Corporate governance in the digital age: the role of social media and board independence in CSR disclosure. Evidence from Italian listed companies

This article aims to investigate the role of board independence on corporate social responsibility disclosure (CSRDisc) and the moderating role of stakeholder e-engagement by social media (SM) in the relationship between these variables. The study uses econometric panel data dependence techniques on a sample of 347 firm-year observations related to Italian non-financial listed companies for the period 2017-2019. The results highlight that independent directors, particularly those appointed by minority shareholders, influence positively CSR disclosure. Additionally, this relationship is strengthened by stakeholder e-engagement created by social media (SM), since higher is the companies visibility on Facebook, Linked In, and Twitter, and hence the institutional pressure felt by its independent directors, greater is the CSRDisc. This article suggests a new metric to evaluate stakeholder engagement by SM and a new index to measure CSRDisc based on both Directive 95/2014 and Global Reporting Initiative standard. The article contributes to academic research on the relationship between board independence and disclosure analysing the moderating role by institutional pressure coming from SM.