The walking dead: Are Zombie firms environmentally and socially responsible? A global perspective.

This study examines the association between zombie firms and their environmental and social performance. Using a global dataset of listed firms from 49 countries between 2002 and 2019, we find that zombie firms perform poorly on environmental and social responsibility fronts. This finding supports the argument that zombie firms are characterized by consistent losses and that their existence is risky without external support. Zombie firms, while struggling for survival, may not be able to undertake environmental and social activities that require huge investments, thus falling behind other firms. Further analysis highlights that eco-innovation, the presence of a sustainability committee, and industry nature (i.e., heavily polluting industries) mitigate the negative impact of firms' zombie status on their environmental and social performance. Moreover, a zombie firm's engagement in environmental and social activities improves its financial performance. Our main findings are robust to a battery of estimation techniques, alternative proxies, selection bias, and endogeneity issues.

Do corporate governance mechanisms curb the anti-environmental behavior of firms worldwide? An illustration through waste management.

Driven by the current surge in environmental and climate issues and the pressure of the government and regulatory bodies on corporations to diminish their carbon trails, this study uniquely examines the impact of distinct corporate governance mechanisms on the level of waste produced on a global sample of firms during 2002-2019. Our findings show that corporate governance mechanisms are important predictors of the level of waste produced by firms worldwide. In particular, the board size, board independence, and sustainability committees are linked to a higher level of waste produced. Conversely, the board gender diversity reduces the waste produced, and CEO duality is not associated with the level of waste produced. Our results are robust to alternate proxies of main variables, potential endogeneity concerns (using propensity score matching, two-stage least squares, and generalized system method of moments technique), and additional analyses. Further analysis shows that larger and gender-diverse boards improve the firm's waste recycling behavior, whereas board independence and the presence of a sustainability committee are negatively related to waste recycling. The study has vital insinuations in developing efficient, ethical regulations and guidelines for corporate boards specifically from the perspective of waste management, environmental protection, and restoration.