG by applying machine learning (ML) and artificial intelligence (AI) anchored to social controversies.

This study proposes the use of a data-driven rating methodology that derives the relative importance of SP features from their contribution to the prediction of social controversies. The authors use the proposed methodology to solve the weighting problem with overall ESG ratings and further investigate whether prediction is possible.

The authors find that ML models are able to predict controversies with high predictive performance and validity. The findings indicate that the weighting problem with the ESG ratings can be addressed with a data-driven approach. The decisive prerequisite, however, for the proposed rating methodology is that social controversies are predicted by a broad set of SP indicators. The results also suggest that predictively valid ratings can be developed with this ML-based AI method.

This study offers practical solutions to ESG rating problems that have implications for investors, ESG raters and socially responsible investments.

The proposed ML-based AI method can help to achieve better ESG ratings, which will in turn help to improve SP, which has implications for organizations and societies through sustainable development.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this research is one of the first studies that offers a unique method to address the ESG rating problem and improve sustainability by focusing on SP indicators.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the role of independent directors’ diligence in restraining earnings management practices in the Indian context.

It employs a panel data analysis to test the association of earnings management with the diligence of independent directors.

The results suggest that the diligence of independent directors has a significant impact on earnings management. The findings support the agency theory and provide evidence of the role played by the board processes in restricting earnings management.

This study is important for the regulators as it highlights the significance of independent directors’ diligence in producing higher quality financial statements, thereby creating the real economic value of companies. This is the first article that explores the impact of independent directors’ diligence on earnings management practices particularly in the context of an emerging economy, like India in the light of new Companies Act 2013 and revised Clause 49 of the Listing Agreement, 2014 by Securities and Exchange Board of India.

The purpose of this study is to extend existing knowledge on the determinants of sustainability report (SR) assurance practices. Four different theories – stakeholder theory, institutional theory, signaling theory and legitimacy theory – are used to formulate several hypotheses regarding the main factors that can influence a company’s decision to assure its SRs.

Using a sample of 417 listed organizations based in different European countries over five years, the effects of stakeholder commitment, country orientation toward sustainability, firm environmental performance and business ethics controversies on the decision to assure SRs are assessed.

The results show that a company’s decision to assure its SRs is motivated by the need to maintain good relations with its stakeholders (which is in line with stakeholder theory and legitimacy theory), as well as by the willingness to signal their sustainability performance (which is in line with signaling theory) and to gain legitimacy. On the contrary, business ethics controversies do not seem to be relevant to a company’s assurance practices.

This paper provides new insights into the influence that social, environmental and institutional factors have on assurance strategies. New factors that previous research does not investigate – environmental performance, business ethics controversies and corporate governance – are tested. Factors that are already investigated in the literature are considered from an original perspective of introducing alternative measures (e.g. for the scope of national sustainability policies).

The purpose of this paper is to examine the empirical relationship between gray directors (non-executive non-independent directors) and executive compensation among companies listed in India’s National Stock Exchange (NSE). The paper also examines the possible interplay of relationships between controlling shareholder duality (controlling shareholder being the CEO), ownership category and executive compensation.

A sample of 438 firms listed in the NSE of India was studied using data spanning five financial years, 2012–2013 to 2016–2017.

Empirical evidence suggests that there is a positive association between the proportion of gray directors on the board and executive compensation. The sensitivity of executive compensation to gray directors is found to be higher among family controlled firms. This research has also found that CEOs who belong to controlling shareholder groups received higher pay than professional CEOs. The authors conjecture that these results suggest cronyism and may contribute to lower levels of corporate governance practices in the country.

The hybrid board structure, which India has adopted with the desire to bring the best of Anglo Saxon and Japanese board philosophies, has paradoxically led to self-serving boards. Exploration of alternative thinking to bring about changes in the regulatory framework is, therefore, necessary.

Serious problems are identified with the philosophy behind board composition mandated by Listing Requirements for Indian firms with empirical evidence showing how the existing rules generate cronyism and unfairness to minority shareholders.

This paper aims to examine the impact of corporate social responsibility (CSR) on financial performance (FP) of Indian steel industry in terms of value-added (VAM), profitability (PM), market (MM) and growth measures (GM).

It is an empirical study using secondary data of 40 companies for 14 years collected from CSR/annual reports/official websites of the companies and Prowess database. The panel regression analysis, MANOVA and univariate ANOVA have been conducted to examine the impact of CSR on FP.

The result indicates a positive impact of CSR on FP in terms of VAM, PM and GM, thereby indicating that more investments in CSR will generate wealth for shareholders, enhance profitability and sales. Moreover, this study shows no noticeable relationship between CSR and MM.

This study contributes to the literature on the CSR–FP relationship and also has implications for managers, investors and other stakeholders. Companies with higher CSR rating create a brand image, attract proficient employees, get greater profit, loyal customers and have less possibility of bribery and corruption. This study may result in being influential to companies confined not only to this sector but also reaching to the others, thus inspiring them to contribute their share of profit for the welfare of society.

To the best of the authors' knowledge, it is the first comprehensive study to examine the impact of CSR on FP of Indian steel industry by considering four dimensions for measuring FP. It provides evidence about the relationship between CSR and FP.

This study aims to provide insights into gender diversity in Pakistani boardrooms, particularly for the dominant family business type, which is strongly guided by (non-financial) family-related objectives when making business decisions, such as the appointment of board members. Pakistani companies operate within the framework of weak legal institutions and a traditionally highly patriarchal environment. This study examines how corporate decisions regarding the appointment of female board members play out in this socio-political and cultural environment.

Board composition and board characteristics were examined using hand-collected data from 213 listed family firms and non-family firms on the Pakistan Stock Exchange from 2003 to 2017. Univariate analyses, probit regressions and robustness tests were performed.

Pakistani family firms have a significantly higher proportion of women on their boards than do non-family firms. They are also significantly more likely to appoint women to top positions, such as CEO or chairs.

Evidently, women are allowed to enter boards through family affiliations. Gender quotas appear an ineffective instrument for breaking through the “glass ceiling” in this socio-cultural environment. Thus, gender parity must entail the comprehensive promotion of women and the enforcement of legal reforms for structural and cultural change.

The analysis focuses on a Muslim-majority emerging Asian market that has been scarcely researched, thus offering new perspectives and insights into board composition and corporate governance that go beyond the well-studied Western countries.

The study aims to examine how the information disclosed by the managers in the management discussion and analysis (MD&A) reports varies at the different levels of corporate performance.

To understand this quantile effect, first OLS technique was adopted and then, the quantile regression method was applied to explore the impact of MD&A disclosures on the firm performance across the lower and upper quantiles. The sample size for the study is 490 firms’ year observations for the period 2016–2022.

The results of the study demonstrate the negative but significant relationship between MD&A disclosures and corporate performance, supporting the two management strategies of “competitive disadvantage” in case of good performance and “management impression strategy” in case of poor performance. Furthermore, with other corporate governance variables, both the size of the board and the number of independent directors on the board are positively significant only in the case of the upper quantile indicating the heterogeneity in the relationship between the performance and the MD&A disclosures. Therefore, the overall findings of the study support that these results contradict the agency theory and the stakeholders’ theory as managers are not acting well as agents on behalf of the investors and work well only when they are controlled by the large board having more independent directors.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, no study so far has incorporated quantile regression to assess the effect of MD&A disclosures on company performance at various levels of the firm performance, which gives more robust insights about the viewpoint of the managers on the different level of the firm performance. In other words, this study highlights the important information as to how the information provided in the MD&A reports varies as per the good or poor performance of the companies.

In recent years, Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) has emerged as a prominent endeavour in numerous enterprises and organizations. The purpose of this article is to investigate the theoretical aspects of CSR's commercial significance, as well as to identify and analyse CSR practices during COVID-19 in Bangladesh and Singapore. Government funding alone may not be sufficient to offset any adversity's economic and other consequences. Hence, CSR has evolved. This article examines what role CSR played during the difficult COVID-19 pandemic in two countries. The private sector made significant contributions through CSR to healthcare infrastructure and mitigating the economic burden of COVID-19 in both countries.