Female executives and circular economy reporting: international evidence from the food industry

We contribute to the existing literature on corporate governance and the circular economy (CE) by exploring CE reporting in the food industry and examining the role of female executives in promoting circularity and disseminating CE information. Using an international sample from the world’s leading 100 food and beverage companies, our results show a positive association between female executive presence and the extent of CE reporting. Specifically, our study focuses on the four primary CE principles: R1 (reduce), R2 (reuse), R3 (recycle), and R4 (recover). We provide descriptive insights into how CE is reported across firms and across R strategies, revealing that reporting is often uneven, with R3, recycle, receiving the most detailed attention. Our findings highlight the significant role of female executives in enhancing CE disclosures, especially in relation to recycling. Additional analysis shows that this effect is more pronounced in firms with lower environmental, social, and governance (ESG) practices, as well as in countries with weaker progress toward the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goal 12. Finally, our results hold for potential endogeneity concerns. Overall, this study advances the CE reporting literature by providing granular firm-level evidence from a key sector and contributes to the debate on gender dynamics in corporate sustainability. It also offers important implications for stakeholders and policymakers interested in promoting circular practices in the food industry.