TY - JOUR

T1 - The impact of supervisory board composition on CSR reporting

T2 - Evidence from the German two-tier system

AU - Dienes, Dominik

AU - Velte, Patrick

N1 - This article belongs to the Section Economic, Business and Management Aspects of Sustainability

PY - 2016/1/11

Y1 - 2016/1/11

N2 - Corporate social responsibility (CSR) reporting is becoming increasingly relevant in light of modern corporate governance. There is growing activity among empirical research in one-tier systems that considers the link between board composition and CSR reporting. This study is the first of its kind on the German two-tier system with special regard for the supervisory board. We analyze gender diversity, expertise, the presence of former managers, frequency of meetings, and the size of the supervisory board. Our multiple regressions indicate that gender diversity has a positive impact on CSR disclosure intensity, which is in line with prior studies on one-tier systems. Our findings have implications for both users and public policy and suggest that current European corporate governance regulations could help to increase the decision usefulness of CSR reporting.

AB - Corporate social responsibility (CSR) reporting is becoming increasingly relevant in light of modern corporate governance. There is growing activity among empirical research in one-tier systems that considers the link between board composition and CSR reporting. This study is the first of its kind on the German two-tier system with special regard for the supervisory board. We analyze gender diversity, expertise, the presence of former managers, frequency of meetings, and the size of the supervisory board. Our multiple regressions indicate that gender diversity has a positive impact on CSR disclosure intensity, which is in line with prior studies on one-tier systems. Our findings have implications for both users and public policy and suggest that current European corporate governance regulations could help to increase the decision usefulness of CSR reporting.

KW - Management studies

KW - supervisory board composition

KW - Corporate Governance

KW - Sustainability Science

KW - Gender diversity

KW - CSR Reporting

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84956708616&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.3390/su8010063

DO - 10.3390/su8010063

M3 - Journal articles

VL - 8

SP - 1

EP - 20

JO - Sustainability

JF - Sustainability

SN - 2071-1050

IS - 1

M1 - 63

ER -