Corporate governance in the digital age: the role of social media and board independence in CSR disclosure. Evidence from Italian listed companies

Luigi Lepore (), Loris Landriani, Sabrina Pisano, Gabriella D’Amore and Stefano Pozzoli
Additional contact information
Luigi Lepore: Parthenope University of Naples
Loris Landriani: Parthenope University of Naples
Sabrina Pisano: Parthenope University of Naples
Gabriella D’Amore: Parthenope University of Naples
Stefano Pozzoli: Parthenope University of Naples

Journal of Management & Governance, 2023, vol. 27, issue 3, No 4, 749-785

Abstract: Abstract This article aims to investigate the role of board independence on corporate social responsibility disclosure (CSRDisc) and the moderating role of stakeholder e-engagement by social media (SM) in the relationship between these variables. The study uses econometric panel data dependence techniques on a sample of 347 firm-year observations related to Italian non-financial listed companies for the period 2017–2019. The results highlight that independent directors, particularly those appointed by minority shareholders, influence positively CSR disclosure. Additionally, this relationship is strengthened by stakeholder e-engagement created by social media (SM), since higher is the companies visibility on Facebook, Linked In, and Twitter, and hence the institutional pressure felt by its independent directors, greater is the CSRDisc. This article suggests a new metric to evaluate stakeholder engagement by SM and a new index to measure CSRDisc based on both Directive 95/2014 and Global Reporting Initiative standard. The article contributes to academic research on the relationship between board independence and disclosure analysing the moderating role by institutional pressure coming from SM.

Keywords: Board independence; CSR disclosure; Social media; Stakeholder e-engagement; Institutional pressure (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s10997-021-09617-2 Abstract (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:kap:jmgtgv:v:27:y:2023:i:3:d:10.1007_s10997-021-09617-2

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.springer. ... 29/journal/10997/PS2

DOI: 10.1007/s10997-021-09617-2

Access Statistics for this article

Journal of Management & Governance is currently edited by Lino Cinquini

More articles in Journal of Management & Governance from Springer, Accademia Italiana di Economia Aziendale (AIDEA) Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().