Environmental attitude in the board. Who are the “green directors”? Evidences from Italy |
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| Authors: | Simona Cosma Paola Schwizer Lorenzo Nobile Rossella Leopizzi |
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| Institution: | 1. Financial Markets and Institutions, Dipartimento di Scienze dell' Economia, Università del Salento, Lecce, Italy;2. Financial Markets and Institutions, Department of Economics, Parma University, Parma, Italy;3. Dipartimento di Scienze dell'Economia, Università del Salento, Lecce, Italy;4. Business Administration, Ionic Department in Legal and Economic System of Mediterranean: Society, Environment, Culture, University of Bari, Taranto, Italy |
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| Abstract: | Board members' attitudes towards environmental protection are an important antecedent of how companies define and implement sustainability initiatives, but little is known about directors' attitudes and the factors associated with these. Using survey data on Italian board members, the research sought to explore the relationships between these individual's personal attributes, especially those related to their roles on boards, and their attitudes towards environmental protection. The findings suggest that female directors, directors with financial background, and independent directors are positively related to attitudes towards environmental protection. In the financial sector, younger board members and risk committee members show stronger environmental attitudes. The results could be of interest to policymakers because the board member attributes identified may require a stronger regulatory focus in order to achieve public policy's environmental protection objectives and to governance bodies in terms of defining board committees' composition and selecting “green directors” oriented towards environmental issues. |
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| Keywords: | board members attributes environmental attitudes environmental protection management green directors sustainable corporate governance board design |
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