This study investigates how corporate board governance attributes influence carbon emission disclosure (CED) across ASEAN-5 countries (Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, and Thailand) from 2015 to 2022. Using panel data regressions and a composite Board Effectiveness Score, the analysis evaluates both individual board characteristics—gender diversity, size, independence, meeting frequency, and environmental committees—and their collective impact on CED as measured by CDP scores. Grounded in agency, resource dependence, stakeholder, legitimacy, signaling, and voluntary disclosure theories, the findings reveal that gender diversity and the presence of an environmental committee significantly enhance CED, supporting the notion that board diversity and specialized structures improve sustainability oversight. In contrast, board size and meeting frequency show no consistent influence, challenging conventional assumptions within agency and stakeholder theories. Notably, board independence has a negative impact on disclosure, highlighting contextual governance challenges in the ASEAN region. The Board Effectiveness Score emerges as a stronger predictor of CED than individual attributes, confirming that integrated governance mechanisms better explain corporate transparency. Additional robustness tests—including quantile regression, logit analysis, and dynamic GMM—confirm the consistency of results. Control variables such as green innovation, firm size, age, and profitability also positively affect disclosure. As one of the first region-wide governance studies in Southeast Asia, this research provides important implications for policymakers, investors, and sustainability advocates, underscoring the need for enhanced governance frameworks and regulatory mandates to bridge ASEAN’s sustainability disclosure gap and align corporate practices with global climate goals.

Assessing Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) practices in the banking sector is becoming increasingly important. This study aims to analyze the correlation between ESG scores and the performance of banks. The ESG data were gathered using a Bloomberg database. Using fixed-effect estimation for a static model, this study examines a balanced panel sample of 15 Jordanian-listed banks from 2009 to 2023. Based on multivariate regression, the study outcomes suggest that Jordanian banks with higher ESG scores perform better in operating and market performance. Stakeholder theory supports this. Accordingly, the R2 values for the study models were 23.9% for the ROA model and 18.7% for Tobin’s Q, respectively, showing the high explanatory power of both models. Therefore, an increase of one point in ESG scores leads to a corresponding rise in ROA and Tobin’s Q 0.496 and 0.370, respectively. Regarding control variables, leverage has a negative correlation coefficient of –0.169 and –0.253, respectively, in both the ROA and Tobin’s Q models. According to the ROA model, a one-unit increase in bank size leads to a 0.309-unit increase in bank performance and a 0.115-unit increase, according to Tobin’s Q model. Similarly, as the bank ages by one year, its performance improves, with the ROA and Tobin’s Q models showing increases of 0.216 and 0.116 units, respectively. Additionally, the financial development showed correlation coefficients of 0.108 and 0.045 for the ROA and Tobin’s Q models, respectively. However, the ESG committee does not affect the performance of banks. AcknowledgmentThis research was funded through the annual funding track by the Deanship of Scientific Research, from the Vice Presidency for Graduate Studies and Scientific Research, King Faisal University, Saudi Arabia [Grant NO. KFU242703].

Through harnessing innovative technologies, financial technology (FinTech) services streamline and organize access to capital, improve operational effectiveness, and facilitate various transactions, enabling small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to thrive in competitive and complex economies. The purpose of this research is to examine whether financial literacy (FL) moderate the relationship between FinTech indicators and SMEs’ performance in the Jordanian context. SMEs’ performance was measured by the operational and financial indicators. While the Fintech indicators were: financial inclusion (FI), trust in FinTech (TF), alternative payment methods (APMs), and perceived risk (PR). Data have been collected using a developed questionnaire. The study’s population was the SMEs in Jordan. Utilizing structural equation modeling (SEM) to analyse the collected 172 questionnaires, the results revealed that FinTech indicators have a significantly positive effect on SMEs’ performance. FL moderates the relationship of FinTech indicators with SMEs’ performance. The current study contributes to the existing research regarding the FinTech, FL and SMEs’ performance. The current research contributed to the literature by examining new variables, namely, FI, APMs, TF, and PR. The outcomes of this study highlight the importance of FinTech services in enhancing SMEs’ performance. Such outcomes indicate that SMEs in Jordan are strongly benefiting from FL and FinTech indicators.

As global emphasis on environmental, social, and governance practices intensifies, sustainability reporting emerges as a critical tool for corporate transparency and accountability. The study aims to assess the impact of sustainability reporting on the financial performance of listed companies in Jordan. Using a quantitative approach, a total of 588 individuals were surveyed from low-pollution and high-pollution industries using purposive sampling techniques. Partial Least Square Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) was used to conduct analysis of the data with the aid of SMART PLS4 software. The study finds that the impact of sustainability disclosures on firms’ financial performance in Jordan differs significantly by both the type of disclosure and the pollution intensity of the industry the firms belong to. Environmental impact reporting (EIR) and social impact reporting (SIR) both have positive and significant effects on financial performance, especially in low-pollution industries, probably because of a perceived proactive and authentic integration of sustainability practices. However, governance impact reporting (GIR) shows a negative relationship with financial performance, which implies that such disclosures may be perceived as compliance-driven or not authentic. These findings indicate that the context of the sustainability reporting strategy is an important element in determining its effect on financial performance. The multigroup analysis (MGA) results help us to gain a better understanding of how different sectors leverage financial value from disclosing their sustainability activities. The study confirms that sustainability disclosure is not just a compliance requirement, but an instrument that can help firms improve their financial performance. Finally, we recommend that future research should investigate deeper psychological and social mechanisms likely to influence stakeholder responses across different sectors and countries within the region.

Corporate tax avoidance has become an important concern within corporate law, sustainability governance, and regulatory compliance frameworks. Yet, the relationship between environmental, social, and governance (ESG) engagement and firms’ tax behavior remains inconclusive. This study examines whether ESG performance is associated with corporate tax avoidance and investigates whether carbon emissions intensity conditions this relationship within the context of emerging sustainability and environmental regulatory frameworks. Using a panel dataset of globally listed firms in carbon-intensive industries over the period 2018–2024, this study evaluates how sustainability engagement interacts with environmental exposure to shape corporate fiscal behavior and legal compliance with tax obligations. The empirical results indicate that ESG performance is negatively associated with book-tax differences, suggesting that firms with stronger sustainability engagement tend to exhibit lower levels of tax-planning aggressiveness. Furthermore, the interaction analysis shows that carbon emissions intensity significantly moderates the ESG-tax avoidance relationship. In particular, the negative association between ESG performance and tax avoidance appears stronger among firms with higher carbon emissions intensity, indicating that environmental exposure may amplify the alignment between sustainability commitments and corporate legal accountability and fiscal transparency. These findings remain robust across alternative tax-avoidance measures and dynamic panel estimations. Overall, the study contributes to the emerging literature on corporate law, ESG governance, and fiscal transparency by demonstrating that environmental exposure strengthens the alignment between sustainability engagement and corporate compliance with taxation norms.