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The concept of sustainability in economic development emerged in the Brundtland Report in 1987. In 2015, the UN's 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development became a major global milestone. Local governments, due to their proximity to citizens, play a crucial role in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). However, in Spain, the disclosure of sustainability information is voluntary and influenced by socioeconomic and political factors. This study analyses data from 102 municipalities between 2016 and 2021. The results show a growing commitment to the SDGs, especially after the COVID-19 pandemic, with larger municipalities, female mayors and left-wing governments showing higher SDG disclosure. This research advances our understanding of local government sustainability eefforts and their determinants.

In addressing the challenges of climate change (CC), companies face the difficult task of reconciling long-term environmental goals and short-term financial interests. In this paper, we argue that that effective climate governance enables companies to balance both objectives, supporting a business case for CC action. For a sample of 832 multinationals for the period 2011–2020, the findings show that effective climate governance leads to higher corporate financial performance (FP) and this relationship is strengthen by better climate performance. Furthermore, effective climate governance is driven by the ownership of long-term institutional investors, whose positive influence is reinforced by homogeneous distribution of their ownership. We provide a broad analytical framework that considers the determinants and effects of climate governance, from which theoretical and practical implications can be derived

Based on a sample of 4,089 multinational companies over the period 2015–2018, this study analyses the role that women leaders play in relation to the implementation of sustainability strategies to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and whether this role depends on the proportion of female presence in management teams. The results show that the commitment to the 2030 Agenda is higher in companies with a woman as the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and/or chairperson of the board of directors, as well as greater gender diversity in both, management teams and the monitoring body. However, the incongruity in the phenomenon of female leadership stereotypes hinders the existence of a complementary relationship that reinforces it. We showed that, consistent with the social role theory, prejudices act as barriers to achieve synergic effects among women in different management positions.

This study analyses the influence of the gender of elected officials on the level of disclosure of information about the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by Spanish local governments, using a binary gender classification (man/woman). The results obtained from the websites of 102 municipalities from 2016 to 2021 reveal that the fact that the mayor is a woman has a positive and significant effect on the disclosure of SDG information, while the effect of the gender diversity of the councillors is positive, but not significant. Furthermore, the tendency to disclose SDG information is higher in those municipalities led by a woman with a higher percentage of women councillors

This paper analyses the current state and the dynamic evolution of corporate transparency practices in relation to the 2030 Agenda in the context of stakeholder engagement. Considering six key stakeholder groups and 53 information items related to business actions aligned with the 2030 Agenda, data from 5908 companies worldwide corresponding to the period 2015–2019 are analysed by using X-STATIS to identify which stakeholder groups have a meaningful role in fostering business contribution to the 2030 Agenda. The results show a low level of corporate transparency in relation to business contribution to the 2030 Agenda. Companies are mainly focused on transparency practices aimed at investors and shareholders. Conversely, customers and the environment are the less considered stakeholder groups. European countries are the leaders in this regard, whereas countries such as the United Arab Emirates and Qatar present the worst records in corporate transparency regarding the 2030 Agenda. The findings have a practical value by providing a picture of how companies use Sustainable Development Goal reporting to optimise relationships with key stakeholders

This study analyses the impact of investment in climate change mitigation innovations and technologies on companies, both from a financial and reputational viewpoint, as well as in terms of their environmental performance. We also investigate the moderating effect of institutional investors on the relationship between climate change mitigation investments and firm performance, considering their presence in shareholdings and their typology. We argue that the time horizon and objectives of their investments determine the approach to the integration of environmental criteria in the companies in which they invest. The results obtained for an international sample of 38,666 observations for the period 2010–2020, indicate that investment in climate-change mitigation technologies shows an increasing evolution, focusing especially on clean technologies and, to a lesser extent, on green building. The presence of shareholding by institutional investors with a long-term time horizon and strategic objectives enhances the impact of these projects on the company's image, market value, and profitability. At the environmental level, their effects are particularly associated with the responsible management of resources, and has a limited effect on emissions. The results are robust to different methodological specifications, validating the theoretical and practical implications of this research

As the person responsible for a company's strategies and disclosure policies, the CEO is the architect of its CSR strategy. This paper analyzes which CEO's attributes influence the level of disclosure of information about business contribution to the SDGs. Based on the Upper Echelons Theory, a set of hypotheses on the influence of several CEO attributes (demographic and professional characteristics as well as personal traits) on SDGs disclosure have been tested in a sample of the leading Spanish companies for the period 2015–2021 using ordinal regressions for panel data. The results show that education level, nationality, and narcissism are the CEO attributes that significantly affect the level of SDG disclosure. Specifically, companies whose CEOs have a higher level of education, are Spanish (local), and are narcissist tend to disclose more information about the SDGs. This study aims to contribute to literature by providing new empirical evidence on an emerging research topic and by providing a glimpse into the CEO “profile” that may favor a company's propensity to disclose information on the SDGs

The European Union has made the fight against climate change and the achievement of a sustainable economy political priorities. To promote the ecological transition of companies and corporate transparency, a broad regulatory framework has been developed. This paper analyses the effect of institutional pressures derived from this regulatory framework on the environmental information disclosed by 832 multinationals in the period 2011–2020. The results reveal a positive global effect, although, at an individual level, this effect is only maintained for the regulations and recommendations related to non-financial information and the European Green Deal. Furthermore, the impact differs depending on the category of environmental information disclosed

Against the background of the debate on the social reportingsocial performance link, this article aims to analyse the influence of social disclosures on social performance. Specifically, we analyse the effect of the voluntary disclosure of standardised indicators regarding labour practices and human rights on corporate social performance. A Tobit regression was used on data obtained through content analysis for a sample of 1,243 multinational enterprises for the period 2013–2017. The results show that both total and partial disclosure of the performance indicators are positively associated with higher social performance, confirming that the disclosure of such indicators is oriented towards the improvement of corporate sustainability as opposed to impression management strategies. We demonstrate that, even though companies may aim to satisfy stakeholder demands through the voluntary disclosure of labour practices, decent work and human rights indicators, these indicators can also act as catalysts for strengthening corporate social policies and practices. The findings provide a further motive to promote social reporting: its positive impact on corporate social performance favouring responsive labour management and greater social cohesion.

Considering the key role that companies must play to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), this paper aims to analyze the effect of the presence of two types of institutional investors (governments and pension funds) in large companies' ownership structure on the alignment of their sustainability strategy towards the 2030 Agenda as well as the moderating effect that firm internationalization and industry's sensitivity to stakeholder pressures have on the influence of these two institutional investors on business commitment to the SDGs. For a sample of 4089 multinational companies from 2015 to 2018, the results show that institutional ownership does matter for business commitment to the SDGs, but in a different way depending on the type of investor. Specifically, ownership by government favors commitment to the SDGs, while ownership by pension funds has a negative impact, which is partially corrected in the case of globalized companies as well as in those firms belonging to industries, which are highly sensitive to stakeholder pressures. These findings seem to suggest that institutional investors' support the implementation of the SDGs by the companies in which they invest is mainly driven by corporate complexity.

The social accountings functions are associated with the preparation and disclosure of information on the companys performance related to environmental and social aspects, to support stakeholders decision-making. This research carries out a bibliometric analysis of the papers specifically focused on employee-related disclosure published in journals indexed on the Web of Science database over the last two decades to provide an overview of the state-of-the-art of research on this topic. Then, the relationship between social performance and social reporting, as well as the influence of women managers in both social information disclosure and its relationship with social performance are analyzed for a sample of 1,243 listed multinational firms whose corporate information is available in the Thompson Reuters EIKON database over the period 2013-2017.

Based on a sample of 4,089 multinational companies over the period 2015–2018, this study analyses the role that women leaders play in relation to the implementation of sustainability strategies to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and whether this role depends on the proportion of female presence in management teams. The results show that the commitment to the 2030 Agenda is higher in companies with a woman as the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and/or chairperson of the board of directors, as well as greater gender diversity in both, management teams and the monitoring body. However, the incongruity in the phenomenon of female leadership stereotypes hinders the existence of a complementary relationship that reinforces it. We showed that, consistent with the social role theory, prejudices act as barriers to achieve synergic effects among women in different management positions

This paper aims to identify the conditions under which corporate social responsibility (CSR) affects employees' work-related attitudes. A meta-analysis of 42 studies published between 1999 and 2019 is elaborated considering the moderating effect of several contextual factors (country, industry, and national culture' values) and employees' demographic features (gender, age, education, tenure, and position) on the impact of perceived CSR on three work-related attitudes (organizational identification, commitment, and turnover intentions). The results reveal that the positive impact of CSR in employees' attitudes is not universal, it may vary due to the level of development and the national culture of the country where a company operates, the industry to which it belongs as well as employees' age and position. Furthermore, although individually some variables do not have a significant moderating effect, they are significant in combination with other variables, which opens new research avenues. The findings provide valuable help to human resource management policies

Dada la relevancia que han ido adquiriendo las actividades de Responsabilidad Social Corporativa (RSC) en el mundo empresarial, acentuadas en el año 2015 con la definición de los 17 Objetivos de Desarrollo Sostenible (ODS), se entiende la necesidad de estudiar la implicación y el efecto que tienen estas actividades en los stakeholders que lo rodean. Para ello, y con el objetivo de analizar los determinantes y resultados de la RSC como una herramienta de stakeholder engagement, se realiza un estudio en el que, además de conocer el estado de la literatura sobre el tema, se plantea el papel de la RSC como mecanismo para mejorar ciertas actitudes de los trabajadores, se estudian cómo las diferentes características idiosincráticas de los CEO pueden influir en el nivel de divulgación de los ODS y, finalmente, qué efecto tiene la RSC en el rendimiento empresarial.