Does sustainable board governance drive corporate social responsibility? A structured literature review on European archival research

Abstract

Purpose This paper aims to analyze the impact that sustainable board governance has on corporate social responsibility (CSR) on the European capital market because of the current debate of future European regulations on the topic. Design/methodology/approach Based on a legitimacy and stakeholder theoretical framework, the author conducts a structured literature review and includes 86 quantitative peer-reviewed empirical (archival) studies on board gender diversity, sustainability board expertise and sustainability-related executive compensation and their impact on CSR variables. Findings Gender board diversity represents the most important variable in this literature review. The included categories of sustainable board governance positively influence both the total CSR and environmental outputs. Research limitations/implications A detailed analysis of sustainable board governance proxies is needed in future archival research to differentiate between symbolic and substantive use of CSR. In view of the current European reform initiatives on sustainable corporate governance in line with the EU Green Deal project, future research should also analyze the interactions between the included sustainable board governance variables and their contributions to CSR. Practical implications As both stakeholder demands’ on CSR outputs and CSR washing have increased since the financial crisis of 2008–2009, firms should be aware of a substantive integration of sustainability within their boards of directors (e.g. because of composition and compensation) to increase their CSR efforts and long-term firm reputation. Originality/value This analysis makes useful contributions to prior research by focusing on sustainable board governance as a key determinant of CSR outputs on the European capital market. The European Commission’s future evidence-based regulations [e.g. the corporate sustainability reporting directive (CSRD) and the corporate sustainability due diligence directive (CSDD)] should be promoted.

Sustainable institutional investors and corporate biodiversity disclosure: Does sustainable board governance matter?

“…Moreover, the existence of a sustainability-related executive compensation (SEC) equals 1 if the compensation of the senior executives is linked to sustainability targets. In line with prior research, we assumed a complementary relationship between the three variables and an equal contribution to BD (Velte, 2023). Sustainable board composition (GB and CSRC) and sustainable board compensation (SEC) can be classified as the three most important variables used in recent sustainable corporate governance research (Velte, 2023).…”

“…(2) sustainability board committees, and (3) sustainability-related executive compensation (Adel et al, 2019;Velte, 2023). These proxies also represent a major monitoring and incentive-alignment function.…”

“…In line with prior research, we assumed a complementary relationship between the three variables and an equal contribution to BD (Velte, 2023). Sustainable board composition (GB and CSRC) and sustainable board compensation (SEC) can be classified as the three most important variables used in recent sustainable corporate governance research (Velte, 2023). Given that corporate governance is a system of various interrelated factors, our aim is to include the combinatory effects of the three sustainable board variables.…”

Sustainable institutional investors, corporate sustainability performance, and corporate tax avoidance: Empirical evidence for the European capital market

“…Most of these institutions have a highly complex portfolio of firms from an international perspective. As sustainability topics (e.g., climate change or biodiversity) represent global challenges, we expect that institutions are aware of stakeholder concerns (Velte, 2023a(Velte, , 2023b. Consequently, institutions tend to demand more corporate sustainability information and successful management tools compared with other forms of equity ownership and pressure management to strengthen their sustainability performance.…”

“…Moreover, we recognized that studies regarding the impact of sustainable corporate governance on CSR outputs (e.g., Garcia Martin & Herrero, 2020; Giannarakis et al, 2018; Stanny & Ely, 2008) have increased. However, sustainable board characteristics, such as gender diversity, sustainability expertise (e.g., CSR committees), and sustainability‐related compensation systems, have mainly been addressed (Velte, 2023a).…”