Does corporate governance affect the environmental, social and governance disclosure? A cross-country study

Purpose This study aims to explore whether corporate governance mechanisms affect environmental, social and governance (ESG) disclosure by firms across countries. It investigates whether board cultural diversity affects ESG disclosure. Design/methodology/approach The proposed methodology draws on multidimensional scaling as a multivariate assessment tool to evaluate and prioritize the effect of corporate governance on environmental, social and governance disclosure. This study uses a cross-country sample of 672 listed firms located in 40 countries for the period between 2014 and 2022. We used a panel regression to test the hypotheses. Moreover, we conducted a two-stage least squares regression analysis as an additional robustness check. Findings The results show that companies can have high-quality ESG disclosure when they have good corporate governance. Interestingly, this study found that board composition and some criteria of corporate social responsibility (CSR) positively affect ESG disclosure for firms. Originality/value This study adds to the existing body of accounting knowledge in several dimensions. Indeed, to the best of our knowledge, this is one of the few studies that investigate the effect of corporate governance on the environmental, social and governance disclosure of firms across 40 countries. This study also has important implications for the board of directors’ characteristics and CSR, which strive to improve the index of ESG disclosure.