Female Directors, Sustainability Steering Committee and E-Waste Information Disclosure in Malaysian Technology and Telecommunication Industries

The digitalisation era has brought an environmental issue regarding the generation of electrical and electronic waste (e-waste). The global scenario has started questioning how these appliances are taken care of when they reach the end of their useful lives. The advent of these obsolete appliances has created a catastrophe for the health of humans and the environment. Furthermore, business firms in telecommunication and technology industries face the pressure to engage in more severe action towards e-waste management and to report the activities in the annual reports due to their activities which are highly related to the generation of e-waste. In addressing this issue, the study intends to examine the e-waste information disclosure by firms in the two industries. In addition, the study also investigates if the e-waste information disclosure would differ between firms with more female directors and with a sustainability steering committee compared to their counterparts. This study hypothesises that firms with high female directors and a sustainability steering committee will show significantly higher e-waste information disclosure by utilising the virtue ethics theory. Fifty-nine companies of Bursa Malaysia listed firms in the technology and telecommunication industries were taken as samples. The results were consistent with the hypotheses, where firms with a high proportion of female directors and firms with a sustainability steering committee exhibit significantly high e-waste information disclosure compared to their counterparts. The results from this study may give some insights into how business firms address their e-waste management issue and can be significant in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).