Corporate Environmental Disclosures of Oil and Gas Companies in India: An Analysis of Executives’ Perceptions

Environmental and sustainability issues have assumed significance, leading to social and legal pressures on the companies across the world to take steps to reduce and prevent adverse impact of their activities on the environment and to disclose this information to the concerned stakeholders. The present study aims at investigating the perceptions of executives from 26 listed Indian oil and gas companies on Corporate Environment Disclosures (CEDs)in the annual reports using a structured questionnaire.The questionnaire was constructed on the basis of eleven environmental indicators provided in international oil and gas industry guidelines for voluntary sustainability reporting framework. An attempt was made to determine whether the extent and type of environmental disclosures have correlation with executives’ position in the organization, their knowledge about the annual reports, their stock holdings in the company and the value stream to which the companies belonged. It was found thatthe responding executives were well aware of the environmental issues associated with activities across the value chain in the oil and gas industry. They agreed that these issues are material and must be disclosed in the annual reports, but had different perceptions on the importance of four environmental issues given in the questionnaire for disclosure in the reports. A significant statistical relationship was found between perceived corporate environmental disclosure index (PCEDI) and respondents’ positions in the company and their knowledge on the annual reports. It is suggested that a greater role to knowledgeable senior executives at key positions should be assigned to deal with sustainability disclosure affairs.

Voluntary Environmental Disclosure and Corporate Performance: A Study of Quoted Consumer Goods Manufacturing Firms in Nigeria

This study examined the effect of voluntary environmental disclosure on the corporate performance of quoted consumer goods manufacturing firms in Nigeria. The study specifically examined the effect of voluntary disclosure on the current ratio and quick ratio. The study used the ex post facto research design. The population of the study was drawn from selected consumer good manufacturing firms quoted on the floor of the Nigerian Stock Exchange. The study was based on secondary sources of data, collected from annual financial reports. The study found that voluntary disclosure is positively related to the current ratio and a quick ratio of quoted manufacturing companies in Nigeria. The study recommended among others that to further fortify corporate governance practices among firms, there should be severe execution of Nigerian Stock Exchange sustainability disclosure guidelines for manufacturing firms.

Political connections and firm performance in an emerging market context: the mediating effect of sustainability disclosure

PurposeThis study examines the mediating effect of sustainability disclosure on the relationship between political connections and firm performance from the resource-based view.Design/methodology/approachThe sample of this study was sourced from 888 public companies listed on the Indonesia Stock Exchange (IDX) from 2016 to 2017. Path analysis and Sobel tests were used to determine the mediating effect of sustainability disclosure.FindingsThe results show that political connections have a positive and significant influence on firm performance. Furthermore, sustainability disclosures mediate the relationship between political connections and firm performance.Research limitations/implicationsIn the context of developing countries such as Indonesia, managers can make the existence of parties in politically connected companies as a medium to demonstrate their adherence to external stakeholders through the disclosure of sustainability information.Originality/valueThis study is the first to investigate the mediating effect of sustainability disclosure on the relationship between political connections and firm performance, especially in emerging markets. The parties of the politically connected companies use a social responsibility mechanism as a medium that can sustain their operational sustainability whilst gaining long-term economic benefits.

The Role of Risk Management, Sustainability Disclosure Practices, and Islamic Finance in Nigeria Business Environment

The Nigerian business environment is currently beclouded with various kinds of risks, fear, and uncertainty that culminate into the collapsing of so many businesses and the relocation of several multinational and local firms to other countries. The business and the environment are in a social contract that leaves them with both opportunities and threats hence the business cannot take place in a vacuum. The interconnectivity between businesses and their environment is that of mutuality. Mutual in the sense that the business influences its environment and the environment as well guarantees the legitimacy of the business considering the interest of all relevant stakeholders. That is, a business is influenced by its environment of operation such that its success depends on the ability to adapt to its immediate and entire environment to make the environment of businesses favorable. Therefore, the objective of this study is to explore conceptually the Nigerian Business Environment (NBE) considering the roles of risk management, sustainability disclosure practices, and Islamic finance. The method adopted by the study is the review of past investigations to gain insight into the NBE. Based on the insight from extant literature and in consonance with assumptions of legitimacy theory, the study concludes that risk management, sustainability disclosure practices, and Islamic finance promote the NBE. The study added to existing literature looking at the NBE from the present perspective (i.e. risk management, sustainability disclosure practices and Islamic finance). The study has implications for the government and policy-makers, companies, the business community, and other stakeholders in terms of creating a conducive business environment in Nigeria through the provision of infrastructure, effective corporate governance mechanisms, good stakeholder management.

Will the EU Taxonomy Regulation Foster Sustainable Corporate Governance?

EU securities regulation has established a taxonomy of environmentally sustainable activities. This article discusses, from a law and economics standpoint, the potential of this taxonomy to support sustainable corporate governance. Corporate governance can be an efficient way to channel investor preferences towards sustainability because the concentration of institutional shareholding has lowered the transaction costs of shareholder action. However, there is a principal-agent problem between institutional investors and their beneficiaries, which depends on greenwashing and undermines sustainable corporate governance. This article argues that introducing environmental sustainability into EU mandatory disclosure aligns the institutional investors’ incentives with the interest of their beneficiaries and may foster the efficient inclusion of sustainability in corporate governance. The argument is threefold. Firstly, the EU taxonomy may curb greenwashing by standardizing the disclosure of environmental sustainability. Secondly, this information may become salient for the beneficiaries as the same standards define the sustainability preferences to be considered in recommending and marketing financial products. Thirdly, sustainability disclosure prompts institutional investors to compete for sustainability-minded beneficiaries. Being unable to avoid unsustainable companies altogether, institutional investors are expected to cater to beneficiaries’ preferences for environmental sustainability using voice instead of an exit.

Women in top echelon positions and their effects on sustainability: a review, synthesis and future research agenda

This article aims to review and systematize prior works that investigate how the presence of women in top echelon positions of firms affects sustainability and to create an agenda to guide future research in this promising area. In contrast to previous reviews, ours examines how women in top echelon positions affect sustainability by distinguishing both the position women held in the firm (i.e. Board of Directors—BoD, top management team, CEO and relevant committees) and the specific elements of sustainability (i.e. activity, performance, and disclosure). Our structured systematic review resulted in 187 publications retrieved from Web of Science and Scopus and revealed that the presence of women in top echelon positions is associated with greater engagement in social and environmental projects. Their presence also positively influences the environmental and social performance and increases the level, quality, and transparency of sustainability disclosure. Furthermore, the presence of women in top echelon positions and the implementation of sustainable activities improve both the firm financial performance and value. However, conflicting results have also emerged. On the basis of these findings, research gaps and future research agenda are identified and presented.

Do Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) Disclosures Affect Islamic Banks Financial

Currently, businesses are very vulnerable and exposed to the uncertainty that may cause damage to the company. With the ongoing pandemic issue, companies are more concerned about their performance and survival. Companies like banks play a crucial role in the economy since its growth depends on its financial sector's stability regardless of the country. Thus, companies have many approaches and strategies to maintain their business and stay relevant in the corporate world; hence, ESG disclosure comes in handy. According to the Bursa Malaysia Sustainability Reporting Guide (2018), ESG which stands for "Environmental, Social, and Governance" is a term used extensively, specifically by the investment community, portraying the environmental, social, and governance matters considered by investors in the corporate behaviour context. Experts have actively discussed ESG disclosure to address such reporting to enhance the company's performance portfolio. Furthermore, the ESG factor becomes one of the primary considerations for the investors' decision. ESG factor influences and strengthens the investors' confidence towards the company's performance. Bukhari, Hashim and Amran (2020) suggested that companies providing ESG disclosure show improvement in their financial performance. Experts found a significant impact of sustainability practices on the Islamic banks' financial performance (Jan, Marimuthu & Isa, 2019). Companies' ESG disclosure performance has established a reputation for playing a significant role in financial transparency and how it varies by economic and stakeholder's perspective (Oncioiu, Popescu, Aviana, Serban, Rotaru, Petrescu & Pantelescu, 2020). Jan et al. (2019) found that there is still a low adoption level of sustainability practices and reporting in the Islamic banking industry. An empirical study conducted by Nobanee and Ellili (2016) also stated that sustainability disclosure has an insignificant effect on Islamic banks than the high degree of such disclosure on conventional banks. Moreover, from a study conducted in seven Muslim countries, the sustainability practices and reporting were not of serious concern to those countries' Islamic banks (Hassan and Syafri Harahap, 2010). Keywords: Environment, Social, Governance (ESG) Disclosure, Islamic Banks, and Financial Performance.