Revisiting the Corporate Governance-ESG Performance Nexus: Insights from the CEE Companies

Figures & Tables

Variable	N	Mean	Median	SD	Min	Max
ESGP	323	51.64	52.37	17.05	1.80	88.43
B_SIZE	323	9.33	9.00	3.59	4.00	26.00
B_DIV	323	23.01	20.00	14.85	0.00	71.43
B_TEN	323	5.55	4.99	2.78	0.72	16.90
B_CEO	323	0.13	0.00	0.33	0.00	1.00
B_IND	323	45.02	42.86	26.29	0.00	100.00
COC	323	0.06	0.06	0.04	0.00	0.36
CSR_COM	323	0.49	0.00	0.50	0.00	1.00
PROF	323	0.06	0.05	0.18	−2.57	1.63
LEV	323	1.02	0.35	6.15	0.00	223.13
SIZE	323	18.37	18.31	2.32	6.51	25.57

Dependent variable	ESGP
	(7)	(8)	(9)	(10)
B_SIZE	−0.814^***	−0.887^**	−0.787^**
	(−2.77)	(−2.48)	(−2.25)
B_DIV	0.0237	0.0246	0.0261
	(0.49)	(0.49)	(0.49)
B_TEN	0.657*	0.699*	0.640^*
	(1.95)	(1.78)	(1.87)
B_CEO	2.389	−1.445	1.750
	(1.34)	(−0.37)	(0.92)
B_IND	0.113^***	0.0957^**	0.111^**
	(3.00)	(2.50)	(2.95)
L.B_SIZE				−0.891^**
				(−2.17)
L.B_DIV				0.0213
				(0.41)
L.B_TEN				−0.0305
				(−0.08)
L.B_CEO				2.664
				(0.87)
L.B_IND				0.0561^*
				(1.69)
COC	30.32	12.86	−7.377	25.67
	(1.64)	(0.21)	(−0.15)	(1.06)
CSR_COM	7.172^***	6.488^**	7.076^***	5.453^**
	(4.06)	(3.32)	(3.99)	(2.94)
PROF	−11.36	−17.79^*	−14.34^**	−6.233
	(−1.57)	(−1.93)	(−2.02)	(−0.58)
LEV	0.245^***	−0.0725	0.238^**	−0.0665
	(2.88)	(−0.81)	(2.88)	(−0.93)
SIZE	3.020	5.437	5.120	3.511
	(1.12)	(1.56)	(1.65)	(1.04)
_cons	−24.38	−73.90	−68.51	−27.04
	(−0.41)	(−0.97)	(−0.99)	(−0.36)
Firm FE	YES	YES	YES	YES
Year FE	YES	YES	YES	YES
N	323	314	314	268
Within R²	0.37	0.26	0.36	0.23
Overall R²	0.39	0.50	0.45	0.33
Average VIF	1.26	1.26	1.26	1.28
Breusch-Pagan LM (Prob > χ²)	0.000	0.000	0.000	0.000
Hausman (Prob > χ²)	0.012	0.036	0.021	0.024
Test for omitted variables
Ramsey (Prob > F)	0.078	0.800	0.844	0.082
Test for joint significance of year fixed effects
Wald (Prob > F)	0.014	0.001	0.001	0.059
Test for autocorrelation
Wooldridge (Prob > F)	0.000	0.000	0.000	0.000
Test for heteroscedasticity
Breusch-Pagan (Prob > χ²)	0.005	0.003	0.251	0.042

	ESGP	B_SIZE	B_DIV	B_TEN	B_CEO	B_IND	COC	CSR_COM	PROF	LEV	SIZE
ESGP	1.00
B_SIZE	0.40^***	1.00
B_DIV	0.19^***	0.02	1.00
B_TEN	0.14^**	0.13^**	−0.02	1.00
B_CEO	−0.05	0.38^***	−0.09^*	0.20^***	1.00
B_IND	0.12	−0.01	0.05	0.05	−0.02	1.00
COC	0.12^**	0.07	0.07	0.13^*	0.13^**	0.14^**	1.00
CSR_COM	0.48^***	0.29^***	0.12^**	−0.04	0.11^*	0.03	0.08	1.00
PROF	−0.17^**	−0.10^*	−0.02	0.07	0.08	0.23^***	0.02	−0.05	1.00
LEV	0.11^*	−0.02	−0.02	−0.08	−0.03	0.08	−0.03^*	0.19^***	−0.04	1.00
SIZE	0.55^***	0.43^***	0.10^*	0.04	0.02	−0.09^*	0.11^***	0.25^***	−0.03	0.01	1.00

Abbreviation	Description	Form	Source
Dependent variable
ESGP	ESG score	Continuous	Refinitiv
Independent variables
B_SIZE	Board size	Discrete	Refinitiv
B_DIV	Percentage of women on board	Continuous	Refinitiv
B_TEN	Average board tenure	Continuous	Refinitiv
B_CEO	Dummy (0–1) for CEO duality	Binary	Refinitiv
B_IND	Percentage of independent board members	Continuous	Refinitiv
Control variables
COC	WACC	Continuous	Refinitiv
CSR_COM	Dummy (0–1) for the existence of CSR_COM	Binary	Refinitiv
PROF	ROA	Continuous	Refinitiv
LEV	Debt to equity ratio	Continuous	Refinitiv
SIZE	Natural logarithm of total assets	Continuous	Refinitiv

Dependent variable	ESGP
	(1)	(2)	(3)	(4)	(5)	(6)
B_SIZE	−0.979^**					−0.909^**
	(−3.03)					(−2.96)
B_DIV		0.0208				0.0197
		(0.39)				(0.42)
B_TEN			0.598^*			0.712^*
			(1.77)			(1.87)
B_CEO				−0.607		−0.784
				(−0.23)		(−0.22)
B_IND					0.0960^**	0.0960^*
					(2.79)	(2.54)
COC	32.23	33.05	36.86^**	36.61^**	33.33^**	32.48
	(1.66)	(1.61)	(2.98)	(3.12)	(2.87)	(1.56)
CSR_COM	5.891^**	5.573^**	7.870^***	7.911^***	7.873^***	6.586^**
	(2.99)	(2.81)	(4.40)	(4.41)	(4.52)	(3.39)
PROF	−13.27	−12.39	−13.80	−12.52	−15.62^*	−15.02
	(−1.36)	(−1.25)	(−1.54)	(−1.37)	(−1.82)	(−1.63)
LEV	−0.0960	−0.122	−0.0941	−0.0999	−0.107	−0.0630
	(−1.18)	(−1.50)	(−0.91)	(−1.01)	(−1.07)	(−0.76)
SIZE	3.543	3.096	4.448^***	4.634^***	4.783^***	3.327
	(1.12)	(1.01)	(5.99)	(6.43)	(6.51)	(1.14)
_cons	−25.21	−24.70	−57.26^***	−58.14^***	−65.36^***	−29.22
	(−0.36)	(−0.36)	(−3.38)	(−3.61)	(−3.93)	(−0.45)
Firm FE	YES	YES	NO	NO	NO	YES
Year FE	YES	YES	NO	NO	NO	YES
N	325	325	323	326	325	323
Within R²	0.25	0.23	0.21	0.19	0.22	0.29
Overall R²	0.33	0.47	0.48	0.47	0.46	0.35
Average VIF	1.21	1.12	1.12	1.13	1.14	1.26
Breusch-Pagan LM (Prob > χ²)	0.000	0.000	0.000	0.000	0.000	0.000
Hausman (Prob > χ²)	0.029	0.035	0.119	0.118	0.148	0.028
Test for omitted variables
Ramsey (Prob > F)	0.061	0.731	0.020	0.967	0.623	0.225
Test for joint significance of year fixed effects
Wald (Prob > F)	0.007	0.009	NA	NA	NA	0.009
Test for autocorrelation
Wooldridge (Prob > F)	0.000	0.000	0.000	0.000	0.000	0.000
Test for heteroscedasticity
Breusch-Pagan (Prob > χ²)	0.108	0.194	0.134	0.141	0.816	0.001

Country	Number	Share (%)
Agricultural chemicals	1	2
Aluminium	1	2
Apparel & accessories retailers	2	4
Banking & investment services	5	10
Banks	8	16
Coal	2	4
Construction & engineering	2	4
Corporate financial services	1	2
Cyclical consumer products	1	2
Electric utilities	2	4
Energy-fossil fuels	2	4
Financial & commodity market operators & service providers	1	2
Food retail & distribution	2	4
Ground freight & logistics	1	2
Industrial goods	1	2
Integrated telecommunications services	2	4
Iron & steel	1	2
IT services & consulting	1	2
Mining support services & equipment	1	2
Multiline insurance & brokers	1	2
Multiline utilities	1	2
Oil & gas refining and marketing	1	2
Services	1	2
Pharmaceuticals	1	2
Pharmaceuticals & medical research	1	2
Real estate	1	2
Real estate rental, development & opera¬tions	1	2
Software	1	2
Specialty mining & metals	1	2
Telecommunications services	1	2
Transportation	1	2
Utilities	1	2
Total	50	100