The Effect of the Characteristics and Activities of the Board of Directors on Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) Disclosures: Empirical Evidence from Southeast Asia

Lintang D. Sekarlangit and Ratna Wardhani
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Lintang D. Sekarlangit: Accounting Department, Faculty of Economics and Business, UI Depok Campus, Universitas Indonesia, Depok 16424, Indonesia
Ratna Wardhani: Accounting Department, Faculty of Economics and Business, UI Depok Campus, Universitas Indonesia, Depok 16424, Indonesia

Sustainability, 2021, vol. 13, issue 14, 1-17

Abstract: This study aimed to analyze the board of directors’ commitment to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by looking at the influence of the characteristics and activities of the board of directors and the existence of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) committees on disclosures regarding the SDGs. The directors’ characteristics that were analyzed in this research included the board size, the proportion of independent directors, the presence of female directors, and the presence of foreign directors. The activities analyzed included the number of board meetings held in one year and the percentage of directors in meetings. The context of this study was companies in five Southeast Asian countries—Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, and the Philippines—during the 2016 and 2017 reporting years. This study was an initial research work aiming to empirically examine the effect of the board of directors on SDG disclosures in public companies from five countries in Southeast Asia. The study shows that the percentage of attendance of board directors’ meetings and the existence of CSR committees positively affected SDG disclosures. It also indicates that the presence of the board at the meeting can encourage more intensive SDG disclosures. Companies with a high commitment to sustainability, as shown by their forming of CSR committees, also tended to have a higher level of SDG disclosures.

Keywords: board of directors; Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs); SDGs disclosures; sustainability report; voluntary disclosure; Southeast Asia (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (13)

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