Table 1 Variables and data sources... | Emerald Publishing

Table 1

Variables and data sources

Variables	Symbol	Variable definition	Data source
Dependent variable
ESG controversies score	ESG_C	A company’s exposure to environmental, social and governance controversies and negative events reflected in global media (0–100%). The higher the ESG_C, the lower the exposure to ESG controversies.	Refinitiv
Independent variables
NC independence	NCInd	The percentage of independent directors serving on the bank’s nomination committee at the fiscal year end.	Refinitiv
NC member sustainability	NCSust	Joint membership of NC members of the sustainability/CSR committee (a proxy for NC members’ possession of ESG competences).	Hand collected from banks’ integrated report or BankFocus
NC member age	NCAge	The average age of nomination committee members.	Hand collected from banks’ integrated report or BankFocus
NC member nationality	NCNation	A dummy variable equal to 1 if at least one nomination committee member has a different nationality from the bank.	Hand collected from banks’ integrated report or BankFocus
Control variables
NC female chair	NCWoman_Ch	A dummy variable equal to 1 if the chair of the nomination committee is a woman and 0 otherwise.	Hand collected from banks’ integrated report or BankFocus
Board gender diversity	Boardgender	The percentage of female on the board.	Refinitiv
Board size	Boardsize	The number of members who belong to the board of directors of the bank.	Refinitiv
Bank size	Banksize	The natural logarithm of the total assets for banking size.	BankFocus
Return on assets	ROA	The net income by average total assets as the profitability of a bank’s assets.	BankFocus
Cost-to-income ratio	CINC	Efficiency ratio: the total operating expenses to total operating income.	BankFocus
TIER 1 ratio	TIER	The percentage of risk-weighted assets on a fully loaded basis as reported by the bank.	BankFocus
Economic sentiment indicator	ECSent	A composite indicator that reflects and represents the judgements and attitudes of producers and consumers of the different components of the economy: industry, services, consumers, construction and retail trade. It is considered as a confidence indicator in the markets as a whole.	Eurostat (European Commission)

Variables	Symbol	Variable definition	Data source
Dependent variable
ESG controversies score	ESG_C	A company’s exposure to environmental, social and governance controversies and negative events reflected in global media (0–100%). The higher the ESG_C, the lower the exposure to ESG controversies.	Refinitiv
Independent variables
NC independence	NCInd	The percentage of independent directors serving on the bank’s nomination committee at the fiscal year end.	Refinitiv
NC member sustainability	NCSust	Joint membership of NC members of the sustainability/CSR committee (a proxy for NC members’ possession of ESG competences).	Hand collected from banks’ integrated report or BankFocus
NC member age	NCAge	The average age of nomination committee members.	Hand collected from banks’ integrated report or BankFocus
NC member nationality	NCNation	A dummy variable equal to 1 if at least one nomination committee member has a different nationality from the bank.	Hand collected from banks’ integrated report or BankFocus
Control variables
NC female chair	NCWoman_Ch	A dummy variable equal to 1 if the chair of the nomination committee is a woman and 0 otherwise.	Hand collected from banks’ integrated report or BankFocus
Board gender diversity	Boardgender	The percentage of female on the board.	Refinitiv
Board size	Boardsize	The number of members who belong to the board of directors of the bank.	Refinitiv
Bank size	Banksize	The natural logarithm of the total assets for banking size.	BankFocus
Return on assets	ROA	The net income by average total assets as the profitability of a bank’s assets.	BankFocus
Cost-to-income ratio	CINC	Efficiency ratio: the total operating expenses to total operating income.	BankFocus
TIER 1 ratio	TIER	The percentage of risk-weighted assets on a fully loaded basis as reported by the bank.	BankFocus
Economic sentiment indicator	ECSent	A composite indicator that reflects and represents the judgements and attitudes of producers and consumers of the different components of the economy: industry, services, consumers, construction and retail trade. It is considered as a confidence indicator in the markets as a whole.	Eurostat(European Commission)

Note:

In cases in which no identifying information on the gender, age or nationality of NC members was released, the bank’s website and other sources such as LinkedIn and BankFocus were used