SUSTAINABILITY REPORTING AND CORPORATE REPUTATION IN ASEAN COUNTRIES: EXAMINING THE MODERATING THE ROLE OF FEMALE DIRECTORS ON CORPORATE BOARDS—A CONCEPTUAL REVIEW
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.35631/AIJBES.829120Keywords:
ASEAN, Board Gender Diversity, Corporate Governance, Corporate Reputation, ESG, Female Directors, Sustainability ReportingAbstract
The growing emphasis on sustainability reporting has increased stakeholder demand for transparent environmental, social, and governance (ESG) disclosures that enhance corporate legitimacy and reputation. Such a question becomes especially pertinent in the ASEAN countries, as their sustainability reporting practices are influenced by various differences in regulatory regimes, the socio-cultural context, and corporate governance systems. While previous studies have been able to see a positive link between sustainability reporting and reputation, there has been scarce focus on how diversity of genders on the board might affect the strength of the association in the ASEAN context. This conceptual review suggests that sustainability reporting improves the corporate reputation based on the theories of Stakeholder Theory and Legitimacy Theory which can increase stakeholders’ trust and accountability and enhance the legitimacy of the companies. Specifically, and more importantly it views female directors as a moderator, such that greater female representation on corporate boards can strengthen the positive link between sustainability reporting and corporate reputation, through enhanced stakeholder sensitivity, ethical considerations, monitoring, and attention to non-financial matters. The review constructs a conceptual framework and research propositions for subsequent empirical analysis, by integrating sustainability reporting, corporate reputation and representation of women on the board of companies. The study makes a contribution to the literature on sustainability and corporate governance by attempting to fill the gap of ASEAN-specific evidence in the context of gender diversity of boards and the value of sustainability reports.
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