Board gender diversity and environmental material topics: Evidence from GRI-based reports in the Italian context

Purpose – This paper investigates whether board gender diversity is associated with the propensity to prioritize environmental issues in the material topic list on Global Reporting Initiative (GRI)-based reports. Design/methodology/approach – Regressions analyses are performed using a sample of 755 firm-year observations from Italy over the 2018–2022 period. The data were obtained from hand-collection on GRI-based reports and Refinitiv Eikon database. Board gender diversity is measured through three proxies: the natural logarithm of the number of women directors, the ratio of female representation on board and the Blau index reflecting the proportion of women/men on board. Additional tests are also developed. Findings – Results show that board gender diversity positively influences the propensity to rank environmental issues at the top of the material topic list on GRI-based reports. Research limitations/implications – Since the study focuses on the Italian context, results cannot be subjective to an extensive generalization to other countries. Practical implications – This study highlights the importance of strengthening the female participation on board to prioritize the firm’s impact on environment within the materiality assessment of sustainability reporting. Originality/value – To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first to investigate the association between board gender diversity and the highest ranked environmental material topics, thus contributing to better understand the role of women directors on materiality assessment within sustainability reporting.