Institutional environment and environmental, social and governance accounting among banks in West Africa

What is it about?

Surprisingly, banks that are not known to have any significant negative impacts on the environment and society are adopting ESG reporting. Interestingly, the majority of the banks in West Africa are multinational corporations and probably influenced by the reporting practices of their respective parent companies. Another issue is that the unique social, economic cultural, political, legal and economic environment of these firms can influence the firms’ ESG reporting. Thus, the question is whether the ESG reporting practices of the banks in West Africa are influenced by the socio-economic and political environment in these countries or by unique specific characteristics of the firms. As this question is largely underexplored in developing countries, this study provides evidence to show that the institutional environment significantly influences the ESG accounting practices of banks in West Africa.

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