Board Diversity and Materiality Disclosure in Sustainability Reporting: A Proposed Conceptual Framework

Abstract

Sustainability reporting is one of the most important types of reporting in relation to company sustainability. An in-depth assessment of materiality disclosure in sustainability reporting is necessary to enhance the level of sustainability reporting in terms of transparency and accountability to meet the demands of stakeholders. The purpose of this paper is to provide a comprehensive review of the academic literature on board diversity and materiality disclosure in sustainability reporting and to propose a framework that could promote materiality disclosure from the perspective of governance. The contribution of this study is to add insight to the materiality concept in sustainability reporting and provide a conceptual framework based on the stakeholder theory and resource-based view theory. The proposed conceptual framework helps companies and statutory bodies to understand the influence of board diversity on the materiality disclosure in sustainability reporting as well as facilitates the effectiveness of corporate social responsibility communication.