Board Governance and SDG Disclosure: Evidence from Regional Climate Initiatives in Emerging Markets

This study examines the influence of board-level governance and national institutional conditions on corporate disclosure of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in emerging markets, specifically focusing on the Middle East. Grounded in resource dependence and institutional theories, this study investigates the impact of board size, independence, tenure, gender diversity, and meeting frequency on SDG reporting, as well as the interplay of these factors with country-level governance indicators, specifically Voice and Accountability and Political Stability. This study employs panel data from 249 publicly traded companies in ten Middle Eastern nations (2020–2023), utilizing fixed-effects models, Driscoll-Kraay standard errors, and quantile regression to analyze variations in disclosure levels. The results show that more board meetings and more women on the board always lead to better SDG disclosure. The Middle East Green Initiative has also improved reporting practices in the region. In contrast, board size, independence, and tenure have only small average effects. However, quantile regression shows that these factors are important for firms with high levels of disclosure, indicating that the effects of governance are not always linear. The quality of national governance has only a small effect on the mean models. This study enhances sustainability governance literature by amalgamating firm- and country-level determinants and illustrating how regional climate initiatives can stimulate SDG reporting. Although rooted in the Middle East, the findings provide applicable insights for emerging markets and regional frameworks globally, from ASEAN to the African Union, on utilizing governance and policy alignment to promote sustainability transparency.