Dear Colleagues,

The international financial, sanitary, and cultural crisis, particularly severe in some European countries, in addition to the financial scandals, have led to questioning of the information disclosed by companies, which has become a key topic for researchers, investors, and body regulators, which are interested in knowing how corporate governance mechanisms are designed. Companies must have highly efficient governance systems in order to promote responsible and ethical business management, which is demanded by the stakeholders of the corporations, principally to prevent fraud (Pucheta‐Martínez and López‐Zamora, 2018). In this manner, the board of directors and its composition can become an important mechanism of restraint for all agents partaking in the decision-making process. In this sense, corporate boards become an important instrument in a firm’s decision to disclose CSR information since they are responsible for defending the interests of all stakeholders. Jamali et al. (2008) support the idea that board structure is a key element in organizational decision-making regarding CSR disclosure. In this regard, the internal corporate governance mechanism, such as board composition, independent directors, and ownsership structure, among others, are considered as a factors that influence CSR reporting. Moreover, external corporate governance mechanisms, such external auditors and governments, among others, are controlled by those outside the organization and tend to disclose more information in CSR reporting (Pucheta‐Martínez et al., 2019).

Past research has focused on the association between corporate governance and CSR disclosure. Furthermore, most of the attention of prior literature has been focused on board size and composition. However, empirical evidence is scarce when we focus on the effect of internal corporate governance mechanisms or external corporate governance mechanisms on CSR disclosure and their impact on transparency.

This Special Issue welcomes a wide variety of academic disciplines encompassing numerous methodological approaches that will allow for an expanded view of the importance of transparency, social responsibility, and corporate governance in companies. In this call for papers, we encourage researchers to submit papers on this topic based on studies conducted on developed countries or in a broader context involving several countries around the world. It is preferred that different tools such as STATA, Smart PLS, or Fuzzy Set are used in research articles presenting statistical models, with a clear focus on prediction or forecasting.

References

Jamali, D., Safieddine, A., and Rabbath, M. (2008). Corporate governance and corporate social responsibility synergies and interrelationships. Corporate Governance: An International Review, 16(5): 443–459.

Pucheta‐Martínez, M. C., Bel‐Oms, I., & Rodrigues, L. L. (2019). The engagement of auditors in the reporting of corporate social responsibility information. Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, 26(1), 46-56.

Pucheta‐Martínez, M. C., & López‐Zamora, B. (2018). Engagement of directors representing institutional investors on environmental disclosure. Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, 25(6), 1108-1120.

Prof. Dr. Inmaculada Bel Oms
Prof. Dr. José Ramon Segarra-Moliner
Guest Editors

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• board composition and CSR reporting
• board composition and transparency in the companies
• internal corporate governance mechanisms and CSR reporting
• external corporate governance mechanisms and CSR reporting
• corporate governance mechanisms and CSR reporting
• corporate governance mechanisms and CSR practices
• corporate governance mechanisms and environmental reporting
• corporate governance mechanisms and sustainability reporting