The moderating role of corporate political links on the relationship between CEO-duality and the corporate environmental reporting practices in Jordan

Abstract

The present study explored the relationship between CEO duality and the scope of CER practices in the yearly reports of Jordanian industrial firms over the period 2009-2018 shaped by the board directors' political links. To determine the amount of environmental data included in the firms' yearly reports, the method of content analysis checklist was applied. CEO duality was chosen as an independent variable, which was measured by attributing a score to the existence/non-existence of CEO dual role, whilst the employed moderator variable was the political links and measured by attributing a score to the existence/non-existence of political links among the board directors of the investigated firms. Furthermore, to evaluate how the relationship between CEO duality and CER practices was influenced by political links, the statistical package for the social sciences (SPSS) and Hayes' PROCESS macro were adopted. According to the results obtained, the above-mentioned relationship was substantially adversely impacted by political links. Such results could promote better corporate-stakeholder communication, enhancing stakeholders' awareness of environmental responsibility in the context of Jordan as a developing nation. Therefore, the results have ramifications for the practices employed by firms to report on matters unrelated to finance.