The Impact of National Cultural Dimensions on Corporate Environmental, Social and Governance Disclosure: Evidence From Social Media Practices

Abstract

This study intends to bridge an important research gap in the existing literature by extending academic knowledge on the relationship between national cultural dimensions and corporate environmental, social and governance (ESG) disclosure practices via social media. To this end, this study relies upon a sample of 96 of the world's largest companies from the Fortune Global 500 list over the 2018–2020 period. A dictionary-based content analysis was conducted on a total of 122,739 tweets extracted from the official Twitter accounts of sampled companies to identify and codify those containing ESG themes according to a glossary created on the basis of the Bloomberg ESG Index. Accordingly, several panel regression models were estimated to examine the influence of national culture represented by the six Hofstede's cultural dimensions, namely, power distance (PD), individualism (IDV), masculinity (MAS), uncertainty avoidance (UA), long-term orientation (LTO) and indulgence (IND), and the level of ESG disclosure provided by sampled companies via Twitter. The study's findings reveal that companies operating in countries with less power distance are more likely to disclose ESG information via Twitter. Also, companies from countries with individualist and masculine cultures tend to provide more ESG disclosure via Twitter.