Whistleblowing policy disclosure: evidence from an Indian emerging market

Purpose – This paper aims to investigate factors which drive firms to disclose whistleblowing policies in one of the emerging markets, i.e. India. Design/methodology/approach – A sample of 200 Bombay Stock Exchange-listed Indian firms is analyzed using Tobit regression. Findings – Promoter shareholding, proportion of independent directors and specific positions like chief ethical officer influence disclosure of whistleblowing policies. Originality/value – This paper presents the first empirical study where principal-principal conflict theory is extended to explain drivers of whistleblowing policy disclosure and, hence, brings new insights to the literature on whistleblowing policy disclosure.