Board gender diversity and biodiversity: Do the GRI framework and the Biodiversity Strategic Plan (2011-2020) matter?

Abstract

This study examines how board gender diversity is associated with corporate biodiversity initiatives, and whether gender diversity reinforces the effects of the Global Reporting Initiatives (GRI) and the EU biodiversity strategic plan on corporate biodiversity. Using an integrated theoretical framework of institutional theory and resource dependency theory, our study is based on 4,013 firm-year observations from European listed firms covering a period from 2002 to 2016.We use panel regressions with country, time and industry dummy variables to analyse biodiversity management performance (BMP) and logit regressions to explain biodiversity impact assessment(BIA). We find that board gender diversity has a positive relationship with BMP and BIA of afirm. Moreover, the GRI framework and the EU Strategic plan show positive relationship with the BMP, rather than BIA, even though gender diversity positively moderates their relationships with both biodiversity indicators. Overall, our evidence suggests that a board with increased female representation is more responsive to the concerns of institutions and societal stakeholders, and respond to those concerns by influencing biodiversity initiatives of a firm. In addition, the GRI framework and the EU 2020 strategy appear to enhance management performance on biodiversity without influencing firms to assess their impacts on biodiversity

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ORCID for Faizul Haque: orcid.org/0000-0003-1556-3466

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