Effects of the Corporate Governance Structure and Institutional Characteristics in Socioenvironmental Disclosure

Due to the increasing concern of companies to highlight socioenvironmental information disclosure, and considering specific organizational aspects of the phenomenon, the purpose of this descriptive and quantitative study was to evaluate the influence of corporate governance structure and institutional characteristics on the quality of socioenvironmental disclosure by Brazilian public firms. Information collected from 2014 institutional reports were scored with regard to disclosure quality in light of the constructs of Chen, Feldmann and Tang (2015) and Skouloudis, Evangelinos and Kourmousis (2010), with adaptations, and the results were submitted to multiple linear regression. Our analysis shows that the proportion of independent directors on the board (governance structure) and the participation in the ISE Corporate Sustainability Index (an institutional characteristic) affected the quality of socioenvironmental disclosure. In other words, agency conflicts and legitimacy pressure may have an impact on corporate socioenvironmental behavior in relation to stakeholders