Investigating the effect of independent board of directors on the relationship between ownership structure and corporate sustainability performance disclosure

Sustainability is essential in human societies, and companies play an important role in recognizing and properly implementing corporate sustainability, including social, management and environmental dimensions. Mainly, in different companies, sustainability originates from the decisions of the managers of that organization or members of the board of directors and, in general, the ownership structure. The purpose of this research is to investigate the effect of the ownership structure of companies on corporate sustainability performance disclosure with the moderating role of the independent board of directors. For this purpose, 111 companies listed on the Tehran Stock Exchange from 2016 to 2020 have been used as a case study. In this research, multiple regression based on panel data was used. Examining the hypotheses indicates that the structure of family ownership, major ownership and state ownership is effective on the corporate sustainability performance disclosure in social, governance and environmental dimensions. Also, the results show that the independent board of directors adjusts the relationship between the family ownership structure and major shareholders by disclosing the sustainability performance of the companies in environmental, social and governance dimensions. In case, the independent board of directors had no significant moderating effect on the relationship between state ownership and corporate sustainability performance disclosure.