Purpose Biodiversity conservation is essential for corporate sustainability, yet empirical evidence on the relationship between firm-level green commitment and biodiversity exposure remains limited. This study aims to examine the relationship between corporate green investment and biodiversity conservation initiatives. Design/methodology/approach This study uses a sample of listed firms from the United States (the USA) covering the period 2002–2023 and uses regression analyses with sector and year fixed effects. To ensure robustness, this study also uses alternative measures and adopts various methods to address potential endogeneity problems. Findings The results of this study show that green investment is positively associated with biodiversity conservation initiatives, and this positive relationship is stronger for firms operating in carbon-intensive sectors. Additional analyses further reveal that the positive association observed in carbon-intensive sectors is more pronounced for firms that have sustainability committees and for firms that have adopted the GRI guidelines. Furthermore, ESG performance positively moderates the relationship between green investment and biodiversity conservation initiatives. Practical implications The findings of this study contribute to the extant literature and provide valuable implications for corporate leaders, national governments and regulators aiming to protect ecosystems and conserve biodiversity. Originality/value To the best of the author’s knowledge, this study is among the first to uncover the association between green investment and biodiversity conservation in the context of US firms. This study extends the existing literature by emphasizing the role of green investments in conserving biodiversity and ecosystems, particularly in carbon-intensive sectors.
Purpose This study aims to analyze the implications of not certifying International Organization for Standardization (ISO) 26000 and its impact on business management, particularly its role in promoting a culture of corporate social responsibility and sustainability, examined through the lens of Critical Management Studies. Design/methodology/approach A qualitative research design was adopted. Ten in-depth interviews were conducted with ISO accreditation and auditing experts with over 25 years of experience in Peru and Latin America. Findings The study shows that the non-certification of ISO 26000 represented a missed opportunity to promote a stronger culture of corporate social responsibility and sustainability among organizations. Research limitations/implications The study is based solely on the experience of ten ISO experts in Peru, considered leading specialists with over 25 years in Latin America and knowledge of the global accreditation market. Several also served on Peru’s ISO 26000 mirror committee between 2005 and 2020. Practical implications The study offers an opportunity to analyze the consequences of non-certification and to identify opportunities for creating a new ISO standard on corporate sustainability. Social implications It provides concrete contributions by identifying market opportunities and offering guidelines for a future ISO standard focused on ESG – environmental, social and governance – needed by companies and organizations. Originality/value The study examines ISO 26000’s characteristics, contributions and challenges, highlighting its business value and outlining guidelines for a certifiable corporate sustainability standard.
Purpose This paper aims to examine the combined effects of climate risk and environmental, social, and governance (ESG)-related uncertainty on insurance companies across a panel of 11 countries. Design/methodology/approach This study uses the annual time series data related to 11 countries, ranging from 2010 to the 2023. The authors use the panel quantile autoregressive distributed lag regression and Granger non-causality analysis techniques. Findings The findings show significant heterogeneity across quantiles in the determinants of insurance expansion. ESG-related sustainability uncertainty promotes insurance growth in the long run, especially in higher quantiles, while climate performance improves insurance revenues in the short run, mainly in lower quantiles. In contrast, climate change uncertainty has an immediate positive effect in countries with low insurance premiums, but its long-term impact diminishes in high-premium markets. These findings are consistent with stakeholder theory and institutional theory. Practical implications Climate and ESG-related sustainability uncertainty require policy frameworks that account for the unintended effects of mitigation measures on insurers’ risk assessment and pricing while ensuring the affordability of climate-related microinsurance. Integrating uncertainty into risk models and aligning insurance practices with sustainability goals improves risk estimation and enhances the long-term resilience of the insurance sector. Originality/value The authors results contribute to the existing literature on ESG and climate-related uncertainty in insurance market expansion and provide useful insights for policymakers and insurance practitioners.
Purpose This study aims to examine how managers’ personal values are translated into sustainability leadership behavior and address a critical gap in the literature by moving beyond explanatory models to propose a design-oriented and actionable framework for leadership development. Design/methodology/approach Data were collected from 247 middle and senior managers across multiple industries in South Korea. Structural equation modeling, bootstrapping and hierarchical regression analyses were used to test the proposed relationships among values, self-efficacy, moral identity, social support and sustainability leadership behavior. Findings The results indicate that environmental and social responsibility values are significantly associated with sustainability-related self-efficacy, which is positively associated with sustainability leadership behavior. Moral identity corresponds to this relationship through an indirect association involving self-efficacy, while social support is linked to a stronger association between self-efficacy and leadership behavior. These findings support a value–efficacy–behavior pathway underlying sustainability leadership. Practical implications The findings offer concrete guidance for organizations by outlining how sustainability leadership can be systematically developed through value embedding, efficacy-building mechanisms and context-based activation systems, particularly in hierarchical and collectivist organizational environments. Originality/value This study makes a novel contribution by introducing a value–efficacy–activation framework, which conceptualizes sustainability leadership as a dynamic process through which values are converted into behavior via psychological and contextual mechanisms. Building on this, the study proposes a design-oriented 3E intervention model (embed–enable–enact), offering a structured and testable approach for developing sustainability leadership in organizational settings. By integrating explanatory and intervention-based perspectives, the study provides actionable insights that extend beyond prior research and contribute to both theory and practice.
Purpose The purpose of this study is to analyze barriers to employee sustainability in emerging economies by drawing on Buddhist principles and to provide a strategic roadmap for overcoming them. This addresses a significant research gap amid growing organizational efforts to address employee discontent through non-conventional strategies. Design/methodology/approach The study comprises three phases: the Fuzzy Delphi Method for scrutiny, Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) with Python 3.12.2 and Fuzzy AHP for prioritization and strategic mapping to overcome barriers. A comparative analysis quantifies the impact of uncertainty on the weightings of the criteria. It also presents a mind map connecting strategies, key performance indicators and technological interventions for fostering employee sustainability. Findings This approach results in 15 barriers, with “unsafe and unhealthy workplace,” “dissatisfactory pay and benefits” and “stress, accidents and layoffs” garnering the highest weightage. It also emphasizes that “improving physical and mental well-being,” “improving diversity, equity and inclusion” and “revamping company culture” are the most effective strategies for achieving employee well-being and sustainability. Practical implications Based on the Positive Emotion, Engagement, Relationships, Meaning and Accomplishment (PERMA) model, this research advocates aligning organizational policies with employees’ hedonic and eudemonic happiness. It encourages managers and the government to implement effective strategies with appropriate prioritization, reducing the risk of resignations and long-term employee depression. Originality/value This research addresses the gap by analyzing barriers to employee sustainability and proposes a multidimensional strategic roadmap for their removal. It offers strategies that serve as potential indicators of employee happiness and promote sustainable development within organizations.
Purpose - This conceptual paper aims to develop the notion of principled resilience - a values-driven framework explaining how non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and mission-oriented organizations sustain mission integrity, legitimacy and ethical consistency amid financial constraint, accountability pressure and organizational paradox. It addresses the limits of performance-centric resilience models by reframing resilience as a responsibility-oriented capability rather than a reactive response to disruption. Design/methodology/approach - The paper conceptually integrates paradox theory and resilience-as-practice to build a values-anchored model of responsible organizational adaptation. It identifies three interdependent capacities - mission fidelity, process orientation and outcome independence - that collectively define principled resilience as both an ethical and adaptive system for sustaining legitimacy in uncertain environments. Findings - Principled resilience explains how organizations navigate tensions between short-term accountability demands and long-term social commitments. It shows that true resilience emerges not merely from adaptive capacity but from embedding responsibility, reflection and value coherence into governance, decision-making and stakeholder engagement practices. Research limitations/implications - As a conceptual study, the framework requires empirical validation. Future research could examine its propositions across diverse institutional and cultural contexts, assessing how mission fidelity, process orientation and outcome independence jointly influence legitimacy, stakeholder trust and societal outcomes. Practical implications - The framework equips leaders, donors and policymakers with tools to institutionalize responsibility and moral integrity within governance. By embedding mission fidelity into processes and resisting overreliance on short-term metrics, organizations can strengthen stakeholder confidence and sustain credibility while adapting to uncertainty and resource volatility. Social implications - Principled resilience enables organizations to balance accountability with ethical commitments, supporting trust-based relationships and long-term societal value - especially in hybrid and legitimacy-sensitive environments. Originality/value - This paper offers a novel conceptualization of resilience that foregrounds values, legitimacy and responsibility as foundations of organizational endurance. It extends paradox theory and resilience-as-practice while providing a coherent, empirically testable framework for responsible governance and sustainable social impact. In governance terms, the framework specifies how value-aligned routines (process orientation) and metric discipline (outcome independence) operate as governance mechanisms that protect mission integrity and legitimacy under accountability pressure.
Purpose Water has become an environmental crisis that threatens human life in the past decade. This has prompted various parties to be aware of their contribution to preventing a more severe water crisis, including companies, which either directly or indirectly contribute to the water crisis. This study aims to examine whether corporate water information can be conceptualised as a human right by analysing the role of corporate human rights (HR) commitment and governance mechanisms and by assessing how national culture and public visibility shape these associations.Design/methodology/approach Corporate water disclosure is operationalised using a Refinitiv water-efficiency policy score, which captures policy-level, publicly reported information on firms' formal water-efficiency commitments. The study uses a quantitative cross-country design using panel data from 135 non-financial firms (675 firm-year observations) across three developed and three developing countries over the period 2017-2021. Random-effects panel regression is used to test the direct effects of HR commitment and corporate social responsibility (CSR) committees on corporate water disclosure, as well as the moderating roles of national culture and public visibility.Findings The results show that corporate commitment to HR is positively associated with policy-based corporate water information disclosure, supporting the view that access to water-related information can be framed as a HR issue. Public visibility strengthens this association. In contrast, disclosure-constraining cultural dimensions, namely power distance, masculinity and individualism, weaken the relationship between HR commitment and water-related disclosure, while disclosure-enabling cultural dimensions, namely uncertainty avoidance and long-term orientation, do not show a significant moderating effect. Contrary to expectations, the presence of a CSR committee is negatively associated with policy-based corporate water information disclosure in the main model. This finding suggests that the mere existence of formal CSR governance structures may not be sufficient to improve water-related disclosure and raises questions about symbolic versus substantive sustainability governance.Practical implications The findings highlight the importance of public scrutiny and institutional context in encouraging substantive water disclosure and question the effectiveness of formal CSR governance structures.Social implications By framing water information as a human right, the study underscores the societal importance of transparency in corporate water management for safeguarding access to water resources.Originality/value This study provides novel empirical evidence by positioning corporate water information disclosure as a HR issue rather than solely an environmental or sustainability concern. It extends business and HR theory and stakeholder theory by integrating institutional and visibility perspectives in explaining ethical disclosure practices.
Purpose With environmental sustainability gaining importance in event management, green strategies are increasingly integrated into festival planning. While existing literature has emphasised the economic and social impacts of festivals, limited research addresses how sustainable practices influence attendee satisfaction. Prior research often treats festival sustainability as a broad, homogeneous construct, offering limited insight into how distinct initiatives are experienced and translated into satisfaction. This study aims to fill that gap by examining the relationship between sustainability initiatives and visitor satisfaction at the North Festival in Porto, Portugal. Design/methodology/approach Based on survey data from 951 participants, the study uses logistic regression to assess the perceived impact of specific interventions: selective waste collection, use of reusable cups, efforts to reduce food waste and implementation of cashless payment systems. Findings Results show that effective waste management, particularly through reusable cups and selective garbage collection, significantly enhances attendee satisfaction. Additional factors such as festival planning and food service quality also positively influence the overall experience. Conversely, the adoption of cashless payment methods is associated with lower satisfaction, possibly due to user acceptance challenges. These outcomes underscore the need for clear communication and thoughtful design of sustainability measures. Organisers should strive to align environmental goals with user-friendly solutions to ensure both ecological impact and participant approval. Originality/value This research advances the understanding of how green practices affect festival-goer satisfaction. Since the long-term success of sustainability strategies relies on both environmental performance and public support, insights from this study are valuable for organisers seeking to align environmental goals with attendee experience. Transferability is most plausible in comparable festival settings where similar initiatives are implemented under comparable conditions (e.g. usability and support for cashless systems, communication intensity and audience digital readiness).
Purpose This paper aims to study the relationship between carbon disclosures and carbon performance. In particular, the research investigates the moderating influence of environmental exposure, environmental certification and the existence of an environmental committee on carbon disclosures. Whether companies should adopt carbon disclosures as a strategy to address the demands of their stakeholders or simply use it as a reporting mechanism. Design/methodology/approach The data in the study is based on the annual corporate reports of Fortune Global 500 companies. To address the problem of endogeneity, the study uses two-step system GMM dynamic panel regression as a key method. Other methodologies such as difference-in-differences analysis and ordinary least squares are used for robustness checks. Findings The findings of the study reveal a significant link between past carbon disclosure and carbon performance in the future. These findings empirically validate the “management outside-in” perspective. Additionally, findings reveal a more significant effect when environmental exposure is high among corporations, thus confirming the influence of industry on the relationship. Originality/value This study contributes by reconceptualizing carbon disclosure as a strategic input rather than outcome, using dynamic modelling to address potential endogeneity. Furthermore, the study challenges the view that disclosure primarily serves legitimacy purposes, providing evidence that it can drive substantive carbon management when external pressures are present.
Purpose This study aims to introduce the Maturation Tree of Inclusive Shared Value (MTISV) and its accompanying Diagnostics and Enablement Framework as tools for analysing and advancing the maturation of inclusive shared value. It also aims to enhance understanding of how economic and social connectedness can be fostered through producer-centred, context-sensitive design. Design/methodology/approach Using an abductive qualitative design, interview data from Rwanda’s coffee industry are synthesised into the MTISV diagnostic model which visualises the interrelations and maturity levels of contingent elements. Findings The analysis reveals how contingent factors, paradoxes and feedback loops influence the simultaneity of economic and social development. The resulting Diagnostics and Enablement Framework provides a transferable approach for identifying enablers and inhibitors of functionality, prioritising interventions and tracking progress towards inclusive and sustainable prosperity. Originality/value Departing from the conventional Creating Shared Value (CSV) paradigm, this study offers a contingent, empirically grounded model that places producers and communities at the centre of shared value creation. It contributes a replicable diagnostic logic for assessing and guiding the maturation of shared value within complex socio-economic systems.
Purpose In response to the changing paradigms in higher education, universities need to adapt as academic institutions and prepare for future changes. This study explores how university leadership and educational management practices can be strategically designed to foster ecosystem engagement and promote sustainable entrepreneurship. This paper aims to investigate the relationships between green entrepreneurial self-efficacy (GESE), green environmental values (GEVs), university green environmental support (UGES), university green business development support (UGBDS) and green entrepreneurial intention (GEI). Design/methodology/approach This study uses a deductive approach and uses cross-sectional data collected through convenience sampling from students at public universities in Saudi Arabia. This study is based on 302 valid cases. Findings Using SmartPLS version 4, the path analysis reveals positive relationships between GESE and UGES, GEI and UGBDS. GEVs are positively associated with UGES and UGBDS but negatively associated with GEI. UGES and UGBDS are positively associated with GEI. Moreover, UGES mediates the relationship between GESE and GEI, and GEVs and GEI. Finally, UGBDS mediates the relationship between GEVs and GEI, and GESE and GEI. Practical implications This study’s outcomes help policymakers and university authorities develop a conducive and supportive culture in which green initiatives are top priorities. This study’s findings suggest that educational managers should seek to optimize institutional resources, nurture cross-sector partnerships and integrate sustainability-oriented entrepreneurship into educational frameworks. This study contributes to the discourse on educational innovation in higher education institutions. Originality/value This study presents an extensive framework that integrates GESE, GEVs, UGES, UGBDS and GEI into a single model. Moreover, this study addresses gaps stemming from the lack of an integrated framework, as explicitly confirmed in a developing-country context.
Purpose The total quality management (TQM)–performance, TQM–marketing and marketing–performance associations are conflicting. Green marketing and leadership may offer solutions for enhanced environmental, social and governance (ESG) performance. Drawing on Ghana’s emerging economy context, where ESG scrutiny intensifies amid weak institutional enforcement, this study offers theoretical insights for similar institutional environments. The purpose of this study is to empirically examine the relationship between TQM and ESG performance, exploring the roles of green marketing and sustainability leadership among food and beverage (F&B) companies. Design/methodology/approach The authors used the partial least squares structural equation modelling technique to analyse time-lagged data from 244 managers across twenty F&B companies with multiple International Standard Organisation (ISO) certifications (environmental management system standard: ISO 14001 and social responsibility system standard: ISO 26000) at a 5% significance level and 95% confidence interval. Findings TQM practices enhance ESG performance through the partial intervention of green marketing. When sustainability leadership is high, the relationship between TQM, green marketing and ESG performance is strengthened rather than when it is low. Research limitations/implications Forthcoming studies should use longitudinal or experimental designs, consider data from multiple sources and conduct cross-national replications to understand how institutional contexts moderate findings. Practical implications F&B managers should design TQM initiatives that generate ESG-relevant narratives and data. They should establish and institutionalise cross-functional integration mechanisms that connect quality, marketing and sustainability functions through coordinated team structures, integrated reporting dashboards and shared key performance indicators. They should implement accountability systems that link marketing claims to verified ESG outcomes and pursue multiple sustainability certifications that signal genuine commitment beyond marketing rhetoric. Originality/value This study’s emphasis on ESG shows that TQM’s value creation extends beyond traditional financial performance metrics. This study proposes a communicative mediation perspective, which posits that TQM’s translation to ESG gains requires explicit communication mechanisms. This study resolves TQM–marketing tensions, demonstrating their complementarity. Such that TQM alone generates operational improvements that may remain invisible to stakeholders, while marketing alone lacks substantive content without TQM’s operational foundation. This study uses sustainability leadership to reconcile timing debates in marketing–performance research, extending leadership studies beyond existing paradigms.
Purpose This study aims to investigate the impact of chief executive officer (CEO) overconfidence on environmental, social, and governance (ESG) controversies and examines whether CEO gender and duality moderate this relationship. Design/methodology/approach Using a sample of non-financial French firms from 2009–2021, they use robust ordinary least squares (OLS) regressions and robustness checks. Findings The results indicate that firms led by overconfident CEOs experience fewer ESG controversies, considering the potential reputational damage and long-term survival risks. Furthermore, CEO gender and duality significantly moderate this relationship: overconfident female CEOs exhibit stronger avoidance of ESG controversies compared to male counterparts, while CEO duality amplifies the likelihood of such controversies. Research limitations/implications While the French context provides insights into a specific regulatory environment, the findings may not be generalizable to other institutional settings. These results highlight the importance for policymakers, investors and stakeholders to consider CEOs’ psychological traits and governance structures when evaluating ESG strategies. Originality/value To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is among the first to explore the link between CEO overconfidence and ESG controversies in the French context. It also extends the ESG literature by revealing how gender and duality shape this relationship, contributing to the emerging research stream on behavioral corporate governance and ESG outcomes.
Purpose This study aims to investigate the impact of regulatory environmental pressure on employees' green performance. It explores the mediating roles of socially responsible human resource (HR) practices and green performance management systems in enhancing environmentally responsible behavior. Using institutional theory and the abilities-motivation-opportunities framework, this study shows how external regulations and internal drivers collectively influence employees' green performance.Design/methodology/approach This study adopted the cluster sampling technique to collect the data using a structured questionnaire. A total of 302 samples were collected from employees of textile small and medium enterprises (SMEs). A structural equation model was estimated using SPSS and AMOS to analyze the data.Findings The results revealed that regulatory green pressure has a positive impact on socially responsible HR management, green performance management systems and employee in-role green performance. The results also revealed that socially responsible HR have a positive mediating effect, whereas green performance management systems show no significance. This indicates the contextual challenges faced by the SMEs in integrating environmental objectives into core business and HR practices.Originality/value This study offers insight into how external regulatory pressure influences employee readiness to adopt internal policies and frameworks, enabling sustainable employee-level outcomes. However, the nonsignificant green performance management systems highlight the contextual constraints SMEs face in embedding environmental objectives into core business and HR practices, which require further research and capacity development.
PurposePolicies aiming to control the COVID-19 pandemic framed health guidelines as prosocial behaviors. This research aims to explore whether contextual cues reminding of the COVID-19 pandemic can activate prosocial goals unrelated to the pandemic. It is hypothesized that COVID-19 reminders, such as mask-wearing images, will increase prosocial behavioral intentions.Design/methodology/approachFive studies (N = 956) test the hypotheses. Study 1 tests whether consumers chronically concerned with the pandemic show higher prosocial intentions. Studies 2-5 test if COVID-19-related media cues increase prosocial intentions when compared with control conditions.FindingsConsumers chronically concerned or exposed to pandemic-related cues showed higher prosocial behavior intentions, were willing to donate more money and showed a higher preference to consume in smaller businesses. This tendency persisted after health policies ceased and was not explained by concerns with the pandemic or mortality salience, suggesting it may result from simple semantic associations between the COVID-19 pandemic and prosocial goals.Research limitations/implicationsSubtle contextual cues can be used to promote prosocial behaviors benefiting from previous associations between health policies and prosocial goals. Future research should further explore the mechanism underlying the reported effect and explore other associations between prosocial behaviors and contextual information.Practical implicationsPublic health policies may be used for social marketing strategies and programs promoting prosocial behavior.Social implicationsProsocial intentions may be primed by contextual reminders of crises that are strongly associated to a need to act in a prosocial way, such as the COVID-19 pandemic.Originality/valueThis research provides new insights into the consequences of health policy programs focused on the promotion of prosocial behaviors. It also highlights how contextual cues associated with COVID-19 can prime socially responsible behaviors in different domains.
Purpose This study aims to investigate whether the relationship between organizational forgiveness climate and employees’ psychological well-being in service sector organizations is moderated by workplace spirituality. Design/methodology/approach Using survey data gathered from a randomly selected sample of 402 service sector employees, the study applies quantitative research techniques such as correlation, moderation and regression analyses to examine the hypotheses. Findings The study finds that the organizational forgiveness climate has a positive impact on employees’ psychological well-being and that workplace spirituality positively moderates this relationship. This indicates that, in the presence of workplace spirituality, the positive effect of the organizational forgiveness climate on employees’ psychological well-being becomes stronger. Practical implications The results highlight how crucial it is to cultivate a climate of forgiveness in service sector organizations to improve employees’ mental health and general well-being. Furthermore, the findings suggest that when service sector organizations encourage spiritual values among employees such as ethical conduct, building a sense of community, finding meaning in work and fostering a sense of purpose and contentment, it strengthens the forgiving properties, which in turn leads to enhanced psychological well-being. Originality/value Although organizational forgiveness climate has been recognized as an essential component in organizational settings, its direct impact on employees’ psychological well-being has received comparatively limited attention. This study adds to the literature by empirically investigating the implications of organizational forgiveness climate for employees’ psychological well-being. Furthermore, it examines how workplace spirituality may moderate the extent to which the organizational forgiveness climate affects employees’ psychological well-being in organizational settings.
Purpose The mining process has an impact on economic and social sustainability. Corporate social responsibility (CSR) plays an important role in making sure of company sustainability. This study aims to examine the effectiveness of the quadruple-helix approach in the mining area in developing reciprocity relationships among mining stakeholders. Design/methodology/approach Focus group discussion was applied to elaborate on research themes. Furthermore, 20 participants are invited to confirm research themes and the current issue in the mining company areas. Findings The mining company needs to develop and enhance the standardization of the representation of the quadruple helix. This approach supports the development of more sustainable, innovative and socially responsible mining practices and stimulates sustainable practices among established companies by encouraging collaboration between government, academia, industry and civil society to address environmental and social challenges in mining. Research limitations/implications This research applied in the mining sector of Indonesia. Future research should focus on comparative, context-specific analyses and the development of robust measurement tools, which can guide more effective and scalable collaboration models for sustainable mining practices worldwide. Practical implications Mining companies should develop stakeholder engagement and capacity-building initiatives, while governments can facilitate policy stability and transparent governance. Academics and civil organizations should facilitate companies and local communities to transfer knowledge, ensuring that mining activities generate shared value and contribute to sustainable regional development. Originality/value This study contributes to understanding the existence and performance of quadruple helix, by showing how these new helices were identified, in addition to advancing the subject in innovation environments among mining companies.
Purpose This study aims to examine deep-level diversity reporting by examining how companies disclose their neurodiversity related efforts. Design/methodology/approach The authors combine qualitative content analysis and quantitative techniques to analyze references to neurodiversity practices in a sample of 318 company reports from the top 45 companies from the Fortune Global 500. Based on content analysis, they derive the key topical areas for neurodiversity reporting, then they report the results of a Multidimensional Scaling Analysis and discuss the emerging topical clusters related to neurodiversity reporting. Based on a fuzzy set QCA analysis, they tested the effects of company size, geographical location and gender diversity of the board on neurodiversity reporting. Findings The results reveal five topical areas for neurodiversity reporting: financial and material donations, product and customer experience development, employee stories, neurodivergent hiring and employee resource groups. Moreover, they show that major corporations with comparatively smaller workforces, those located in North America, and those having in their top management teams more than 20% women, tend to report more on neurodiversity practices as compared to their counterparts. Originality/value Our study reports the first empirical attempt to explore the research field of deep-level diversity reporting, specifically the way in which the top leading companies report on their neurodiversity-related practices.
Purpose The purpose of this study is to examine whether corporate social responsibility (CSR) functions as a precautionary commitment that increases corporate cash holdings in emerging markets. Design/methodology/approach Using a balanced panel of 202 non-financial firms listed on the Pakistan Stock Exchange from 2013 to 2024, this study integrates stakeholder theory and corporate finance perspectives. Pooled OLS, two-way fixed effects, lagged CSR models, System GMM and panel quantile regression are used to address heterogeneity, endogeneity, persistence and distributional effects. Findings CSR engagement is positively and significantly associated with corporate cash holdings in all specifications. Dynamic estimations confirm that the CSR-liquidity relationship is persistent and intertemporal, while the quantile results show stronger effects among high-liquidity firms. The findings of this study support the precautionary or commitment-based interpretation of CSR rather than the financing-constraint alleviation view commonly observed in developed markets. Research limitations/implications This study relies on expenditure-based CSR measures and focuses on a single emerging market. Future research should explore governance moderators and cross-country comparisons. Practical implications Managers should align CSR engagement with long-term liquidity plans. Investors may interpret CSR-linked cash retention as a signal of an entity's financial resilience. Regulators may enhance CSR disclosure frameworks to clarify the interaction between CSR commitment and financial flexibility. Originality/value This study provides dynamic and distribution-sensitive evidence from a frontier market, reconceptualizing cash holdings as a strategic complement to CSR under institutional uncertainty.
Purpose This paper aims to investigate whether there is a relationship between gender diversity and environmental, social and governance (ESG) performance. This study also examines whether ESG controversies can moderate the relationship between gender diversity and ESG performance relationship. Design/methodology/approach This study’s sample comprises unbalanced panel data on 853 firms listed in the FTSE 350 and the S&P 500 indices, covering the period from 2012 to 2024. This study used ordinary least squares regression and the generalised method of moments to test the hypotheses. Findings The findings of this study indicate a non-significant relationship between female board members and ESG performance. Also, the findings show that ESG controversies negatively moderate the relationship between gender diversity and ESG performance. These findings suggest that the effectiveness of female board members in enhancing ESG performance may diminish when firms face public allegations of negative ESG impacts. Practical implications This study provides academic evidence that is valuable for policymakers and investors in decision-making and public policy to enhance the ESG performance of firms facing or at risk of ESG controversies. Originality/value The findings contribute to the limited literature by providing new insights and addressing a gap by examining the relationship between board gender diversity and ESG performance, while considering the moderating effects of ESG controversies. This study is also unique in that most prior studies have investigated the impact of board gender diversity on firm financial or ESG performance separately, without accounting for external challenges, such as ESG controversies. Furthermore, this study provides academic evidence that is valuable for policymakers and investors in decision-making and public policy to enhance the ESG performance of firms facing or at risk of ESG controversies.
