Corporate governance drivers of ESG disclosure in Saudi non-financial listed firms

Unofficial AI-generated summary based on the public title and abstract. Not an official translation.

🔬研究者:Provides empirical evidence on governance-ESG disclosure nexus in a GCC context, useful for comparative studies.

🏢実務担当者:Highlights specific governance mechanisms (e.g., sustainability committees, diversity) that can improve ESG disclosure quality.

🏛政策担当者:Informs policy on governance reforms to enhance corporate transparency, relevant for emerging markets.

Abstract Corporate governance (CG) serves as a critical internal determinant of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) disclosure transparency, yet empirical evidence from emerging Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) markets remains underdeveloped. This study investigates the impact of key corporate governance attributes on ESG disclosure practices within the Saudi Arabian non-financial firms. Utilizing an unbalanced panel dataset of 171 firm-year observations from 100 non-financial firms listed on the Saudi Exchange (Tadawul) over the period 2020–2024, the study employs content analysis to operationalize ESG disclosure through two complementary measures: a GRI-aligned binary index (ESGD1) and the natural logarithm of ESG-related word counts (ESGD). To address potential endogeneity, unobserved heterogeneity, and dynamic persistence, the empirical baseline established via fixed-effects panel regression with cluster-robust standard errors is rigorously supplemented by two-stage least squares (2SLS) estimation and a dynamic System Generalized Method of Moments (System-GMM) framework. The empirical findings reveal that board gender diversity, CEO power, executive compensation, the presence of a dedicated sustainability committee, and overall firm size exert a positive and highly significant influence on both the volume and quality of ESG disclosures. Conversely, board size and financial leverage exhibit a significant negative relationship with ESG reporting, while board independence, ownership structure, and financial profitability (ROA) demonstrate no statistically significant direct impact. These insights suggest that rather than general board oversight, targeted governance structures specifically specialized sustainability committees, enhanced executive gender diversity, and strategic executive incentive alignment are the primary internal criteria driving corporate sustainability transparency. The results offer critical policy and managerial implications for the optimization of governance frameworks under the transformation mandates of Saudi Vision 2030 and evolving Tadawul disclosure guidelines.

• openalex https://doi.org/10.1007/s43621-026-04136-2first seen 2026-07-31 06:10:43 · last seen 2026-07-31 06:11:13
• semanticscholar https://doi.org/10.1007/s43621-026-04136-2first seen 2026-08-01 06:16:15 · last seen 2026-08-02 06:19:13