**2. Corporate Governance and Social Responsibility Practices**

The first article (Contribution 1) reviewed the literature and stated that a generally accepted definition for understanding the concept of corporate sustainability (CS) is still

**Citation:** Helfaya, A.; Aboud, A. Editorial for the Special Issue "Corporate Governance, Social Responsibility, Innovation, and Sustainable Business Development Goals". *Sustainability* **2023**, *15*, 9471. https://doi.org/10.3390/su15129471

Received: 22 May 2023 Accepted: 9 June 2023 Published: 13 June 2023

**Copyright:** © 2023 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by/ 4.0/).

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missing. Considering the clear meaning of CS is of crucial importance for facilitating rational and efficient CS practices. The authors also proved that there is a lack of a sound theoretical foundation and of conceptual clarity of CS has been recognized as a key cause of unsatisfactory and unsuccessful sustainability decisions and actions by organizations. To address these gaps in the literature, the authors conducted an ontological analysis of the different and interrelated CS concepts in the CSR/sustainability literature. The authors found that the concept of CS is clearer than most authors argue and can be well-defined around its three pillars (e.g., environmental, social, and economic) to provide wide-scale and equal opportunities to future generations.

In the same vein, the second article (Contribution 2) claimed that corporate stakeholders highly considered the importance of corporate social and environmental activities on both societies and the environment, and therefore the notions of CSR, ESG, and corporate citizenship have received a great deal of attention in academia and industry. To understand and distinguish corporate responsibility approaches in the literature, the authors used text mining techniques to comprehensively analyze the summary information of 1235 research papers on these three notions. The findings of this article indicated that corporate citizenship is not only a high-level concept that involves ESG and CSR, but also a broad concept with missions that are associated with various societal matters. The findings also disclosed that employees, as the principal agents of corporate citizenship practice, are more critical than other stakeholders of corporate citizenship practice.

There is no doubt that different users of corporate reporting are looking for high-quality corporate financial and non-financial disclosure to make sound judgments of corporate performance and make rational investment decisions. Corporate reports, therefore, are seen as agents for contributing to a better future and hence could help in achieving sustainable development goals by publishing transparent non-financial disclosure. In this context, the third article (Contribution 3) states that accounting regulations of non-financial disclosure may be useful in enhancing the transparency of corporate reporting practices. Thus, the authors provide a systematic review to synthesize the literature from 2014 to 2021 on the patterns and trends relating to accounting and business regulations on non-financial disclosure in corporate reporting by companies. A thematic review of 62 articles identified 20 initial codes, which were then grouped into eight clusters: Directive 2014/95/EU, disclosure approaches, fiduciary duties of directors, stakeholder engagement, the effectiveness of disclosure regulations, the impacts of rules, the role of different actors and corporate accountability.

The increased focus on environmental (E), social (S), and governance (G) (ESG) disclosure has become an essential step to integrate sustainability practices into corporate culture to meet the expectations of stakeholders. Likewise, the social and environmental implications of corporate activities on the environment and neighboring societies have led to the growing demand for useful non-financial information. In this context, the fourth article (Contribution 4) investigated the impacts of the board's CSR strategy and orientation, adopting global reporting initiatives (GRI), and the country–cultural dimensions, based on Hofstede's measures of corporate ESG disclosure practices within Europe. Using a European dataset from Bloomberg and Refinitiv Eikon, the authors used a quantitative research methodology to test these micro- and macro-relationships through a statistical analysis of 7840 observations from European companies. The findings suggested that both board CSR orientation and strategy and the GRI have positive and significant impacts on the overall disclosure of ESG practices within Europe. Regarding the country–cultural dimensions, the authors found that individualism and feminine cultures are positively associated with increased levels of ESG disclosure. These findings shed light on factors affecting European ESG disclosure practices and could be of interest to sustainability reporters, standards setters, policymakers, and other stakeholders.

The fifth article (Contribution 5) explored and assessed the quality of the anti-corruption disclosure reporting practices of the large UK-quoted extractive companies from 2003 to 2019. Based on a set of reporting quality metrics from the environmental reporting literature, the authors investigated the trends in corruption reporting over time and the impact of

the introduction of the Act on reporting breadth and depth. They found that some of the metrics would appear to add more insight than others in this new context. The statistical results stated that the volume of reporting has grown over time, but this would seem to be in breadth, rather than more depth of the anti-corruption disclosure, etc. Consequently, there has been a step-change in corporate anti-corruption disclosure practice since the introduction of the 2010 UK Bribery Act, though concluding whether this has increased quality may depend on your perspective and interest as a reader of the anti-corruption information.

There is a growing trend in corporate bribery practices among employees, particularly from developing countries, where developed countries, including the USA, have huge interests in various aspects of national and international commerce. Therefore, the sixth article (Contribution 6) examined the impact of organisations' culture and outcome orientation, as well as the stability culture dimensions of Organization culture profile (OCP) on combating corporate bribery practices, as a part of corporate sustainability practices, and their subsequent impact on both organisational financial and non-financial performance. The paper surveyed mid-to-top level managers of a total of 201 organisations from Bangladesh. The research results provided evidence of the positive impact of both outcome orientation and stability of organisations' culture on fighting bribery practices. The findings also emphasized the positive impact of combating bribery practices on both organizations' financial and non-financial performance. Of course, these empirical findings contribute to the existing limited bribery-related corporate sustainability literature, with the aim of achieving suitable organisation culture to eliminate unethical business practices, such as corporate bribery practices.

The seventh article (Contribution 7) was conducted to investigate the asymmetric effects of the defense burden on environmental degradation, which has rarely been researched in the relevant literature. So, the authors used Panel ARDL and NARDL methodologies to analyze the period 1965–2018 for the 15 oldest members of NATO. On the one hand, the empirical findings of the panel ARDL analysis did not show any significant impact of the defense burden (ME) on carbon dioxide emissions (CO2) in the long term. On the other hand, panel NARDL analysis proved that the impact of the defense burden on carbon emissions is asymmetric; a 1% negative change in ME leads to a 0.08% drop in CO2 emissions in the long term, etc.

Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) jointly contributed to a significant proportion of greenhouse gas emissions and therefore, there is a need for urgent action to be taken by SMEs in the journey to fight climate change and achieve net zero. With this fact, the eighth article (Contribution 8) offered a comprehensive conceptual framework for SMEs to draw from in the journey toward net zero by synthesizing the academic and grey literature. By bringing together key strands of the literature, the authors developed a conceptual model that offered a clear pathway for SMEs to go on board to achieve their net zero plan. This framework encompasses understanding the position of the SME in the value chain, understanding the pressures from stakeholders, undertaking greenhouse gas accounting to measure current levels of carbon emissions, undertaking internal control towards the net zero agenda, etc. This model cloud also be used as an ongoing decision-making and constant improvement framework that will be an asset to SMEs. Generally, this article contributed to the sustainability literature by being the first to synthesize the academic and grey literature to develop a comprehensive conceptual framework for SMEs to achieve net zero target.

Considering the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development' and the associated 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the ninth article (Contribution 9) explored CSR and related ethical and sustainable business policies and practices within UK-based global businesses. To achieve this aim, the research engaged senior CSR managers from UK global brand businesses to discuss their CSR perceptions and practices. The results revealed that global companies are reframing CSR within the broader concept of sustainability, guided by the SDGs, and are willing to give advice to SMEs as part of a broader supply chain collaboration process. The authors also asked their interviewees about their recommendations for SMEs and how to link these SDGs to their businesses, etc.

In the same context, the tenth article (Contribution 10) developed the multipletheoretical framework of legitimacy, stakeholders, and voluntary perspective to evaluate the adoption of Vietnamese-listed firms to the 17 United Nations' SDGs. The primary objective research aim of this article is to employ manual content analysis to explore the status quo of the SDGs practices of the largest 100 Vietnamese listed firms on the two biggest Vietnamese stock exchanges (Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange–HOSE and Hanoi Stock Exchange–HNX). Remarkably, the empirical findings proved that Vietnamese listed firms revealed "green talks" in their corporate reporting rather than "green actions". Consequently, these findings encouraged companies to engage in SDGs through substantive sustainability strategies and need greater attention from governments, practitioners, and policymakers.

Similarly, the eleventh paper (Contribution 11) examined the extent of corporate governance disclosure on the websites of Indonesian and Malaysian FinTech companies and determined whether variation in the extent of corporate governance disclosure was influenced by the country and type of FinTech services or not. The authors analyzed the content of the websites of 148 Indonesian and 159 Malaysian corporations using a Modified Corporate Governance Disclosure Index (MoCGOvDi. This MoCGovDi was created using the ASEAN Corporate Governance Scorecard and previous research. The research findings showed that the level of corporate governance disclosure was higher among Malaysian FinTech companies as a result of strong and forced pressure by government regulation. Furthermore, the level of corporate governance disclosure is low in both countries, which may delay the achievement of SDG No 16.

The twelfth article (Contribution 12) investigated the relationship between two characteristics of corporate governance (concentrated and state ownership) and firm financial performance in an emerging market, China. To test this relationship, the authors used a research sample of 234 Chinese firms with a total of 2340-year observations. The empirical findings stated that concentrated ownership is positively and significantly related to firm performance. Nevertheless, state ownership has a significant negative impact on firm performance. Further, the authors documented that the stock split reform has a substantial and positive impact on the ownership–corporate financial performance relationship. Such a positive relationship between ownership concentration and firm performance has increased following the split-share structure reform. While the negative relationship between state ownership and corporate financial performance has been mitigated following the split-share structure reform. This study offered some implications for regulators, investors, and researchers interested in examining emerging economies such as China.

Over the span of years, the CSR disclosure–firm risk relationship has boosted the dedicated interest of capital providers, bankers, regulators, debtholders, and academic scholars. Understanding such a dynamic relationship has increasingly attracted the attention of academics, practitioners, and policymakers. Yet, empirical research testing the relationship between CSR disclosure and firm risk over time is still in its early stage. Thus, this thirteenth article (Contribution 13) looks to contribute to the literature on firm risk and CSR disclosure by examining the effect of ESG disclosure on the cost of capital over time. The research paper examines a sample of 430 S&P 500 US firms observed over the 2011 to 2019 period. The empirical findings showed that the governance disclosure decreased the cost of capital during the first years, and in later years, the effect became positive. Over time, social disclosure increased the cost of capital. However, environmental disclosure showed a negative and significant impact on the cost of capital during the first years but no significant impact later in time. Of course, these findings contributed to explaining the dynamic effect of CSR disclosure, etc.

Although the influence of ownership structure on the level of cash holdings has been widely investigated, that of government ownership has been understudied. To fill this research gap, the fourteenth article (Contribution 14) employed a generalized method of moments (GMM) estimation on the panel data of 107 Jordanian firms listed on the Amman Stock Exchange, to test the relationship between government ownership and the level of corporate cash holdings. The empirical results proved that companies with government ownership hold higher levels of cash and that such ownership creates agency problems. While other types of ownership such as individual, foreign, and block holders, were found to be insignificant. These findings afford a significant implication for policymakers and financial regulators in Jordan to reduce agency problems associated with government ownership. The government should also revise its ownership policy to ensure its purposes and expectations from such business ownership, etc.

Managers' religious values may affect their attitudes toward CSR activities in two ways: (1) religiosity is a key source of individual morals which serve as the foundation for the formation of individuals' attitudes, and (2) it symbolizes followers with principles by which to live. Accordingly, the fifteenth article (Contribution 15) studied the complex relationship between Islamic religious beliefs and CSR attitudes and behaviour. In this study, the authors defined four aspects of religiosity, four types of individual attitudes toward CSR, and five types of CSR behaviour. The empirical investigation of the responses of 274 questionnaires showed that there is a very different picture of the Islamic religiosity of the Egyptian managers, with low correlations between the cognitive, intrinsic, extrinsic, and behavioural aspects of religiosity. It also indicates that there are significant and negative impacts of Islamic religious beliefs on various types of CSR attitudes and behaviour. These findings afford some important implications for CSR scholars to use a multidimensional measure to assess the religious beliefs of managers and their impacts on CSR attitudes. Furthermore, these findings enhance corporate managers' awareness of the interconnection of their religiosity and CSR behaviour.

The sixteenth article (Contribution 16) empirically tested the effect of economic policy uncertainty on executives' self-interest behaviors, segregated the explicit self-interest behaviors from implicit ones, and then examined the moderating effect of internal control. The findings showed that rising policy uncertainty will inhibit explicit self-interest behaviors of executives, yet the implicit ones will be encouraged, and the internal control system can regulate the above effects. The authors also run some additional analysis that approved the above-mentioned effect. Therefore, both stable institutional investors and sound market competition can play an important role in governance. As a result, this study contributed to the literature on the influence of economic policy uncertainty on corporate governance practices.
