Accounting & Finance Research Community Seminar – Dr Habiba Al‑Shaer

Title: The Influence of Country-Level Mechanisms and Corporate Governance on Corporate Commitment to Climate Change
Date: 23 November 2022
Time: 13:00-14:00
Location: NUBS 1.13

Speaker: Dr. Habiba Al‑Shaer is a Senior Lecturer in Accounting at Newcastle University Business School, Department of Accounting and Finance, UK. She holds a PhD from Durham University, the UK, and a Master of Science in Financial Services and Banking from Suffolk University, Boston, United States. She is specialized in the field of corporate social responsibility and corporate governance. Her main research interests include corporate social responsibility; sustainability reporting; financial reporting; corporate governance; and accounting disclosure quality. Her research has been published in top journals including Journal of Business Ethics, Business Strategy and the Environment, the International Journal of Accounting, and Journal of Environmental Management.

If you would like to attend, please register using the following link: https://forms.office.com/r/M8BXzdhdNA.

Abstract

The aim of this study is to examine whether the corporate commitment to climate change drives by country-level mechanisms related to the legal system and cultural values. We also investigate the impact of corporate governance strength on climate change commitment and the extent to which there are moderating effects between corporate governance and cultural and legal system influences. We use a large dataset of 15,972 companies in the US, 2614 companies in the UK, and 2978 companies in China for the period of 2013-2020 and develop a unique measure for climate change commitment using different proxies for measuring climate change practices. We find variations in climate change commitment among the three countries. Further, we find that cultural values and legal systems affect corporate commitment to climate change. Companies located in a socially oriented society, more transparent, and characterised by long-term orientation are more strongly involved in climate change actions. The strength of corporate governance increases corporate commitment to climate change. Corporate governance also moderates some of the detrimental cultural influences on climate change commitment. These findings have implications for managers of multinational companies who need to be aware of the cultural values and legal system that could affect their behaviour, but that corporate governance can help to moderate the cultural influence. Our findings also have implications for the development of guidelines for corporate commitment to climate change across countries.

Keywords: climate change commitment, cultural values, legal system, corporate governance