CEO Power and Environmental Accounting Disclosure: Comparative Evidence From Emerging Economies

Abstract

This study investigates how CEO structural power influences environmental accounting disclosure (EAD) in emerging economies and explores the moderating effects of institutional quality and stakeholder pressure. It aims to understand whether CEO authority enhances or constrains environmental transparency within varying governance and institutional contexts. The analysis uses an unbalanced panel of 349 listed firms (5933 firm-year observations) across manufacturing, energy, utilities, and service sectors from 2008 to 2024. Method of moments quantile regression (MMQR) and dynamic System GMM estimators are applied to account for endogeneity, cross-sectional dependence, and firm-specific heterogeneity. Robustness checks, including IV-2SLS and propensity score matching (PSM), confirm result validity. Results indicate that CEO structural power positively and significantly enhances EAD across all quantiles, with stronger effects at higher disclosure levels. Both institutional quality and stakeholder pressure positively moderate this relationship, demonstrating that effective institutions and active stakeholders can align CEO influence with sustainability and transparency goals. The study focuses on emerging economies, and results may differ in developed markets with stronger governance frameworks. Regulators and policymakers should reinforce institutional quality and stakeholder engagement mechanisms to ensure that CEO discretion is directed toward sustainable disclosure practices. Improved EAD fosters corporate accountability, stakeholder trust, and progress toward environmental sustainability goals such as SDG 12. This research extends Upper Echelons, Agency, and Resource Dependence theories to environmental accounting by uncovering how CEO power interacts with institutional and stakeholder contexts to shape sustainability reporting.