Saudi Cultural Missions Theses & Dissertations
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Item Restricted Essays on Audit Committee Chair Characteristics, Cybersecurity Risk Disclosure, and ESG Disclosure Scores(Saudi Digital Library, 2025) Alanazi, Musharraf; Thiruvadi, SheelaIn recent years, environmental, social, and governance (ESG) considerations have shifted from peripheral concerns to central pillars of corporate governance and reporting. Growing attention to climate risks, sustainability practices, and corporate responsibility has led regulators, investors, and civil society to demand high-quality and comparable ESG information. Audit committees are emerging as key players in this process because their oversight of financial reporting, risk management, and internal controls increasingly intersects with ESG responsibilities. This role has been reinforced by evolving regulatory frameworks such as the EU Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive and the SEC's climate and cybersecurity disclosure rules. However, despite the rising importance of disclosure, limited evidence exists on how the personal and professional traits of audit committee chairs influence transparency in ESG and cybersecurity reporting. The first essay examines the relationship between audit committee chair characteristics, namely, gender, age, CPA qualification, and prior auditor experience, and ESG disclosure scores, utilizing panel data from S&P 500 firms between 2015 and 2023. Results from ordinary least squares (OLS) regressions show that female chairs are strongly associated with higher ESG disclosure scores, particularly in environmental and social dimensions, while chair age is negatively related to ESG outcomes. CPA credentials have no consistent effect, and prior auditor experience is modestly associated with the level of governance disclosure. Interaction results reveal that younger female chairs drive the strongest ESG disclosure score and that combining gender diversity with prior audit experience further enhances transparency. The second essay examines cybersecurity risk disclosure, employing logistic regression on the same dataset. Findings indicate that demographic traits such as gender, age, and CPA credentials are not significant predictors, while prior auditor experience improves disclosure quality, highlighting the value of technical expertise in addressing IT risks. Firm-level factors also matter: profitability (ROA) is negatively associated with disclosure, while larger firms are more likely to report, reflecting heightened regulatory and investor pressures. This study makes significant contributions to the accounting, auditing, and sustainability literature in several ways. First, it fills an important gap, as no prior research has jointly examined how audit committee chair characteristics influence both ESG disclosure score and cybersecurity risk disclosure. Second, the findings provide new evidence that demographic and professional traits, such as gender, age, and prior audit experience, affect disclosure outcomes, with notable effects on ESG transparency. Third, the study applies Upper Echelons Theory to explain how leadership diversity and experience shape ESG reporting, while highlighting the role of evolving regulatory frameworks in driving cybersecurity disclosure. Together, these insights offer practical implications for boards, regulators, policymakers, and investors seeking to strengthen corporate transparency and accountability. Keywords: Corporate Governance; Audit Committee Chair; ESG disclosure score; Cybersecurity Risk Disclosure; Gender Diversity; CPA Qualification; Prior Auditor Experience49 0