Impact of Board of Directors' Characteristics on Environmental, Social, and Corporate Governance Reporting

Abstract

Objective: This study investigates the effects of board of directors' characteristics on environmental, social and corporate governance, ESG, reporting in the companies listed in the Tehran Stock Exchange during 2012-2016. Method: Data was collected using document mining method and referring to databases. This is inferential with correlation-based statistical analysis research, based on structural equation model. Results: The results showed that among the eight variables explaining board of directors' characteristics, the ratios of non-executive members of the board, corporate ownership in the board, board of directors stability and number of women in the board have positive and significant impacts on ESG reporting; and CEO duality and level of education of the board have negative and significant impacts on ESG reporting. But the variables of the size of the board and the number of meetings of the board are uncorrelated with the ESG reporting. Conclusion: The results of the research hypotheses show many of the board of directors' characteristics have important role in the ESG reporting. This indicates the factors needed to be considered to improve the transparency of information.

Keywords

• board of directors characteristics
• content analysis
• environmental and social and corporate governance reporting
• sustainability reporting