TY - JOUR

T1 - Does sustainable corporate governance have an impact on materiality disclosure quality in integrated reporting?

T2 - International evidence

AU - Velte, Patrick

N1 - Publisher Copyright: © 2022 The Author. Sustainable Development published by ERP Environment and John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

PY - 2022/12/1

Y1 - 2022/12/1

N2 - This study examines the influence of sustainable corporate governance on the materiality disclosure quality (MDQ) in integrated reporting in an international setting. Referring to stakeholder theory, we focus on gender diversity, sustainability committees, and sustainability-related executive compensation. Based on European and South African firms (672 firm-year observations) between 2014 and 2019, we found that board gender diversity and sustainability-related executive compensation were significantly positively linked to MDQ. However, the implementation of sustainability committees does not affect the MDQ. Thus, only specific sustainable corporate governance variables in concrete contexts may be related to integrated reporting decisions. We also included Chief Executive Officer (CEO) power (pay slice, ownership, and tenure) as a moderator variable due to the strategic impact of CEOs, based on upper echelons theory, and found that the link between our included sustainable corporate governance variables and MDQ was weakened. Our results are robust to several variations and provide valuable insights for research, business practice and future regulations on integrated reporting. In view of massive regulatory reform initiatives on sustainable corporate governance and integrated reporting, sustainability expertise (also with regard to CEOs) should be better addressed in boards of directors during the next years to come.

AB - This study examines the influence of sustainable corporate governance on the materiality disclosure quality (MDQ) in integrated reporting in an international setting. Referring to stakeholder theory, we focus on gender diversity, sustainability committees, and sustainability-related executive compensation. Based on European and South African firms (672 firm-year observations) between 2014 and 2019, we found that board gender diversity and sustainability-related executive compensation were significantly positively linked to MDQ. However, the implementation of sustainability committees does not affect the MDQ. Thus, only specific sustainable corporate governance variables in concrete contexts may be related to integrated reporting decisions. We also included Chief Executive Officer (CEO) power (pay slice, ownership, and tenure) as a moderator variable due to the strategic impact of CEOs, based on upper echelons theory, and found that the link between our included sustainable corporate governance variables and MDQ was weakened. Our results are robust to several variations and provide valuable insights for research, business practice and future regulations on integrated reporting. In view of massive regulatory reform initiatives on sustainable corporate governance and integrated reporting, sustainability expertise (also with regard to CEOs) should be better addressed in boards of directors during the next years to come.

KW - Management studies

KW - gender diversity

KW - integrated reporting

KW - Sustainablility expertise

KW - sustainable corporate governance

KW - sustainable management compensation

KW - Sustainability Science

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85129732297&partnerID=8YFLogxK

UR - https://www.mendeley.com/catalogue/c91034ba-8ef2-33d4-96de-dd1ea65b8194/

U2 - 10.1002/sd.2333

DO - 10.1002/sd.2333

M3 - Journal articles

VL - 30

SP - 1655

EP - 1670

JO - Sustainable Development

JF - Sustainable Development

SN - 0968-0802

IS - 6

ER -