Reporting on sustainable development: Configurational effects of top management team and corporate characteristics on environmental information disclosure

Abstract

Although widely explored in many studies, how and why combined top management team (TMT) and corporate characteristics affect environmental information disclosures (EID) are still lacking clarity. This study uses both fuzzy‐set qualitative comparative analysis and necessary condition analysis to reconcile the inconclusive results concerning the configurational effects of these characteristics on EID and to validate the robustness. From a sample of listed construction engineering corporates during the 2014–2018 period, the high EID level is associated with several complex configurations that contain the core characteristics such as corporate ownership and size, whereas the low EID level is related to the configurations including TMT salary and corporate profitability. The findings support the four tenets of equifinality, asymmetry, complexity, and causal asymmetry in complexity theory. Our results capture the complex non‐linear effects of TMT and corporate characteristics and shed new light on environmental disclosure management for corporate sustainable development.

Impact of executive pay gap on environmental, social, and governance disclosure in China: Is there a strategic choice?

“…However, like other decisions, ESG disclosure decisions are influenced by corporate governance structure characteristics and top management individual characteristics (Harasheh & Provasi, 2023; Wang et al, 2023). As one of the corporate governance measures that coordinate the interests of top management and the firm (Fang et al, 2018; Ge & Kim, 2020), salary structure has an important influence on a firm's strategic choices by promoting top management to act in accordance with shareholder expectations.…”

Advancing scientific inquiry through data reuse: Necessary condition analysis with archival data

“…NCA has also been applied in the field of strategic management. Examples discussed in Dul et al (2023) are Bouncken et al (2020a), Cheng and Jiang (2022), Du and Kim (2021), Fredrich et al (2019, 2022), Klimas et al (2022), Ortigueira‐Sánchez et al (2022), Tho (2018, 2019), and Wang et al (2023). Other recent examples are Bouncken et al (2023), Bouzari et al (2023), Conway (2019), Delgosha et al (2021), Frezatti et al (2022), Oyadomari et al (2023), Qu et al (2023), and Singh et al (2023).…”

Business strategy and environmental information disclosure from a Confucian cultural perspective: Evidence from China

“…Second, the stakeholder perspective considers media attention (Fan et al, 2020), board diversity (Liu & Zhang, 2016), investor heterogeneity (Li, Zhang, et al, 2022), and management incentives (Li et al, 2019) also motivate firms to engage in EID. Third, the corporate governance perspective investigates how factors such as firm size (Chen et al, 2020; Gallego‐Alvarez, 2018), nature of property rights (Zeng et al, 2012), and profitability (Wang et al, 2023) impact the extent of EID by companies. In sum, existing research has established a relatively comprehensive list of motivations for corporate EID, and various theoretical perspectives, such as legitimacy theory, signaling theory, and external pressure theory, have been utilized to explain the antecedents of EID (Chen et al, 2020; Li, Huang, et al, 2018).…”

“…To establish a positive reputation, enterprises must provide stakeholders with sustainable environmental protection information. Whether positive or negative, EID reflects a company's active commitment to social responsibility and helps establish a good brand image (Wang et al, 2023). The EID performance of an enterprise signifies its long‐term strategic intent, aiming to extend the green reputation achieved through EID to its business practices, thereby gaining continuous trust and support from stakeholders (Fan et al, 2020).…”