Board Ancestral Diversity and Voluntary Greenhouse Gas Emission Disclosure

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This paper examines the relationship between board diversity and firms’ decisions to voluntarily disclose information about their greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. We focus on board ancestral diversity as a relatively new dimension of (deep-level) board structure and document that it has a positive and statistically significant effect on a firm's scope and quality of voluntary GHG emission disclosure. The effect goes beyond the impact of more common (surface-level) dimensions of board diversity and remains robust after addressing endogeneity concerns. In line with the theoretical conjecture that diversity enhances a board's advising and monitoring capacity, we find that the impact of diverse boards is stronger in more complex firms and in firms with low levels of institutional ownership. Overall, our findings provide evidence for board diversity being a relevant governance factor in corporate environmental decision making.

Original languageEnglish
JournalBritish Journal of Management
Volume35
Issue number3
Pages (from-to)1512-1529
Number of pages18
ISSN1045-3172
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 07.2024

Bibliographical note

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© 2023 The Authors. British Journal of Management published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of British Academy of Management.

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