CEO characteristics and water disclosure: Multi-country evidence

This study aimed to examine the effects of gender, foreign Chief Executive Officer (CEO), and impression management on water disclosure, with ownership as a moderating variable. The study uses unbalanced data from 1,329 firm-year observations spanning 2018–2022. The results showed that women, foreign CEO, and impression management, increased water disclosure. Meanwhile, ownership reduced the relationship between CEO characteristics and water disclosure. This research established a causal effect between the two variables, supporting the Upper Echelons Theory. The robustness of the results was checked by changing the regression model, water disclosure measurement, impact of COVID-19, lagged regression, and heckman two-stage.