Board characteristics and Sustainable Development Goals disclosure: evidence from European state-owned enterprises

Purpose This study investigates if and how the board size, the board independence, the CEO duality and the board-specific skills are associated with higher-quality Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) disclosure in European State-Owned Enterprises (SOEs). Design/methodology/approach We measured SDGs disclosure through a content analysis of SOE's reports from 2017 to 2022. The characteristics of the boards analyzed are board size, board independence, CEO duality and board-specific skills. We performed multiple regression models to test the association between the SDGs disclosure and the characteristics of the boards. Findings The results show that board size, independent directors and board-specific skills are positively associated with higher-quality SDGs disclosure, while CEO duality is negatively associated with higher-quality SDGs disclosure. Practical implications This study provides several practical implications. Shareholders could equip their firms with larger boards, more independent and highly skilled directors, while avoiding a CEO duality for improving the SDGs disclosure; capital providers could examine the characteristics of a firm's board before allocating financial resources to verify which firms are accountable in reaching the SDGs. Also, standard-setters and policymakers could use the results of this research to define new standards or regulatory pathways to push firms to put more efforts in preparing a comprehensive and high-quality SDGs disclosure. Originality/value While prior studies mostly focused on sustainability reporting overall, this study adds a specific insight about SDGs disclosure employing an investigation which has not been previously analyzed.