There is a dearth of research on corporate governance and total sustainability disclosure (economic, environmental, and social) in developing, particularly South Asian, countries. This is unique cross-country research on South Asian countries’ corporate governance elements and total sustainability disclosure practices. The study considers a set of insightful theories, namely, the signaling and agency theories of understanding the motives and drivers of sustainability reporting. Based on data from the Global Reporting Initiative database, the study analyzes Bangladesh, India, and Pakistan. We have collected annual report and sustainability reports from the GRI database for the period between 2009 and 2016. Based on the signaling and agency theories, the study investigates how board and shareholding structures convey signals to the market and different stakeholders. Our empirical results find that total sustainability disclosure has a positive and significant relationship with foreign shareholding, institutional shareholding, board independence, and board size. On the other hand, we document that director shareholding is negatively but significantly associated with total sustainability disclosure. Therefore, we conclude that corporate governance elements have very strong influential power to send positive signals to the market that lead to reduced information asymmetry and ensuring honest signals from different stakeholders.

Comparatively less research has examined the effect of corporate governance (CG) elements on environmental sustainability reporting performance (ESRP) in South Asian (SA) countries. Further, no study in literature documents a cross-country examination of CG and ESRP in this region. The study takes three SA countries (Bangladesh, India, and Pakistan) and 88 listed organizations’ sustainability reports during the years 2009–2016 from the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) database. The study considers a variety of mixed theoretical frameworks—i.e., agency, resource dependency, stakeholder, legitimacy and political cost theories—to indicate which ownership (foreign, institutional, director and family) and board characteristics (independence, size, diversity and committee) affect ESRP practices in the world’s most environmentally vulnerable region. Our empirical results indicate ESRP has a positive association with foreign and institutional ownership, board independence, and board size. Moreover, we find director share ownership significantly relates with ESRP. In contrast, our results also reveal no association between ESRP and family ownership, female directorship, and CSR and environmental committees. We conclude that more family control, a lack of female participation, and the unavailability of resourceful management personnel primarily impedes ESRP practices in the SA countries’ organizations. These findings have both theoretical and practical implications for academia, policy-makers, and corporate managers in this region.

“Bangladesh faces many ecological challenges, including air and water contamination, land degradation, and waste management”. Bangladesh faces many ecological challenges, including air and water contamination, land degradation, and waste management. This study was designed to investigate the extent and nature of environmental accounting and reporting of listed banks in Bangladesh in 12 major categories. Information was collected from the annual reports of 20 banks listed on the Dhaka Stock Exchange for the period 2010 to 2014. The results indicate that the banks examined significantly disclosed environmental information for the 12 categories. The study found that banks disclosed the most environmental information for green banking and renewable energy categories, whereas they disclosed the least for environmental recognition and waste management categories. Furthermore, yearly comparison reveals that disclosure of environmental information increased sharply from 16% in 2010 to 83% in 2014. In addition, Bangladesh Bank’s recent fruitful initiatives on environmental disclosures were reviewed, and the findings of the 12 categories have managerial implications for policy makers in corporations as well as the government. It is recommended that professional accounting bodies of Bangladesh, along with international and government policy makers develop a separate conceptual framework for environmental accounting and reporting for the financial and non-financial sectors of the country.

Professional expert directors extensively influence corporate corruption disclosure (CCD), while higher political connections may exacerbate corporate management. This study investigates the relationship between the presence of external experts on a board and CCD, as well as the moderating effect of political connections, on the positive role of legal experts in CCD. The study combines agency, resource dependence and stakeholder theories to show how resourceful directors on the board can promote corruption disclosure. Using data on listed firms in the Bangladeshi financial sector, the study analyzes 247 firm-year observations from 2012 to 2016. The results of a multiple regression analysis indicate that accounting experts, legal experts, political connections and corporate media visibility each have a positive and significant influence on CCD. Moreover, the moderating effect of political connections on the relationship between legal experts and CCD is negative and significant due to their higher political influences. The study has significant implications for corporate governance and for policies concerning the development of the economy while reducing corruption.

This paper explores the effect of board diversity on environmental, social, and governance (ESG) performance in Korean-listed firms using regression analysis. Our findings reveal that an increased board size significantly correlates with higher ESG scores when combined with other board diversity dimensions. The presence of female directors on boards was found to have a significant effect on environmental and social components of ESG performance. Age diversity exhibits a negative association with ESG scores, emphasizing potential disruptions from intergenerational differences. Foreign directors show no significant impact on ESG performance, suggesting that country-specific contextual factors may limit foreign directors’ influence on boards. The proportion of highly educated directors positively affects the overall ESG performance, aligning with resource dependence and agency theories. Overseas-educated directors play a crucial “bridging” role in adapting sustainable innovations overseas, positively influencing ESG performance. In conclusion, this study provides empirical evidence of the complex relationships between board diversity dimensions and ESG performance in the Korean context. These findings guide stakeholders in shaping inclusive and effective board structures for optimal corporate sustainability.

This paper explores the influence of a country’s institutional factors and internal corporate governance on banks’ voluntary climate finance disclosures. The analysis focuses on the world’s top 100 banks, examining the institutional and governance factors that shape TCFD disclosure practices. From an institutional perspective, the research reveals a heightened level of climate financial disclosure in banks located in countries where investor protection is strong under the common law system and environmental performance is commendable. On the internal governance front, it is observed that the independence and diversity of the board of directors play a facilitating role in promoting such disclosure. Additionally, in countries where shareholder litigation is easily pursued, a moderating effect is observed wherein board independence paradoxically inhibits TCFD disclosure. This study stands as the first to explore the determinants of climate financial disclosure in global banks, confirming the driving forces behind such disclosures through institutional and stakeholder theories and providing crucial empirical evidence to enhance research on voluntary disclosure.