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This paper aims to fill the governance literature void by answering the seemingly unanswered vintage questions regarding governance reform effectiveness towards ensuring a firm’s financial reporting transparency (FRT) in an emerging country of Malaysia. It involves an assessment of the specific maintained assumption in its governance code (Code) introduced two decades ago that the Code would improve FRT through the direct channel of governance practices improvement.

The measured FRT as proxied by the firm’s accruals quality is examined across different governance regimes of pre- and post-Code periods. This paper conjectures that the firm’s FRT should improve post-Code period, evidencing reform effectiveness towards ensuring enhanced governance practices.

The results indicate that while governance reform improves governance practices, it did not, however, bring improved FRT of firms. The interaction analysis provides evidence of the Code’s ability to favourably moderate the link between the firm’s FRT and several board attributes, suggesting improvement in governance practices in ensuring the firm’s FRT pursuant to the introduction of a formally written and legally backed governance code.

This paper contributes to the extent of governance and FRT literature in developing economies in at least two specific ways. First, the paper presents evidence on public policy implications towards governance practices and the firms’ FRT. Second, it contributes to the public policy debate concerning governance reform effectiveness from the specific angle of the firms’ FRT, thereby confirming the potential conditions upon which the “maintained assumption” would be valid.

This research contributes to the extent of governance and FRT literature in emerging economies by studying the dynamic roles of governance in influencing firms’ FRT across governance regime change, something which governance literature repertoire seems to neglect. It also contributes to the public policy debate concerning governance reform effectiveness from the specific angle of the firm’s FRT by evidencing the strategic role of governance reform in influencing the financial reporting behaviour of Malaysian listed firms.

This study conducts a meta-analysis to investigate the impact of board diversity, independence and size on carbon emission disclosure.

The results of 22 empirical investigations on the association between board qualities and carbon emission disclosure are synthesised using a meta-analysis approach. Inclusion and exclusion criteria are established, and search strategies are devised to locate relevant material. Data extraction entails gathering important information such as the names of the authors, variables and correlation coefficients. Fisher's z-transformation is used to compute and synthesise effect sizes and assumptions, sensitivity testing and subgroup analysis are performed to assess the robustness of the findings.

A substantial association was discovered between board characteristics and carbon emission disclosure. Board independence and gender diversity revealed small to medium-strength positive relationships, whilst board size had a medium-strength positive correlation. The study periods varied from 2011 to 2022, with 2018 having the most studies. However, highly heterogeneous groups were discovered; further subgroup analyses were then carried out to sort out this issue.

Several limitations were recognised due to the limited number of studies and heterogeneity, although subgroup analysis was used to reduce the influence of heterogeneity. To investigate alternate outcomes, more analysis of the heterogeneity level and potential modifications to the model assumptions may be required.

Companies should consider board size, independence and gender diversity when formulating long-term competitive strategies in the climate change movement. These characteristics can aid in bridging information gaps and garnering stakeholder support for carbon-reduction initiatives.

This meta-analysis addresses a gap in the literature by addressing prior studies' conflicting and inconsistent findings on the association between board characteristics and carbon emission disclosure. It employs a rigorous approach and synthesis strategy to provide a thorough and robust understanding of the crucial role of board characteristics in carbon emission disclosure.