Governance and sustainability in Southeast Asia
Governance and sustainability in Southeast Asia
Purpose: This paper aims to examine the relationship between a diverse set of corporate governance (CG) mechanisms and corporate sustainability disclosure (CSD) in Southeast Asian countries under national stakeholder reform. Design/methodology/approach: Data analysis is based on 171 of the largest companies across six Southeast Asian countries using a 30-item CSD measure. Findings: The authors find that there are wide variations in the levels of CSD across the countries. The findings indicate that board size, board gender diversity, block ownership and the presence of a sustainability committee are significant determinants of CSD. Additionally, whilst more stringent stakeholder governance reform motivates firms to publish more sustainability information, it fails to influence the effectiveness of the board of directors in promoting CSD. Practical implications: Findings of this study highlight the essential role internal governance structure plays in monitoring corporate actions and enabling corporations to reduce their legitimacy gap. The findings further encourage regulators and policymakers to question, with utmost importance, the effectiveness of stakeholder reform in making significant organisational changes. Originality/value: There is a dearth of studies that examine the CG-CSD nexus in relation to specific institutional characteristics. Existing studies mainly focus on a single country with similar institutional environments and thus limiting the ability to understand the “context specificity” of sustainability content development. This paper provides an overview of stakeholder reform in Southeast Asian countries and empirically substantiates the relationship between CG and CSD across six countries undergoing such reforms in the region.
Content analysis, Corporate governance, Corporate sustainability responsibility disclosure (CSD), Southeast Asia, Stakeholder reform, Sustainability disclosure, Sustainable development
516-545
Tran, Mi
5365ab8d-146f-4b3b-aaca-9adf8c98d3fc
Beddewela, Eshani
1a2e8b56-b06f-4671-b13d-4c0eb368fb4a
Ntim, Collins
1f344edc-8005-4e96-8972-d56c4dade46b
22 November 2021
Tran, Mi
5365ab8d-146f-4b3b-aaca-9adf8c98d3fc
Beddewela, Eshani
1a2e8b56-b06f-4671-b13d-4c0eb368fb4a
Ntim, Collins
1f344edc-8005-4e96-8972-d56c4dade46b
Tran, Mi, Beddewela, Eshani and Ntim, Collins
(2021)
Governance and sustainability in Southeast Asia.
Accounting Research Journal, 34 (6), .
(doi:10.1108/ARJ-05-2019-0095).
Abstract
Purpose: This paper aims to examine the relationship between a diverse set of corporate governance (CG) mechanisms and corporate sustainability disclosure (CSD) in Southeast Asian countries under national stakeholder reform. Design/methodology/approach: Data analysis is based on 171 of the largest companies across six Southeast Asian countries using a 30-item CSD measure. Findings: The authors find that there are wide variations in the levels of CSD across the countries. The findings indicate that board size, board gender diversity, block ownership and the presence of a sustainability committee are significant determinants of CSD. Additionally, whilst more stringent stakeholder governance reform motivates firms to publish more sustainability information, it fails to influence the effectiveness of the board of directors in promoting CSD. Practical implications: Findings of this study highlight the essential role internal governance structure plays in monitoring corporate actions and enabling corporations to reduce their legitimacy gap. The findings further encourage regulators and policymakers to question, with utmost importance, the effectiveness of stakeholder reform in making significant organisational changes. Originality/value: There is a dearth of studies that examine the CG-CSD nexus in relation to specific institutional characteristics. Existing studies mainly focus on a single country with similar institutional environments and thus limiting the ability to understand the “context specificity” of sustainability content development. This paper provides an overview of stakeholder reform in Southeast Asian countries and empirically substantiates the relationship between CG and CSD across six countries undergoing such reforms in the region.
Text
Governance and Sustainability in SEA - ARJ 19 October 2020 preprint
- Accepted Manuscript
More information
Accepted/In Press date: 19 October 2020
e-pub ahead of print date: 9 March 2021
Published date: 22 November 2021
Additional Information:
Publisher Copyright:
© 2021, Emerald Publishing Limited.
Keywords:
Content analysis, Corporate governance, Corporate sustainability responsibility disclosure (CSD), Southeast Asia, Stakeholder reform, Sustainability disclosure, Sustainable development
Identifiers
Local EPrints ID: 444827
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/444827
ISSN: 1030-9616
PURE UUID: 6a07019b-9152-4b45-9f95-2fc10b923b9c
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Date deposited: 05 Nov 2020 17:34
Last modified: 17 Mar 2024 02:27
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Author:
Mi Tran
Author:
Eshani Beddewela
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