Coesão de grupo no processo de tomada de decisão sobre divulgação de informações de caráter social pelas empresas de capital aberto listadas na [B]³

Abstract

This thesis aimed to verify whether group cohesion affects the decision-making process to the extent of disclosure of information of a social nature by organizations. The underlying theories for the themes are the theory of legitimacy in the approach of social responsibility to withstand the voluntary disclosure of information, and the groupthink theory to underpin the group cohesion approach. Using an econometric regression model with fixed effect's panel data, the objective was achieved after operationalizing the empirical variables and testing the proposed hypotheses. A sample of 104 publicly traded companies listed on the São Paulo Stock Exchange ([B]3), which voluntarily disclosed sustainability or annual reports, was used. The results indicated that only the social cohesion dimension had a significant impact on the decision-making process, while task cohesion had no significance in the model. Only reporting assurance, size, complexity, and age of the organization were significant of the control variables. The thesis provides new evidence that greater social cohesion among members of the board of directors may not be beneficial for organizations, not improving the disclosure of voluntary information, specifically those of a social disclosure. However, different types of social cohesion can exist, depending on the combination of beliefs, values, and previous experiences of the members of the board of directors. This can impact the decision-making process in different ways.