How does CEO tenure affect corporate social and environmental disclosures in China? Moderating role of information intermediaries and independent board

The present study provides empirical evidence on how chief executive officer (CEO) tenure influences the corporate social and environmental disclosures (CS&ED) of all listed non-financial Chinese firms from 2008 to 2016. We used fixed-effect panel data regression model to test our hypothesis. The findings show a negative impact of CEO tenure on CS&ED. Our study provides evidence that CS&ED increases in the early service tenure of CEOs than in their later service periods, as the early increase followed by a decline indicates the presence of non-linear inverted U-shaped association between CEO tenure and disclosure practices. In further analyses, we find that the negative effect of CEO tenure on CS&ED is more pronounced for the firms having a larger number of information intermediaries and independent directors, such as higher level of institutional ownership, analyst’s coverage, and more independent directors in a firm. We found the stronger and robust outcomes after controlling the endogeneity problem. In conclusion, this study can be useful for policymakers to link CS&ED with firm economic practices to attain sustainable development goals. Moreover, CS&ED implementation can be an effective means for the managers to mitigate career-concerns.