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- ItemOpen AccessIMPACT OF DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION ON CARBON EMISSION: EVIDENCE FROM A GLOBAL SAMPLE(North South University, 2025-06-24) Taskin Shakib; Humaira Haque; Syeda Humayra Abedin; Trisha AhmedWe investigate whether, how, and under what conditions workforce diversity and inclusion (D&I) improve corporate carbon emission by modeling environmental innovation (EI) as a mediating mechanism and institutional ownership as a moderating force over the period from 2015 to 2023. Using data from the Global Diversity Index and Inclusion Index provided by LSEG and a sample of 21,226 firm-year observations from globally listed firms, we find that both Diversity and Inclusion are positively associated with emission-reduction performance. Mediation tests indicate that EI is strongly related to lower emissions. Moderation analyses reveal stronger D&I effects among firms with higher institutional ownership, consistent with an engaged-ownership mechanism that converts inclusive human capital into credible decarbonization initiatives. Overall, the evidence supports an integrated capabilities-andgovernance account in which inclusion expands the firm‘s problem-solving frontier and innovation capacity, while institutional investors reinforce incentives and monitoring. The findings carry actionable implications for boards, asset owners, and regulators seeking to align D&I strategy with real-economy emission reductions.
- ItemOpen AccessEXAMINING THE ROLE OF WEB-BASED DISCLOSURE IN MITIGATING DEFAULT RISK- EVIDENCE FROM JAPAN(2025-06-24) Taskin Shakib; Syeda Humayra Abedin; Humaira Haque; Trisha AhmedWe examine whether web-based corporate disclosure reduces firms‘ default risk in the unique institutional and governance setting of Japan. Guided by agency and signaling theories, we hypothesize that enhanced online disclosure mitigates information asymmetry, strengthens market credibility, and lowers the likelihood of financial distress. Using 35,920 firm-year observations from 2007–2022, we employ Merton‘s distance-to-default as our primary measure of default risk and capture disclosure quality along four dimensions—massiveness, intelligibility, usability, and information amount—drawn from the NIKKEI Corporate Governance Evaluation System. Firm fixed-effects estimates indicate a robust positive association between disclosure quality and distance-to-default, consistent with lower default probability. The results are robust to alternative accounting- and market-based risk measures (Altman Z-score and CDS spreads) and to alternative estimation techniques. We further show that institutional ownership, analyst coverage, and board independence amplify the risk-reducing effect of web disclosure. Our findings contribute to the corporate disclosure and default risk literatures by isolating the role of dynamic, multidimensional web-based disclosure and by documenting its interaction with external governance mechanisms.