Output list
Conference paper
Carbon emissions and firm value: Does firms' commitment to sustainable development goals
Date presented 14/12/2023
Joint Conference of the BAFA Corporate Finance and Asset Pricing SIG and the Northern Area Group, 13/12/2023–14/12/2023, Dubai
Conference paper
Experts on Boards’ Audit Committee and Sustainability Performance: The Role of Gender
Date presented 23/06/2023
The Tenth International Conference of the Journal of International Accounting Research, 22/06/2023–24/06/2023, University of East Anglia, Norwich, UK
This paper examines and compares the role of male financial experts (MFEs) and female financial experts (FFEs) of the Audit Committee (AC), on sustainability performance using a sample of listed firms in the United States from 2010 to 2021. The results show that although both MFEs and FFEs influence sustainability performance, FFEs have statistically greater influence than MFEs. The results also show that FFEs have greater influence across all three pillars of Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) performance. Further analyses suggest that if an AC has single-gender financial expertise (only MFEs or only FFEs), this is detrimental to the firm’s sustainability performance. The results also show that although having a gender-diverse AC is beneficial, the benefit is greater if the females on the AC are financial experts. These results may also partly explain the inconclusive findings of earlier studies on the influence of financial expertise on sustainability performance. The results remain consistent under a battery of robustness tests. Overall, the study highlights the need for ACs to have diverse financial experts from the perspective of non-financial reporting and adds to justifications for increasing calls for diversity on boards.