European firms’ corporate biodiversity disclosures and board gender diversity from 2002 to 2016 |
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| Institution: | 1. Edinburgh Business School, Heriot-Watt University, Dubai International Academic City, 294345, Dubai, United Arab Emirates;2. University of Bristol, 15-19 Tyndall''s Park Rd, Bristol, BS8 1PQ, UK;1. Department of Accounting and Finance, University of Bristol, Priory Road, Bristol, BS8 1TN, United Kingdom;2. Alliance Manchester Business School, The University of Manchester, AMBS Building, Booth Street West, Manchester, M15 6PB, United Kingdom;1. Manchester Metropolitan University Business School, Department of Accounting, Finance and Banking, Manchester, M15 6BH, United Kingdom;2. Lancaster University Management School, Department of Accounting and Finance, Lancaster, LA1 4YX, United Kingdom;1. Birmingham Business School, University of Birmingham, 116 Edgbaston Park Rd, Birmingham, B15 2TY, United Kingdom;2. Accounting and Finance Group, Alliance Manchester Business School, University of Manchester, Booth Street West, Manchester, M15 6PB, United Kingdom;1. Graduate School of Management, University of California, Davis, CA 95694, USA;2. Department of Accountancy and Finance, University of Otago, Dunedin, NZL 9054, New Zealand;3. Ron Joyce Center for Business Studies, Mount Allison University, 144 Main Street, Sackville, NB, E4L 1A7, Canada;1. Department of Economic Studies, University “G. d’Annunzio” of Chieti-Pescara, Pescara 65129, Italy;2. Department of Accounting & Corporate Governance, Macquarie University, Ryde NSW 2109, Australia;3. Swinburne Business School, Swinburne University of Technology, Melbourne, Victoria 3122, Australia |
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| Abstract: | We examine how board gender diversity is associated with biodiversity disclosures of a firm, and whether the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) and the EU biodiversity strategy reinforce this relationship. Using institutional theory and resource dependency theory, our sample comprises 4013 firm-year observations from European corporations covering data from 2002 to 2016. We use panel regressions with country, time and industry dummy variables to analyse the disclosure of biodiversity initiatives (DBI) and logit regressions to explain biodiversity impact assessment (BIA). We find that board gender diversity is positively associated with the DBI and BIA of a firm, and that the GRI framework and the EU biodiversity strategy positively moderate this relationship. Moreover, the GRI framework and the EU strategic plan show positive relationship with the DBI, rather than BIA. Altogether, our evidence suggests that corporate boards with a higher proportion of female directors are more sensitive to the concerns of institutional pressures and respond to those concerns by increasing corporate biodiversity disclosures. Overall, we find that firms tend to comply with the GRI framework and the EU 2020 strategy by undertaking symbolic biodiversity disclosures, rather than providing a comprehensive disclosure of their impacts on biodiversity. |
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| Keywords: | Biodiversity accounting Board gender diversity Corporate biodiversity initiatives EU biodiversity strategy GRI |
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