The Impact of Corporate Governance on Corruption Disclosure in European Listed Firms through the Implementation of Directive 2014/95/EU

Abstract

The publication of Directive 2014/95/EU represents an important milestone related to the disclosure of non-financial information. This fact together with the role of the corporate governance guide firms towards achieving of an ethical, transparent, and responsible behavior. To contribute towards the understanding of this issue, this study investigates the relationship between corporate governance mechanisms and corporate social responsibility disclosure, namely, in corruption aspects relating to Directive 2014/95/EU. In so doing, a multiple regression analysis was carried out on a panel data sample of 198 European listed firms that are part of the EuroStoxx 200 index, in a studied period from 2014 to 2017. The findings reveal that outside directors and CEO duality impact positively and significantly on corruption disclosure. Therefore, this paper contributes to the existing research on corporate social responsibility disclosure, specifically, to the corruption disclosure literature by studying the corporate governance mechanisms that enhance these practices.