Purpose: This paper aims to investigate the effect of environmental, social and governance disclosure (ESGD) on firm performance (FP) before and after the introduction of integrated reporting (IR) further to exploring a potential moderation effect of corporate governance mechanisms on this relationship. Design/methodology/approach: Ordinary least squares and firm-fixed effects models were estimated based on data related to FTSE 350 between 2009 and 2018. The data has been mainly collected from Bloomberg and Capital IQ. This analysis was supplemented with applying a two-stage least squares (2 SLS) model to address any concerns regarding the expected occurrence of endogeneity problems. Findings: The results show a positive and significant relationship between ESGD score and FP before and after 2013, among a sample of FTSE 350. Furthermore, the study is suggestive of a moderation effect of corporate governance mechanisms (i.e. ownership concentration, gender diversity and board size) on the ESGD-FP nexus. Additionally, this paper finds that firms voluntarily associated with IR have a tendency to achieve better firm financial performance. Practical implications: The findings of the present study have several policy and practitioner implications. For example, managers may engage in ESGD to enhance their firms’ financial performance by the voluntary involvement in IR, which believed to help investors to rationalise their investment decisions. Likewise, the results reiterate the crucial need to integrate more social, environmental and economic regulations to promote sustainability in the UK. The paper also offers a systematic picture for policymakers in the UK as well as future researchers. Social implications: The findings of this paper indicate that IR plays a significant role in the relationship between ESGD and FP, where IR firms seemed to be achieving better FP as compared with their non-IR counterparts. This implies that stakeholders may have played a magnificent effort to encourage firms’ voluntary engagement in IR in the UK. Originality/value: To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study to explore the potential moderating effect of ownership concentration, gender diversity and board size on the relationship between ESGD and FP and to examine whether firms’ voluntary involvement in IR can lead to better FP after the introduction of IR in 2013 in the UK.

Our study examines whether internal corporate governance (CG) mechanisms moderate the relationship between a firm's engagement in corporate environmental disclosure (CED) and earnings management (EM) practices in an emerging economy. Using a sample of 100 Jordanian listed firms from 2010 to 2014 (i.e., 500 firm‐year observations), our findings reveal that while the relationship between CED and earnings manipulations is negative, the links between CG arrangements and EM are heterogeneous in that they might have either reduced or increased earnings manipulations in Jordan. Furthermore, some CG structures, such as board size, managerial, and institutional ownership structures have moderating effects on the CED‐EM nexus. Our research highlights the significance of considering internal CG mechanisms to explain the link between CED and EM in the context of emerging economies. Our results help to explain and place into setting the earlier mixed results on the association between CED and earnings manipulations and most importantly add to the debate about whether CG structures detrimental to the CED‐EM nexus. This study allows for a richer understanding of how managers respond to CED initiatives and CG reforms in relation to reducing earnings manipulations, which offers policymakers, board directors and managers, a set of context‐specific recommendations related to the crucial need for more concerted efforts to ensure corporate sustainability in emerging economies.

Several studies have found a relationship between corporate social and environmental disclosure and firm value (FV) or accounting profitability. Where environmental disclosure has been the focus, though, only single‐country studies have been published, and most of the previous research concerns the developed world. This study examines the association between corporate environmental disclosure (CED) and FV in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries, where CED has been increasing from its previous low base. Findings from a multicountry sample of 500 firm‐year observations using a 55‐item unweighted environmental disclosure index suggest that CED is significantly and positively related to FV as measured by Tobin's Q (TBQ). The relationship is robust to using a weighted version of the disclosure index, individual countries and environmental disclosure subindices. Some evidence of a positive relationship between CED and return on assets is also found, but even where statistically significant, the relationship is much weaker than in the case of TBQ. For empirical and theoretical reasons, we recommend that future studies pay greater attention to market‐based proxies, if possible, when investigating the value relevance of CED in both developed and developing countries. Our results suggest that both managers and policymakers in GCC countries should take a positive view of expanded CED.

Green human resource management (GHRM) is an important organisational approach to promote the sustainable development of organisations. Although the literature regarding the effect of GHRM is growing, little is known about the mechanisms and boundary conditions that may facilitate the link between GHRM and green outcomes. Through a combined underpinning of ability–motivation–opportunity, job demands–resources and social exchange theories, this study examines the relationship between GHRM and green creativity through green work engagement, with spiritual leadership moderating the GHRM–green work engagement relationship. Also, we explore the links between GHRM, spiritual leadership, green work engagement and green creativity using a moderated mediation model. Using survey data of 271 front‐line hotel employees in UAE, we use a partial least squares structural equation modelling to conduct our statistical analysis. The results show that GHRM positively influences green work engagement and green creativity, while green work engagement positively influences green creativity and mediates the GHRM–green creativity nexus. In addition, spiritual leadership amplifies the nexus between GHRM and green work engagement and the mediating effect of green work engagement in the nexus between GHRM and green creativity in the context of the hospitality sector in the UAE. Our study offers industry‐specific practical implications and suggests agendas for further research.