The role of corporate governance in environmental policy disclosure and sustainable development

Addressing environmental, social, and governance (ESG) issues has become a critical element of company strategy. This study aims to investigate the relationship between corporate governance and financial characteristics and the extent of ESG disclosure in an international sample. The sample consists of 540 companies chosen from the Forbes Global 2000 list for the period 2014-2017. The econometric model used for analyzing the association between corporate characteristics and the extent of ESG disclosure is based on Generalized Estimating Equations for longitudinal count data. The current study argues that stakeholder engagement is the key to enhancing both business environmental policy and sustainable development. The statistical results show that all governance factors selected in our study, with the exception of the board size, are significant determinants that influence the extent of environmental policy disclosure.