• Energy Research

In a rapidly changing technology world, companies need to conform to their customers’ expectations if they wish to remain competitive in the marketplace. New products, services, processes, marketing, management, and organizational innovation can all be tools to keep companies competitive. Research and development (R&D) expenditure is a critical component in the development of a design process. According to the scientific literature, corporate governance and financial performance can be essential variables with a significant impact on the innovation process. By acting transparently and honestly with all stakeholders (employees, suppliers, customers, creditors, government, community), companies can ensure and enhance the economic sustainability of the whole country through efficient management of financial resources and work toward high value-added innovation. Therefore, the aim of this work was to analyze whether corporate governance and financial performance affect the development of corporate innovation investments and, at the same time, the sustainability of the country’s economy. Additionally, this research proposes a methodology for integrated assessment of corporate innovation investments in the context of economic sustainability, aimed at companies and countries for more efficient investment in innovation and sustainable development outcomes. The object of the research was corporate innovation investment intensity as the driver for economic sustainability. An evaluation methodology for integrated assessment of corporate innovation investment can be used as an instrument for the stimulation of business innovation and strategic development of a country’s economy. The evaluation methodology of integrated assessment of corporate innovation investments can be utilized to evaluate different companies and governments. Evidence-based empirical calculations show that synchronized corporate governance and financial performance influence the intensity of corporate innovation investments in the context of economic sustainability.

In this study, we investigate the effect of board gender diversity on the decision to disclose carbon emissions voluntarily. Using an international sample consisting of 22,841 firm-year observations from 38 countries for the period 2010–2019, we determine the existence of a positive relationship between the percentage of female directors on the board and carbon disclosure. This evidence supports agency and resource dependency theories, as a gender diverse board indicates strong governance and better communication among stakeholders. Additionally, we examine the moderating effect of gender quotas across sample countries, where either soft or hard quotas have been implemented. We show that the number of firms disclosing their carbon emissions is, on average, higher in countries with either hard or soft quotas than in countries with no quota. Moreover, the positive effect of board gender diversity on voluntary carbon emission disclosure is similar across firms in countries with quotas and without quotas. The reported results demonstrate that there seems to be no need for country-level strict regulations regarding the firm-level percentage of female representation on the board to be effective, as gender board diversity in countries with no quotas has a similar effect in explaining voluntary carbon disclosure as in countries with quotas and those changing to quota regulation.

We investigate the relationship between environmental and financial performance of fossil fuel firms. To this extent, we analyze a large international sample of firms in chemicals, oil, gas, and coal with respect to several environmental indicators in relation to financial performance for the period 2002-2013. We find that these firms have significantly higher scores on environmental performance efforts than other firms. We use a simultaneous equations system to identify the direction of the relationship between environmental and financial performance of the firms. We find that environmental outperformance has no impact on financial performance for chemical firms, reduces returns and risks for coal companies, has a mixed impact on returns in oil and gas, and reduces financial risks for oil and gas firms. Financial outperformance reduces environmental performance in all fossil fuel (sub)industries investigated. Our findings mainly support the opportunistic view regarding the impact of financial returns, which holds that financial performance negatively impacts social performance. Regarding financial risk, we find support for the stakeholder perspective where good environmental performance is beneficial from a finance perspective. We conclude to substantial differences in the environmental-financial performance relationship along fossil fuel firms in different subindustries. (C) 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

We study the relationship between financial performance and responsibility in the banking industry. Given the wide diversity in business models and operations, this relationship needs to be studied at the level of specific industries. We contribute to the debate about financial and social performance in the banking industry by using highly detailed responsibility and financial performance information, which helps to understand why this relationship exists and how the relationship evolves over time. We rely on a diverse international sample for the period 2002–2015 and use a wide range of financial performance measures next to various specific indicators for corporate governance, environmental, and social performance. By using simultaneous equation system estimations to address the causality between financial performance and responsibility, we find that the Tier-1 capital adequacy ratio is significantly and positively associated with responsibility indicators. As such, stronger institutions appear to be able to act in a more responsible manner and such responsibility signals banks’ health. We also establish that the global financial crisis did have a profound impact on the finance-responsibility nexus. We show that there are changes in the underlying relationships in this nexus during the post-crisis period compared to the pre-crisis period. Furthermore, such changes are different between countries with high and low income, civil and common law, single and multiple supervision authorities, and central bank and non-central bank supervision.