Corporate Characteristics, Governance And Climate Change Disclosures In South Asian Context: A Signaling Theory Perspective

Abstract

Climate change has become a favorable and ponderable topic due to its irrevocable impact on human beings. People worldwide are experiencing horrible circumstances due to global warming. At present, researchers are considering climate change and its methods of mitigation, but the plethora of research studies has put off financial sector firms without considering their direct and indirect impact. Indeed, the banking sector influences climate change subtly and unswervingly. This study aims to investigate the extent of climate change disclosure level and the influence of corporate characteristics and governance on climate change-related disclosure in the banking sector in the South Asian region based on the signaling theory. This research has adopted a quantitative research methodology. Data were collected from a sample of 63 banks for the period from 2013 to 2021 in South Asian countries such as India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka, and R programming (R 4.30) and Python were used for the panel data analysis to validate the hypothesis. Findings revealed that bank age, size of the bank, and, independence of the board provide favorable signals to influence climate change disclosures in South Asian countries. This study adds to the existing body of knowledge on corporate characteristics including corporate governance and climate change-related disclosure in the banking sector because climate change practices are an upcoming and inescapable problem that humans can come across. Therefore, reporting the impact of climate change is very vital within the organizational context. For future research studies, the period and sample can further be increased by future researchers to broaden the scope of the study.