The code of corporate governance in Saudi Arabia places a greater focus on social responsibility initiatives by Saudi companies and the reporting of such activities to the community. The current study examines the relationship between corporate governance mechanisms and environmental, social, and governance (ESG) disclosures amongst Saudi companies. In particular, we extend previous studies by covering unique Saudi corporate governance mechanisms (i.e., the presence of members of the royal family on the board (BROY) and of external members on the audit committee (ACEXT)), and their impact on ESG disclosure. Using 206 company-year observations for Saudi listed companies spanning the period 2010 to 2019, we find the presence of BROY and ACEXT has a positive and significant association with ESG disclosure. The findings of this study may help policymakers to develop regulations regarding corporate governance mechanisms to enhance ESG disclosure.

This study examines the relationship between corporate social responsibility (CSR) reporting, board gender diversity (BGEND) and real earnings management (REM). It also investigates how the relationship between CSR reporting and REM differs between gender-diverse and non-diverse firms. Content analysis was used to measure CSR reporting. The ordinary least square regression is used to examine the relationships for a sample of 475 firm-year observations listed on the Amman Stock Exchange during 2011–2016. The results show that CSR reporting is significantly and negatively associated with REM in the Jordanian market. Nevertheless, BGEND is negatively and significantly related to REM. More importantly, the results show that BGEND moderates the CSR-REM relationship. Further, when the sample is split into board gender-diverse and non-diverse firms, the CSR-REM significant negative relationship is evident only in the former, corroborating the moderating role of the BGEND in Jordan. This study contributes to the literature on CSR, BGEND, and REM by offering evidence for the moderating role of BGEND on the CSR-REM relationship, supporting the view that females are more sensitive to ethics. Regulators and stakeholders should be aware of the potential effect of engagement in CSR reporting and the benefits of having a gender-diverse board on financial reporting quality.

Only a few studies have investigated the association between the characteristics of the chief executive officer (CEO) (i.e., tenure and local or expatriate) and corporate social responsibility (CSR) reporting. Our study adds to the fledgling literature by providing new evidence from Saudi Arabia. Given the dominance of family control among Saudi Arabian listed firms, additionally, this study examined the moderating effect of family ownership on the CEO-CSR relationship. Using CSR scores from Bloomberg database from 2010 to 2019 and ordinary least squares (OLS) regression, the findings reveal that the association between CEO tenure and CSR reporting is positively significant; however, the association between CEO nationality and CSR is not significant. In addition, the findings indicate that family ownership is an important contingency factor that explains the association between CEO tenure and CEO nationality, and CSR reporting. Our study contributes to an emerging line of CSR research that investigates the effects of foreign CEOs on CSR transparency, and supports prior evidence on the benefits to investors of having long-serving CEO and the costs of family entrenchment.

The main aim of this study is to investigate the influence of institutional investors’ ownership (INOW) on firms’ environmental, social, and governance (ESG) reporting in Saudi Arabia. Using data on ESG reporting from the Bloomberg database for 206 Saudi-listed firms spanning the period from 2010 to 2019 and employing ordinary least squares regression (OLS), the results show a significant and positive association between INOW and ESG reporting. When institutional investors are classified into government and privately managed institutions, the research findings clearly show that only government-managed institutional investors (Govt_IO) are linked to ESG reporting in a positive and significant way, whereas there is no significant association between privately managed institutions (Prvt_IO) and ESG reporting. In addition, when the ESG score is disaggregated by individual pillars, we find Govt_IO is positively associated with environmental score and social score. These results suggest that the association between INOW and ESG varies depending on the types of INOW, as well as the ESG components. Even after several additional analyses, including tests for endogeneity, the main results of this study still hold.

The purpose of this study was to extend our understanding of how corporate social responsibility (CSR) disclosures impact capital market participants, specifically sell-side analysts. The sample of this study was based on a dataset from a panel of 285 Malaysian firms for the period of 2008–2013 (738 firm-year observations). This study employed ordinary least square regression. This study found that firms with better CSR disclosures are more likely to receive optimistic investment recommendations. Subsample analyses revealed that the CSR-recommendation nexus is more pronounced under a transparent information environment (i) when there is less family control and (ii) when a firm is audited by a prominent Big Four auditor. The results implied that analysts tend to give favorable stock recommendations to high CSR companies operating in a more transparent information environment. To gain analysts’ confidence and make them more appreciative of the CSR disclosures, family firms with proactive CSR engagement are encouraged to switch to Big Four auditors or to seek assurance on their CSR reports. This study broadens our understanding of the factors influencing analysts’ recommendations and the preferences of analysts towards CSR engagement in an emerging market. This paper expands the literature on how corporate responsibility disclosures impact analysts’ final output, as reflected in the recommendation opinion, an area that has so far received little attention, particularly in emerging markets. Furthermore, this study also provides fresh evidence that analyst behavior towards CSR disclosures varies based on the strength of the firm’s information environment.

This study investigates the influence of corporate social responsibility (CSR) on dividend payments using a sample of 263 Malaysian companies that participated in the Capital Market Development Fund–Bursa Research Scheme over the period 2008–2013. The study applies the pooled ordinary least squares, quantile, Tobit, Heckman’s self-selection model and propensity score matching regression techniques. The results from these techniques show that CSR is significantly and positively associated with dividend payments, meaning that the higher the CSR, the greater the amount of dividends paid to shareholders. However, when the interacting effect of family control is considered on the association between CSR and dividend payments, family control has a significantly negative influence on the relationship, indicating that family companies engage in less CSR, thereby negatively affecting dividend payments. Overall, the findings support the view that serving the interest of stakeholders paves the ways for satisfying shareholders’ claims, and reveals the reality of family companies’ behaviour to shareholders and stakeholders. Thus, this study adds to the literature on the dividend conundrum and the role CSR plays in shareholders’ prosperity’ it is the first attempt to establish the direct effect of CSR on dividend payments in the Malaysian capital market and study the interacting effect of family control.