Female Directors, Family Firms, Climate Talk and Climate Walk: European Evidence
Saved in:
| Title: | Female Directors, Family Firms, Climate Talk and Climate Walk: European Evidence |
|---|---|
| Authors: | Niklas Bergmann, Patrick Velte, Ignacio Requejo |
| Source: | Bergmann, N, Velte, P & Requejo, I 2025, ' Female directors, family firms, climate talk and climate walk : European evidence ', Business Strategy and the Environment, vol. 34, no. 6, pp. 7438-7468 . https://doi.org/10.1002/bse.4348 |
| Publisher Information: | Wiley, 2025. |
| Publication Year: | 2025 |
| Subject Terms: | name=Geography, Planning and Development, carbon performance, name=Sustainability Science, ddc:330, corporate governance, name=Strategy and Management, name=Management, Monitoring, Policy and Law, name=Business and International Management, name=Management studies, name=SDG 13 - Climate Action, board composition, board gender diversity, carbon reporting, climate targets |
| Description: | Growing attention is attributed to symbolic and substantive climate efforts, labelled as climate talk and walk. Focusing on the European capital market, we study the relationship between board gender diversity, family ownership and different levels of corporate climate activities along the continuum from climate talk to climate walk. Using emission reduction target data from the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP), we conduct various panel regression analyses and propose several additional robustness tests. Our results extend prior research on carbon performance and reporting by providing novel insights into how firms translate their climate ambitions into actionable targets and how they subsequently deliver on those targets. This study stresses that firms with gender‐diverse boards engage more in symbolic climate talk but not in substantive climate walk. Empirical evidence on the family ownership impact is mixed. Overall, family ownership tends to exhibit a negative association with climate actions, although the effect depends on the ownership concentration threshold and varies with family management. Our results also indicate that female directors mitigate the negative direct consequences of family ownership for climate actions. Our study contributes to the ongoing discourse regarding symbolic and substantive climate efforts among European businesses and sheds light on the particular role of different corporate governance mechanisms for attaining international climate objectives. As climate‐related regulatory initiatives unfold rapidly, the results are highly relevant to European firms, their stakeholders and regulators. In terms of their practical application, our results may inform the pending ‘omnibus’ proposals to revise European sustainability legislation while also helping firms to reflect on their governance structures in line with climate needs. |
| Document Type: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| ISSN: | 1099-0836 0964-4733 |
| DOI: | 10.1002/bse.4348 |
| Access URL: | https://hdl.handle.net/10419/330205 http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=105005592227&partnerID=8YFLogxK http://fox.leuphana.de/portal/de/publications/female-directors-family-firms-climate-talk-and-climate-walk(7741cabc-3677-4dd7-9fd5-ca11eef4d575).html https://doi.org/10.1002/bse.4348 |
| Rights: | CC BY |
| Accession Number: | edsair.doi.dedup.....5e635ca6adaa97edd69e0d0999a5ada9 |
| Database: | OpenAIRE |
Full Text Finder 
Nájsť tento článok vo Web of Science | Abstract: | Growing attention is attributed to symbolic and substantive climate efforts, labelled as climate talk and walk. Focusing on the European capital market, we study the relationship between board gender diversity, family ownership and different levels of corporate climate activities along the continuum from climate talk to climate walk. Using emission reduction target data from the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP), we conduct various panel regression analyses and propose several additional robustness tests. Our results extend prior research on carbon performance and reporting by providing novel insights into how firms translate their climate ambitions into actionable targets and how they subsequently deliver on those targets. This study stresses that firms with gender‐diverse boards engage more in symbolic climate talk but not in substantive climate walk. Empirical evidence on the family ownership impact is mixed. Overall, family ownership tends to exhibit a negative association with climate actions, although the effect depends on the ownership concentration threshold and varies with family management. Our results also indicate that female directors mitigate the negative direct consequences of family ownership for climate actions. Our study contributes to the ongoing discourse regarding symbolic and substantive climate efforts among European businesses and sheds light on the particular role of different corporate governance mechanisms for attaining international climate objectives. As climate‐related regulatory initiatives unfold rapidly, the results are highly relevant to European firms, their stakeholders and regulators. In terms of their practical application, our results may inform the pending ‘omnibus’ proposals to revise European sustainability legislation while also helping firms to reflect on their governance structures in line with climate needs. |
|---|---|
| ISSN: | 10990836 09644733 |
| DOI: | 10.1002/bse.4348 |