IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/bstrat/v35y2026i1p84-107.html

Females on Board, Stakeholder Orientation, and ESG Disclosure: An Evidence From the Tourism and Transportation Industries

Author

Listed:
  • Akrum Helfaya
  • Phuong Bui
  • Ahmed Aboud

Abstract

In the tourism and transportation (T&T) industries, female directors' contributions are undervalued despite the strong emphasis on board gender diversity in management research. We investigate whether the impact of multiple board gender diversity measures on environmental, social, and governance (ESG) practices varies between shareholder‐ and stakeholder‐oriented countries and between T&T industries, drawing on insights from both managerial and psychological perspectives. Using an international sample of 790 firm‐year observations representing 79 listed firms from 16 countries, we find that gender diversity is positively associated with ESG disclosure practices, and this relationship is more pronounced in shareholder‐oriented countries and the transportation sector. These insights culminate in an integrated theoretical framework that challenges traditional governance paradigms and highlights the essential role of board gender diversity in fostering sustainability. By emphasizing the contributions of female leadership to ESG disclosure practices, this research offers valuable policy implications and practical strategies for enhancing gender diversity within T&T industries.

Suggested Citation

  • Akrum Helfaya & Phuong Bui & Ahmed Aboud, 2026. "Females on Board, Stakeholder Orientation, and ESG Disclosure: An Evidence From the Tourism and Transportation Industries," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 35(1), pages 84-107, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:bstrat:v:35:y:2026:i:1:p:84-107
    DOI: 10.1002/bse.70174
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1002/bse.70174
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1002/bse.70174?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Font, Xavier & Guix, Mireia & Bonilla-Priego, Ma Jesús, 2016. "Corporate social responsibility in cruising: Using materiality analysis to create shared value," Tourism Management, Elsevier, vol. 53(C), pages 175-186.
    2. Fatemi, Ali & Glaum, Martin & Kaiser, Stefanie, 2018. "ESG performance and firm value: The moderating role of disclosure," Global Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 38(C), pages 45-64.
    3. Lin Liao & Teng (Philip) Lin & Yuyu Zhang, 2018. "Corporate Board and Corporate Social Responsibility Assurance: Evidence from China," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 150(1), pages 211-225, June.
    4. Akrum Helfaya & Phuong Bui, 2022. "Exploring the Status Quo of Adopting the 17 UN SDGs in a Developing Country—Evidence from Vietnam," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(22), pages 1-29, November.
    5. Jui‐Ling Hsu & Meng‐Cheng Cheng, 2012. "What Prompts Small and Medium Enterprises to Engage in Corporate Social Responsibility? A Study from Taiwan," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 19(5), pages 288-305, September.
    6. Ioanna Boulouta, 2013. "Hidden Connections: The Link Between Board Gender Diversity and Corporate Social Performance," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 113(2), pages 185-197, March.
    7. Akrum Helfaya & Rebecca Morris & Ahmed Aboud, 2023. "Investigating the Factors That Determine the ESG Disclosure Practices in Europe," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(6), pages 1-23, March.
    8. Cristina Ciocirlan & Caroline Pettersson, 2012. "Does Workforce Diversity Matter in the Fight against Climate Change? An Analysis of Fortune 500 Companies," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 19(1), pages 47-62, January.
    9. Letian Zhang, 2020. "An Institutional Approach to Gender Diversity and Firm Performance," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 31(2), pages 439-457, March.
    10. Isabel‐María García‐Sánchez & Marcelle Colares Oliveira & Jennifer Martínez‐Ferrero, 2020. "Female directors and gender issues reporting: The impact of stakeholder engagement at country level," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 27(1), pages 369-382, January.
    11. Rania Beji & Ouidad Yousfi & Nadia Loukil & Abdelwahed Omri, 2021. "Board Diversity and Corporate Social Responsibility: Empirical Evidence from France," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 173(1), pages 133-155, September.
    12. Khwaja Naveed & Cosmina L. Voinea & Zahid Ali & Fawad Rauf & Cosmin Fratostiteanu, 2021. "Board Gender Diversity and Corporate Social Performance in Different Industry Groups: Evidence from China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(6), pages 1-15, March.
    13. Qaiser Rafique Yasser & Abdullah Al Mamun & Irfan Ahmed, 2017. "Corporate Social Responsibility and Gender Diversity: Insights from Asia Pacific," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 24(3), pages 210-221, May.
    14. Jing Lu & Irene M. Herremans, 2019. "Board gender diversity and environmental performance: An industries perspective," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 28(7), pages 1449-1464, November.
    15. Sonia Boukattaya & Abdelwahed Omri, 2021. "Impact of Board Gender Diversity on Corporate Social Responsibility and Irresponsibility: Empirical Evidence from France," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(9), pages 1-14, April.
    16. Alatawi, Ibrahim A. & Ntim, Collins G. & Zras, Anis & Elmagrhi, Mohamed H., 2023. "CSR, financial and non-financial performance in the tourism sector: A systematic literature review and future research agenda," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 89(C).
    17. Akrum Helfaya & Tantawy Moussa, 2017. "Do Board's Corporate Social Responsibility Strategy and Orientation Influence Environmental Sustainability Disclosure? UK Evidence," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 26(8), pages 1061-1077, December.
    18. Jette Steen Knudsen, 2013. "The integration of corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives into business activities: can lessons be learnt from gender diversity programmes?," International Journal of Business Governance and Ethics, Inderscience Enterprises Ltd, vol. 8(3), pages 210-223.
    19. Shaista Wasiuzzaman & Effiezal Aswadi Abdul Wahab, 2025. "Board gender diversity and environmental, social and governance (ESG) disclosure: assessing the moderating role of country-level accountability and governance," Pacific Accounting Review, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 37(3), pages 420-454, May.
    20. James Heckman, 2013. "Sample selection bias as a specification error," Applied Econometrics, Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration (RANEPA), vol. 31(3), pages 129-137.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. María‐Florencia Amorelli & Isabel‐María García‐Sánchez, 2021. "Trends in the dynamic evolution of board gender diversity and corporate social responsibility," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 28(2), pages 537-554, March.
    2. Mariasole Bannò & Emilia Filippi & Sandro Trento, 2023. "Women in top echelon positions and their effects on sustainability: a review, synthesis and future research agenda," Journal of Management & Governance, Springer;Accademia Italiana di Economia Aziendale (AIDEA), vol. 27(1), pages 181-251, March.
    3. Ahmed A. Sarhan & Princess R. Bwanya & Christopher J. Cowton, 2026. "Beyond the Board: Does Female Leadership Make a Difference to Corporate Sustainability Performance, Disclosure and Assurance?," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 35(1), pages 329-350, January.
    4. Asma Houcine & Imen Derouiche, 2024. "Board gender diversity and corporate social performance: the moderating effect of family firms," Journal of Management Control: Zeitschrift für Planung und Unternehmenssteuerung, Springer, vol. 35(2), pages 265-301, June.
    5. Domenico Rocco Cambrea & Paolo Tenuta & Valeria Naciti, 2024. "Family and nonfamily female directors' effect on CSR strategy," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 31(6), pages 6387-6400, November.
    6. Simona Galletta & Sebastiano Mazzù & Valeria Naciti & Carlo Vermiglio, 2022. "Gender diversity and sustainability performance in the banking industry," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 29(1), pages 161-174, January.
    7. Rey Đặng & L.’Hocine Houanti & Michel Simioni & Jean-Michel Sahut, 2025. "The role of endogeneity in the relationship between board gender diversity and corporate social performance: evidence from a control function method," Annals of Operations Research, Springer, vol. 347(1), pages 333-365, April.
    8. Ginesti, Gianluca & Campa, Domenico, 2025. "Corporate social responsibility board committee and tax disclosure," Journal of International Accounting, Auditing and Taxation, Elsevier, vol. 59(C).
    9. Beloskar, Ved Dilip & Haldar, Arunima & Gupta, Anupama, 2024. "Gender equality and women’s empowerment: A bibliometric review of the literature on SDG 5 through the management lens," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 172(C).
    10. María‐Florencia Amorelli & Isabel‐María García‐Sánchez, 2023. "Leadership in heels: Women on boards and sustainability in times of COVID‐19," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 30(4), pages 1987-2010, July.
    11. Akrum Helfaya & Phuong Bui, 2025. "Governance‐Aligned CSR, Corporate Sustainable Development Goals Adoption, and Long‐Lasting Performance: An Insight From Tourism and Hospitality Industry," Sustainable Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 33(6), pages 9466-9487, December.
    12. Pochara Arayakarnkul & Pattanaporn Chatjuthamard & Sirimon Treepongkaruna, 2022. "Board gender diversity, corporate social commitment and sustainability," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 29(5), pages 1706-1721, September.
    13. Thu Huong Tran & Wen‐Min Lu & Irene Wei Kiong Ting & Hsueh‐Li ( Shirley) Huang & Muhammad Ashraf Fauzi, 2024. "Examining the impact of board gender diversity and regional differentiation in the ESG‐corporate performance nexus: Evidence from financial service industry," Managerial and Decision Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 45(6), pages 4105-4124, September.
    14. Khwaja Naveed & Fahad Khalid & Cosmina Lelia Voinea, 2023. "Board gender diversity and corporate green innovation: An industry‐level institutional perspective," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 30(2), pages 755-772, March.
    15. Badrul Muttakin, Mohammad & Chatterjee, Bikram & Khan, Arifur & Getie Mihret, Dessalegn & Roy, Rajat & Yaftian, Ali, 2022. "Corporate political donations, board gender diversity, and corporate social responsibility: Evidence from Australia," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 152(C), pages 290-299.
    16. Barbara Maggi & Rafaela Gjergji & Luigi Vena & Salvatore Sciascia & Alessandro Cortesi, 2023. "Family firm status and environmental disclosure: The moderating effect of board gender diversity," Business Ethics, the Environment & Responsibility, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 32(4), pages 1334-1351, October.
    17. Pop Ruben & Dumnici Beatrice-Larisa & Achim Monica Violeta, 2025. "Does Corporate Governance Impact Corporate Social Responsibility Activities?," Proceedings of the International Conference on Business Excellence, Paradigm, vol. 19(1), pages 3291-3315.
    18. Nurlan Orazalin & Mady Baydauletov, 2020. "Corporate social responsibility strategy and corporate environmental and social performance: The moderating role of board gender diversity," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 27(4), pages 1664-1676, July.
    19. Rami Salem & Musa Ghazwani & Waleed Alshaer, 2025. "ESG Performance–Stock Price Volatility Nexus: The Moderating Effect of Board Cultural Diversity in G20 Markets," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 34(7), pages 8172-8193, November.
    20. Khwaja Naveed & Fahad Khalid & Cosmina L. Voinea & Nadine Roijakkers & Cosmin Fratostiteanu, 2023. "Board gender diversity and corporate environmental commitment: A subnational perspective," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 32(7), pages 4970-4990, November.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    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:bla:bstrat:v:35:y:2026:i:1:p:84-107. 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: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/10.1002/(ISSN)1099-0836 .

    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.