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The purpose of this paper is to establish the relationship between environmental‒social disclosure scores and corporate financial performance. The authors tried to investigate the relevance of assurance practice (whether or not companies’ assessment policies are subject to individual assessment for the given period) and value relevance in foreign-owned firms.

This research is based on accounting-based valuation model proposed by Berthelot et al. (2003), considering the market value of equity as the function of book value and other financial indicators including Return of Assets and Return on Capital Employed. Environmental and social disclosure scores are extracted from Bloomberg database as the measure of company’s transparency in reporting value relevance information and sustainable development. The study considers the sample period of 8 years (2008‒15) and uses static (fixed effects and random effects) and dynamic (generalised methods of moments (GMM)) panel data estimations for analysing and concluding results.

The results support the evidence of environmental disclosure score as performance relevance indicator. Environmental disclosure score highlights the positive and significant relationship with different performance indicators. The interaction between foreign ownership and environmental disclosure represents a negative association, implying that foreign ownership is incubating more on profit making rather than environmental protection initiatives. However, in the context of the social disclosure score, a positive association with economic performance is found. But interaction term between foreign ownership and social disclosure represented a negative coefficient.

Value relevance disclosures are investigated with performance indicators that create an incentive for stakeholders. Also, the effect of foreign ownership and value relevance interaction term on firm’s financial performance is determined. To the best of authors’ understanding, previous literature is silent about this dimension. The authors also tried to incorporate the solution to the endogeneity issue by using GMM.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the state of S&P 500 companies’ transparency by analyzing their Bloomberg ESG (Environmental-Social-Governance) disclosure scores. Additionally, the effects of industry sector, firm size, and governance practices on transparency are examined.

Data were retrieved from Bloomberg using the financial analysis environmental, social and governance function for companies comprising the S&P 500 index. Descriptive statistics are provided on each of the three components separately (ESG). Nonparametric procedures are used to test for significant differences in transparency within each of these three areas based on industry sector. Additionally, nonparametric tests are used to determine the impact of firm size (market capitalization) and governance factors (board size, board gender diversity, chief executive officer (CEO) duality, and linking executive compensation to ESG disclosure) on the composite ESG score.

Descriptive statistics reveal that S&P 500 companies differ in their level of disclosure across the three areas (ESG). The highest level of transparency is found on Governance and the lowest on Environmental. Moreover, there is much variability in the percentage of S&P 500 companies disclosing information about specific Social policies (e.g. child labor). Significant differences in transparency on both the Social and Governance dimensions are found between certain industry sectors. The results also reveal that large-cap companies have significantly higher ESG disclosure scores than mid-cap companies and that governance factors impact ESG disclosure. Significantly, higher ESG disclosure scores are observed for S&P 500 firms with larger boards of directors, with boards that are more gender diverse, that allow CEO duality, and that link executive compensation to ESG scores.

This study focuses on corporate transparency through a granular analysis of ESG disclosure scores when most other studies have been primarily conducted at the macro level. Stakeholders, analysts, and shareholders are increasingly scrutinizing firms’ sustainability disclosures in their assessment of management quality, as it reflects on the practices/policies that are employed to improve firms’ environmental and social footprints.

This research is one of the first studies to examine the effects of CSR disclosures on a firm’s decision to purchase back their own shares of stocks. Additionally, the authors examine whether the effect of CSR disclosures is stronger than the effect of CSR performance on the decision to repurchase shares. Examining firms in the United States, the authors find that total CSR disclosures and the CSR disclosures related to the dimensions of social, environmental, and governance are significantly and positively related to the number of shares that a firm buys back. Additionally, the authors find that the effects of CSR disclosures are stronger for total and the CSR dimensions of social and governance than for CSR performance. For the environmental dimension of CSR, both disclosure and performance scores are significant. This research expands our understanding of the impact of CSR disclosure by showing the importance it plays in the decision to buy back stock and implies that firms that repurchase their stock are more socially responsive than firms that do not. Finally, it contributes to the growing literature on how CSR disclosure has a different impact than CSR performance on firm decisions and outcomes.

This study aims to investigate the effect of corporate social responsibility (CSR) disclosure on firm performance, considering both firm profitability and firm value in an emerging market, India.

The study examines the effect of CSR disclosure on firm performance using panel regressions for the final sample that consists of 386 companies listed in the BSE 500 index, India. It covers all major players in the capital market for ten years from 2007–2016.

The result shows a trend toward the negative effect of CSR disclosure on firm profitability and firm value in India; this negative effect is mainly influenced by environmental disclosure score and social disclosure score. An adverse effect of firm profitability and firm value on CSR disclosure is also observed to underline the inverse relationship.

The study provides implications to consumers, investors, managers and policymakers. Firstly, consumers have to be more aware of CSR initiatives of companies, and they should support those companies to do more. Secondly, investors can use the ESG disclosure score as a signal for the level of CSR activities, which negatively affects firm performance. Thirdly, managers have to consider CSR more seriously and spend CSR amount wisely after proper research and not just to meet the mandatory limit. In addition, managers have to take necessary actions to make the public aware of the CSR activities of the company to gain an advantage in the future. Finally, policymakers have to give more emphasis on the promotion of CSR activities to reach the ultimate consumers who lie in the remote areas of the country, and more awareness has to be given to them regarding CSR activities.

The findings contribute to the literature by providing insights on CSR disclosure and firm performance relationship in India, an emerging market with increasing international attention where such studies are scant and less clear, especially after the amendments in the Companies Act, 2013. Furthermore, the measurement of CSR disclosure using environmental, social and governance (ESG) score is novel in the Indian context.

This paper aims to undertake an empirical investigation on firm characteristics determining corporate social responsibility (CSR) disclosure and its subcategories such as environmental, social and governance disclosures.

The sample consisted of listed companies in BSE 500 index for a period of 10 years from 2007 to 2016. Panel data regression method is used for the analysis. Seven variables are analyzed, namely, firm age, financial leverage, firm size, foreign ownership, promoter ownership, export performance, innovation and firm popularity.

The result shows that firm age and financial leverage are positively influencing CSR, environmental and social disclosure score but both are negatively influencing governance score. Firm size is positively associated with all four disclosure scores. Among ownership variables, foreign ownership shows a positive influence and promoters ownership shows a negative influence towards CSR, environment and social disclosures. No association is found between both ownership variables and governance disclosure score. Further analysis also finds that there is a difference in this relationship during crisis period.

The study focuses only on listed companies in Indian capital market. In terms of implication, theoretical bases discussed in the literature review and hypotheses development are mostly validated.

The findings are important for the firm, stakeholders and policymakers. A firm may think about appointing experts in CSR to spend the amount wisely and improve CSR disclosure to compete in the international market; stakeholders have to pressure the firm to provide more CSR disclosure and for policymakers this study study provides useful inputs to design legal framework on CSR.

The measurement of CSR disclosure using environmental, social and governance (ESG) score is novel in Indian context, even though the methodology is often used in literature.

The purpose of this paper is to examine how corporate social responsibility (CSR) reporting influences leverage ratios. In particular, this paper aims to determine whether firms with higher CSR disclosure scores have better access to debt financing.

This paper uses a panel data analysis of non-financial French firms listed on the Euronext Paris Stock Exchange and members of the SBF 120 index from 2010 to 2015. The environmental, social and governance (ESG) disclosure scores that are collected from the Bloomberg database are used as a proxy for the extent of ESG information disclosures by French companies.

The empirical results demonstrate that leverage ratios are positively related to CSR disclosure scores. In addition, the results show that the levels of long-term and short-term debt increase with the disclosure of ESG information, thus suggesting that CSR disclosures play a significant role in reducing information asymmetry and improving transparency around companies’ ESG activities. This finding meets the lenders’ expectations in terms of extrafinancial information and attracts debt financing sources.

The research is based only on the quantity of the ESG information disclosed by French companies and does not account for the quality of the CSR disclosures. The empirical model omits some control variables (e.g. the nature of the industry, the external business conditions and the age of the firm). The results should not be generalized, since the sample was based on large French companies for 2010–2015.

France is a highly regulated context that places considerable pressure on French firms in terms of CSR policies. The French Parliament has adopted several laws requiring transparency in the environmental, social, and corporate governance policies of French firms. In this context, firms often regard CSR policies as constraints rather than opportunities. This study highlights the benefits that result from transparent CSR practices. More precisely, it provides evidence that the high disclosure of ESG information is a pull factor for credit providers.

This study extends the scope of previous studies by examining the value and relevance of CSR disclosures in financing decisions. More precisely, it focuses on the relatively little explored relationship between the extent of CSR disclosures and access to debt financing. This paper demonstrates how each category of CSR disclosure information (e.g. social, environmental and governance) affects access to debt financing. Moreover, this study focuses on the rather interesting empirical setting of France, which is characterized by its highly developed legal reforms in terms of CSR. Achieving a better understanding of the effects of ESG information is useful for corporate managers desiring to meet lenders’ expectations and attract debt financing sources.

The aim of this paper is to examine the impact of directors' home regions on corporate social responsibility (CSR) disclosure. Specifically, the authors aim to determine whether Anglo-American, European, French, other European and other regional directors' presence affects CSR disclosure differently.

This empirical study uses panel data analysis of all listed firms on the SBF 120 from 2008 to 2019. The environmental, social and governance (ESG) scores are collected from the Bloomberg database and indicate the extent of CSR information disclosure by French companies. The paper is based on a dynamic generalized method of moments panel estimator that makes it possible to control for unobservable heterogeneity and endogeneity and reduces estimation bias.

The findings of this study provide evidence that home region diversity and the presence of Anglo-Americans on a board are positively and significantly associated with ESG disclosure and environmental disclosure, whereas they are negatively associated with social and governance disclosure. Surprisingly, when directors come from European countries, they disclose less ESG and environmental information. Nevertheless, when only French directors are present, the company tends to divulge all dimensions of CSR. Indeed, while there is a significant positive influence of French directors on ESG disclosure, the presence of other European directors displays negative and statistically significant regression coefficients.

This study may be interesting the French policy makers who can now pay more appropriate attention to directors' nationality or region. Thus, firms should identify the foreign directors who can support their strategy with relevant experience in terms of CSR. This could help to change the opinion of some companies that consider the internalization of the board as a constraint rather than an opportunity. These results will be useful for French-listed companies in setting the criteria for the appointment of foreign directors. It may be interesting to recruit directors across European boundaries.

This paper attempts to provide a better understanding of the effects of the home regions of directors on CSR disclosure in order to enlighten corporate managers whose companies operate in different cultures given that they have to deal with this aspect. In this international business environment, CEOs should increasingly consider the international CSR experience of directors to be a resource. In addition, this study may be of relevance to French market authorities, which constantly encourage firms to diversify the profiles of directors on their boards and recruit more international members.

This study is the first to evince that the disclosure of each CSR disclosure score differs depending on the directors' home regions. Unlike previous studies, the authors focused simultaneously on the resource-based view (RBV) and institutional theory.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the vital determinants on the extent of corporate social responsibility (CSR) disclosure in a US context. The selected variables are CEO duality, the presence of women in the board, greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, emission reduction initiatives, company's risk premium, financial leverage and industry's profile.

The environmental, social and governance (ESG) disclosure score is used as a proxy for the extent of CSR disclosure calculated by Bloomberg. The influence of plausible variables on the ESG disclosure score and its sub-categories was examined by using the least squares dummy variable model (LSDV) incorporating 100 companies listed on Standard & Poor's 500 Index for the period 2009-2012.

The results show that the emission reduction initiatives and GHG emissions influence positively the extent of ESG score. In addition, slight differences exist concerning the determinants of different types of disclosures. Furthermore, it is illustrated that a company's industrial profile seems to have differences among the extent of the different types of disclosure.

The sample of companies is based on the US companies incorporating only large-sized ones.

The study extends previous studies with the inclusion of both traditional and innovative determinants of the CSR disclosure in USA taking into account four years of corporate data. A third party rating approach was adopted in order to calculate the extent of CSR disclosure. Finally, both the shareholders’ and the investors’ attitudes in relation to CSR disclosure are presented.

The current study aims to explore and measure the profitability, marketability, and social disclosure efficiency of UAE banks using a nonparametric frontier method – data envelopment analysis (DEA).

In order to estimate the relative efficiency of the Emirati banks based on three different dimensions: profitability, marketability and social disclosure, a sample of 20 listed Emirati banks in 2009 is first selected. Second, a disclosure index to measure the extent of their social disclosure is developed and utilized. Third, the input‐oriented version of DEA model is deployed to estimate their technical and scale efficiency.

Based on nonparametric Wilcoxon signed rank test, paired‐difference t test and sign test, this study reports significant evidence that the UAE banks are performing much better in profitability and social disclosure activities than marketability activities. The results also provide additional evidence regarding the positive relation observed between the performance of social disclosure and profitability performance.

The sample is small, although it includes all relevant Emirati banks. Moreover, follow‐up research using panel data derived from the UAE banking sector are required to test and generalize the current results.

The paper is original in its approach by introducing social disclosure as a new empirical dimension to the literatures of banking efficiency analysis using DEA.

This paper aims to investigate and compare the sustainability reporting practices of companies in developing nations (BRIC) with those in the developed economies (the UK and USA) as per GRI framework.

Content analysis has been applied on a sample of 232 companies listed on the Stock Exchanges of developing and developed countries (Brazil – BOVESPA index, 39 companies; Russia – RTS index, 21 companies; India – SENSEX, 17 companies; China – SSE 50, 19 companies; the USA – NASDAQ 100 and Amex major market index, 58 companies and the UK – FTSE100, 78 companies). It uses descriptive statistics and independent sample t-test to identify significant comparisons.

The findings of this paper suggest that developing nations are providing more information on sustainability practices as compared to the companies in the developed nations. Overall mean disclosure score of developing countries is 59.04 per cent followed by that of the developed countries at 36.47 per cent. The result of independent sample t-test shows these differences significant at 1 per cent level.

The results of the current paper implicate that the corporate managers of the developing nations should prefer rational and purposive reporting. They should work on the quality of reporting rather than just filling pages because social and environmental issues are more gross in the developing nations as compared to the developed countries.

Developing and developed nations jointly use the scarce resources and provide output to the world, thereby raising sustenance issues. However, not even a single study was found while reviewing the literature that studied and compared the sustainability reporting practices of these countries.