IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jjrfmx/v16y2023i4p244-d1125135.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Board Characteristics, Social Trust and ESG Performance in the European Banking Sector

Author

Listed:
  • Bruna Miranda

    (Faculty of Economics, University of Porto, 4200-464 Porto, Portugal)

  • Catarina Delgado

    (Faculty of Economics, University of Porto, CEF.UP, 4200-464 Porto, Portugal
    Faculty of Economics, University of Porto, LIAAD/ INESC TEC, 4200-465 Porto, Portugal)

  • Manuel Castelo Branco

    (Faculty of Economics, University of Porto, CEF.UP and OBEGEF 4200-464 Porto, Portugal)

Abstract

The aim of this study is to examine the impacts of board size, gender diversity and independence on ESG performance whilst also examining the impact of country-level social trust on such performance. We perform a panel data analysis and the least squares method for a sample of 75 European banks and a time span of 4 years from 2016 to 2019. We find that ESG performance is positively associated with board gender diversity and independence, and negatively associated with board size. Surprisingly, we find a negative relationship between country-level social trust and ESG performance. This is an important finding that we interpret as being related to the loss of confidence in the banking sector in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis. To regain such trust, the banking sector is likely to have suffered higher social pressure to engage in ESG activities in countries where social trust is lower.

Suggested Citation

  • Bruna Miranda & Catarina Delgado & Manuel Castelo Branco, 2023. "Board Characteristics, Social Trust and ESG Performance in the European Banking Sector," JRFM, MDPI, vol. 16(4), pages 1-17, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jjrfmx:v:16:y:2023:i:4:p:244-:d:1125135
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1911-8074/16/4/244/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1911-8074/16/4/244/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Zak, Paul J & Knack, Stephen, 2001. "Trust and Growth," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 111(470), pages 295-321, April.
    2. Shen, Chung-Hua & Wu, Meng-Wen & Chen, Ting-Hsuan & Fang, Hao, 2016. "To engage or not to engage in corporate social responsibility: Empirical evidence from global banking sector," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 55(C), pages 207-225.
    3. Sara De Masi & Agnieszka Słomka‐Gołębiowska & Claudio Becagli & Andrea Paci, 2021. "Toward sustainable corporate behavior: The effect of the critical mass of female directors on environmental, social, and governance disclosure," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 30(4), pages 1865-1878, May.
    4. Asif Saeed & Robert Sroufe, 2021. "Performance, Risk, and Cost of Capital: Trends and Opportunities for Future CSR Research," JRFM, MDPI, vol. 14(12), pages 1-20, December.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. SangRyeong Lee & Jin-Woo Park & DongRyeol Choi, 2023. "The Effects of ESG Management on Business Performance: The Case of Incheon International Airport," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(24), pages 1-22, December.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Fan Li & Prashant Loyalka & Hongmei Yi & Yaojiang Shi & Natalie Johnson & Scott Rozelle, 2016. "Ability Tracking and Social Capital in China’s Rural Secondary School System," LICOS Discussion Papers 37916, LICOS - Centre for Institutions and Economic Performance, KU Leuven.
    2. Daniel Horn & Hubert Kiss Janos & Sára Khayouti, 2020. "Does trust associate with political regime?," CERS-IE WORKING PAPERS 2013, Institute of Economics, Centre for Economic and Regional Studies.
    3. Tal Shahor, 2018. "Is the Marginal Effect of Education on Income Diminishing?," European Journal of Economics and Business Studies Articles, Revistia Research and Publishing, vol. 4, May - Aug.
    4. Katarzyna Growiec & Jakub Growiec, 2016. "Bridging Social Capital and Individual Earnings: Evidence for an Inverted U," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 127(2), pages 601-631, June.
    5. Roberta Dessì & Salvatore Piccolo, 2008. "Two is Company, N is a Crowd? Merchant Guilds and Social Capital," CSEF Working Papers 202, Centre for Studies in Economics and Finance (CSEF), University of Naples, Italy, revised 12 Jul 2009.
    6. Oasis Kodila-Tedika & Julius Agbor, 2016. "Does Trust Matter for Entrepreneurship: Evidence from a Cross-Section of Countries," Economies, MDPI, vol. 4(1), pages 1-17, March.
    7. Dincer, Oguzhan C., 2011. "Trust and schooling in the United States," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 30(5), pages 1097-1102, October.
    8. Tausch, Arno, 2018. "The return of religious Antisemitism? The evidence from World Values Survey data," MPRA Paper 90093, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    9. Katarzyna Growiec & Jakub Growiec & Bogumil Kaminski, 2017. "Social Network Structure and The Trade-Off Between Social Utility and Economic Performance," KAE Working Papers 2017-026, Warsaw School of Economics, Collegium of Economic Analysis.
    10. Qin, Wei & Liang, Quanxi & Jiao, Yan & Lu, Meiting & Shan, Yaowen, 2022. "Social trust and dividend payouts: Evidence from China," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 72(C).
    11. Elvin Afandi & Nazim Habibov, 2016. "Social trust and use of banking services across households in 28 transitional countries," International Journal of Social Economics, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 43(4), pages 431-443, April.
    12. Johansson-Stenman, Olof & Mahmud, Minhaj & Martinsson, Peter, 2005. "Does stake size matter in trust games?," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 88(3), pages 365-369, September.
    13. Niclas Berggren & Mikael Elinder, 2012. "Is tolerance good or bad for growth?," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 150(1), pages 283-308, January.
    14. Hyun Park & Apostolis Philippopoulos & Vangelis Vassilatos, 2003. "On the Optimal Size of Public Sector under Rent-Seeking competition from State Coffers," CESifo Working Paper Series 991, CESifo.
    15. Andrés Rodríguez-Pose & Riccardo Crescenzi, 2008. "Mountains in a flat world: why proximity still matters for the location of economic activity," Cambridge Journal of Regions, Economy and Society, Cambridge Political Economy Society, vol. 1(3), pages 371-388.
    16. Francesco Gangi & Antonio Meles & Eugenio D'Angelo & Lucia Michela Daniele, 2019. "Sustainable development and corporate governance in the financial system: Are environmentally friendly banks less risky?," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 26(3), pages 529-547, May.
    17. Mermer, A.G., 2014. "Essays in behavioral economics : Applied game theory and experiments," Other publications TiSEM eaadb29a-8041-4e76-a8d1-3, Tilburg University, School of Economics and Management.
    18. Wu, Wenfeng & Firth, Michael & Rui, Oliver M., 2014. "Trust and the provision of trade credit," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 39(C), pages 146-159.
    19. Andrés Rodríguez-Pose & Michael Storper, 2006. "Better Rules or Stronger Communities? On the Social Foundations of Institutional Change and Its Economic Effects," Economic Geography, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 82(1), pages 1-25, January.
    20. Konstantinos Matakos & Dimitrios Minos & Ari Perdana & Elizabeth Radin, 2022. "“Dragon boating” alone? Community ties and systemic income shocks," Journal of International Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 34(1), pages 55-81, January.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jjrfmx:v:16:y:2023:i:4:p:244-:d:1125135. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.