Augustine Donkor

We examine the moderating role of culture on the association between corporate governance (CG) and Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) disclosure of Fintech firms. Our study collected and analysed data from firms in 8 of the top 20 Fintech countries from 2010-2020. Our findings show that the size, independence, and gender diversity of the board positively influence the ESG disclosures of fintech firms. We also find that culture moderates the effect of board characteristics on ESG disclosure in various ways depending on the specific cultural dimension. Specifically, the positive influence of board size, independence, and gender diversity on ESG disclosure is more pronounced in collectivist and low-indulgent cultural environments. The board independence and ESG disclosure association is prominent in feminine societies. High uncertainty avoidance also moderates the effect of board size and independence on ESG disclosure of Fintech firms favourably. We surmise that the varying role of the different cultural dimensions may explain the mixed results in the CG practices and ESG disclosures literature. Our study, thus, highlights the importance of culture in boards' ESG disclosure decisions and the need to consider culture in explaining the CG-ESG disclosure nexus.

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.

Quality assurance is key if integrated reporting (IR) wishes to become the corporate reporting norm. However, current assurance standards seem unsuitable for an integrated IR assurance. This paper develops and proposes a research framework to evaluate the trends in IR assurance, the nature of IR assurance, the level of IR assurance engagement and the quality of IR assurance. Additionally, the framework proposes to test the impact of quality IR assurance on the quality of IR reports.