Awatif Hodaed Alsheikh

In recent decades, stakeholders have begun to place a greater emphasis on sustainability-related issues, including climate change. Furthermore, the implementation of climate change initiatives has prompted companies to disclose information regarding their evaluation and handling of climate-related risks and potential benefits. However, there is a lack of existing literature that investigates this issue in less developed markets, particularly in Saudi Arabia, where the capital market is rapidly developing. The objective of this study is to assess the degree of performance in reporting climate risk and investigate potential correlations between climate risk reporting performance and firm characteristics among non-financial firms in Saudi Arabia during the period from 2018 to 2021. To achieve the objectives of the study, a total of 515 firm-year observations were utilized, representing 140 non-financial firms in the context of Saudi Arabia. The study’s findings illustrate that the climate risk reporting performance level has steadily improved in Saudi companies over the years. In addition, the findings reveal that firm size and industry exhibit a positive correlation with climate risk reporting performance. Conversely, firm leverage and profitability do not demonstrate such associations. The results are in line with alternative measures of climate risk reporting performance, as well as when climate risk reporting performance is broken down into the four core elements. Policymakers and market regulators could use these results to promote awareness of the factors that influence climate risk reporting performance and to enhance sustainable practices.

Corporate Social Responsibility is a crucial aspect of a company’s strategic plans. Stakeholders prioritize the social and environmental impacts of a company’s operations in their decision-making process regarding its performance. This has encouraged companies to begin voluntarily reporting annually on the social and environmental impacts of their businesses, which has become widely known as Corporate Social Responsibility Disclosure. The purpose of this study is to investigate the relationships between board size, enterprise risk management, and corporate social responsibility disclosure in Islamic banks listed on GCC stock markets. It also explores the role of enterprise risk management as a mediating variable in the relationship between board size and corporate social responsibility disclosure. The results show that larger board sizes are positively significant to increased corporate social responsibility disclosure and enterprise risk management using the fixed-effect regression analysis. Specifically, enterprise risk management completely mediates the linkage between board size and corporate social responsibility disclosure. Indeed, this positive relationship between the size of a board and enterprise risk management reinforces the argument from practice that larger boards provide better oversight of the management of risks. The robust enterprise risk management framework equips banks in a better position to identify social and environmental risks to the business and, consequently, contribute to more transparent corporate social responsibility disclosures. Thus, the larger boards are important for effective risk management and more transparency on issues of corporate social responsibility, which can improve the organization’s reputation and strengthen stakeholder confidence.