Exploring the Nexus between Corporate Sustainability Disclosure and Firm Tax Behaviour: A Meta-Analysis

An increasing number of articles published on the nexus between corporate sustainability disclosure (CSD) and tax behaviour (TB) have enriched the academic research landscape. However, they have provided inconclusive results as to the nature of the connection and have not yet adequately examined the sources of variation that might moderate the effect sizes under investigation. This study performs a standard meta-analysis and synthesises the empirical-quantitative results regarding the CSD-TB connection, following Hunter & Schmidt's (1990) research design. Several criteria were employed to collect documents with methodological and content relevance. The selection process resulted in a final dataset that includes 50 articles covering the period from 2012 to 2022. The findings reveal that the CSD-TB link is not significant enough for practical purposes, while an investigation of moderator variables that can explain the different findings of earlier studies shows either no or little connection. The benefit of such a no-results analysis for the research community is to redirect future researchers, especially PhD candidates, to examine other factors impacting corporations’ TB. In terms of limitations, the meta-analysis is based on the availability of the existing corpus of knowledge and consists only of empirical studies with Pearson correlation coefficients and standardised beta coefficients. Implications for Central European audience: The present study provides evidence that may influence policy-making processes at the European and international level, particularly with regard to corporate tax transparency. The findings suggest that the implementation of CSD has not proven to be effective in terms of tax behaviour. A meta-analysis of the available data showed no statistically significant correlation between CSD and the tax behaviour of businesses, thus challenging the assumption that CSD obligations can act as an effective tool to enhance tax compliance, which implies that other means of enhancing tax compliance need to be explored.