The Influence of Board Characteristics, ESG-Linked Compensation, and ESG Controversy on ESG Performance: Does the Presence of the ESG Committee Matter?

This study aims to empirically examine the influence of board gender diversity, board independence, ESG-linked compensation, and ESG controversies on ESG performance. Additionally, it seeks to empirically investigate the moderating role of an ESG committee. The study focuses on all non-financial companies listed on the stock exchanges of the ASEAN-5 countries, which consists of Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, and Thailand for which data are available via the LSEG (Refinitiv) Eikon database, covering 700 data of the period from 2019 to 2025. Employing multiple regression analysis and also moderated regression analysis, the study provides empirical evidence of the positive influence of board independence, ESG-linked compensation, and ESG controversies on ESG performance. Regarding the moderating role of an ESG committee, the findings indicate that such a committee strengthens the positive impact of board gender diversity on ESG performance. Furthermore, the committee is shown to mitigate the negative impact of ESG controversies on ESG performance.