Environmental disclosures

Disclosures play a pivotal role in addressing the issues related to information asymmetry and agency costs of firms. Voluntary disclosures are those disclosures which are beyond the compulsory ones and are communicated portraying a better image of the company and its prospects in front of its investors. Therefore this study intends to extend various aspects of corporate disclosure practices, mainly voluntary disclosures of selected Indian companies. Under contract theory of economics, information asymmetry leads to superfluous decisions because of information gap between the parties. It is also important to assess the possible economic consequence of voluntary disclosures i.e. the incentive by way of enhanced firm performance. The results of the study obtained through correlation and regression approach are very encouraging and are evident of stock returns responding to corporate voluntary disclosures, financial as well as non-financial, particularly in the recent years. The effect of increased disclosures on stock prices is of possible interest to investing community and stakeholders at large including the policy makers and regulators. It is not just about the level of disclosures but also the type of disclosures e.g. non-financial disclosure like forward looking, social, and environmental which play an important role in enunciating the association between the two variables. The paper sufficiently contributes towards literature on voluntary disclosures. Its major contribution is focused towards economic consequences of disclosures by way of better stock returns and implications for Indian stock market regulator to assess the impact of its policy on manufacturing and non-manufacturing companies listed in CNX 100 index of National Stock Exchange of India.

Environmental sustainability in the company: what relationship between voluntary disclosure and internal management? The dimension of environmental sustainability within the business activities represents a theme of growing importance. This paper analyses the relationship between "voluntary disclosure environmental" and "internal environmental management" in order to understand if and how the two dimensions are related and consistent with each other. The internal environmental management is considered, in particular, as the company's attention towards environmental sustainability as part of the systems internal decisions and implementation of sustainability practices. From the theoretical point of view, the study identifies four categories representative of possible associations, making use of a matrix representative of the high-low two dimensions indicated and defined in accordance with previous studies. The test sample is represented by forty-four companies operating in sectors considered at high environmental impact. The results show a prevalence of internal environmental management practices than the voluntary disclosure.

Prior empirical studies revealed that firms with high environmental performance tend to be profitable, but questions persist about the nature to the relationship. Those questions are referred to: “Does stronger environmental performance really lead to better financial performance?”
Alternatively, “Is the observed relationship the outcome of some other underlying firm attributes?” The long debate about the relationship between environmental performance and firm performance in emerging economies still remain inconclusive and offer further explorations, especially in the context of emerging countries, which its rapid growth does not only carry social progress but also environmental challenges. Recent heuristic findings reveal that on average, while 42% of emerging market companies support environmental commitments in the form of policies or statements, they remain weaker on implementation and progress tracking. Little empirical research into the effect of environmental disclosure together with environmental performance on firm performance is done
in Southeast Asian countries. This study extends the literature that has been done mostly in western societies by proposing a further linkage between environmental disclosure, environmental performance, and financial performance, which is rarely investigated in developing societies. The study analyzed 33 Indonesian manufacturing firms that were listed in Indonesian Stock Exchange (IDX) and reported their environmental performance assessment to the Ministry of Environment Indonesia. Statistic methods used for testing the hypothesis were T-test and multivariate regression model. The empirical results reveal that environmental performance has significantly influenced financial performance of the Indonesian manufacturing firm. However, one striking finding in this study is the insignificant influence of environmental disclosure on firm's financial performance. Meanwhile, environmental performance and disclosure simultaneously have significant effect on firm's financial performance. These results explicitly show how firms in emerging countries are going to be more concerned with environmental sustainability and long-run
profitability.

Introduction Disclosure is an accounting activity which holds great significance in the era of modern economic growth where the availability of capital is the major driving force. The developing countries strive towards rapid economic growth and this can be achieved only by efficient allocation of capital. The economic information therefore should be available in the most efficient manner to aid well-informed decision making process. Here, the most important aspect is reporting the success or failure of economic units which are utilizing a substantial portion of the capital of the country. A company, which is an economic unit should therefore inform about the efficiency of their capital utilization to all the interested parties. Hence effective disclosure means communicating clearly to the diverse stakeholders of a corporate entity and the most important being the capital providers. Both Mandatory and Voluntary disclosures play an important role in bridging this information gap. Cooke (1989), Patton and Zelenka (1997), and Craig and Diga (1998) studied in their respective papers the nature and extent of variance in disclosure in the annual reports of companies more specifically the nature and extent of voluntary disclosures. Tian and Chen (2009) delved upon the supporting role of voluntary disclosures which help in enhancing the benefits and value of mandatory disclosures. Hence this paper intends to explore the nature and extent of corporate disclosure especially voluntary corporate disclosures of selected Indian economic units which are companies listed on National Stock Exchange of India.

Purpose-The purpose of this paper is to examine the association between corporate environmental disclosure (CED) and earnings management (EM) and the impact of corporate governance (CG) mechanisms on that association. Design/methodology/approach-The paper uses performance-matched discretionary accruals (DA) as a measure of EM. The paper also uses ordinary least square regression with robust standard errors to examine the association between CED and EM for a sample of 245 UK non-financial firms for the financial year ended on March 2007. Three different theoretical frameworks are used to identify the expected association between CER and EM. These include: signalling, agency and stakeholder-legitimacy theories. Findings-The paper finds no significant statistical association between various measures of DA and environmental disclosure. The paper also finds that some CG attributes affect the relationship between CER and EM. Practical implications-The result suggests that UK corporate managers are not using environmental disclosure as a technique to reduce the probability that public policy actions will be taken against their companies. Originality/value-Since most empirical research is limited to the US setting, this paper provides a novel contribution to the existing literature, as one of the first to examine this issue in the UK.

Environmental disclosure is the latest novelty in the corporate reporting field. In fact, it
is a tool that can better represent the capacity of companies in creating financial performance over
time. Therefore, this paper analyzes whether environmental disclosure (ED) practiced by firms listed
on the ESG index affects their financial performance (FP) using the moderating effect of social and
ethical practices. The analysis includes a linear regression using panel data from Thomson Reuters
and Bloomberg databases. Panel data were collected from a sample of 523 companies listed on the
North American and West European stock exchanges. The obtained results show a positive and
significant relationship between environmental disclosure (ED) and financial performance (FP). This
implies that a strong environmental disclosure increases financial performance while a weak one
decreases it. Furthermore, the study suggests a moderating effect of social and ethical practices
in the link between environmental disclosure and the firm’s financial performance. In fact, these
findings provide interesting insights for academic practitioners and regulators who are interested in
discovering environmental disclosure, firm’s performance, and social and ethical practices. These
findings also provide insights to stakeholders and regulators on the crucial need to integrate more
social and environmental regulations to promote sustainability. Moreover, this paper fills the gaps
existing in previous studies that ignore the moderating role of social and ethical practices in the
relationship between environmental disclosure and financial performance.

The study assessed the level of environmental disclosure practice of manufacturing companies in Nigeria. Anchored on the legitimacy theory, the ex post facto research design was adopted by the study. The sample was drawn from a population of 60 quoted manufacturing companies on the floor of the Nigerian Stock Exchange as on 31 December 2017 using the judgmental sampling technique. The study variables were sourced from the annual reports and the stand-alone environmental reports of the selected companies from 2007 to 2017. The global reporting initiative environmental disclosure index was adopted in assessing the disclosure practice of the companies over the years. The findings showed that the environmental disclosure practice of the quoted manufacturing companies was low in the areas of material, energy, emissions, effluent and waste, water and biodiversity. A good number of the manufacturing companies disclosed very well the theme 'others' in the area of environmental expenditure and investment. The study further observed a non-significant statistical difference in the disclosure practice of manufacturing companies over the years (t = −1.440, p = 0.223). The study concluded that there exists no significant difference in the level of environmental disclosure practice of manufacturing companies in Nigeria from 2007 to 2017.

This study examines the effect of the characteristics of the company (which includes the company's profitability, age, earnings per share, size, public ownership, leverage, size of the board) on social and environmental disclosure in the annual report. Multiple linear regression was used for analysis of data on 40 mining companies listed on the Indonesia Stock Exchange in 2014. This study showed that the characteristics of the company has a positive and significant impact on the disclosure of social and environmental data (which consists of the theme of economic, environmental, labor, rights human rights, society, product liability, and additional mining indicators). Partial test results showed that the only variable Earnings Per Share (EPS), which has a positive and significant impact on the company's social and environmental outcomes disclosure. Test between sub-variables/dimensions indicate that EPS significantly influence the disclosure of economic performance, environme...

Environmental disclosure is the latest novelty in the corporate reporting field. In fact, it is a tool that can better represent the capacity of companies in creating financial performance over time. Therefore, this paper analyzes whether environmental disclosure (ED) practiced by firms listed on the ESG index affects their financial performance (FP) using the moderating effect of social and ethical practices. The analysis includes a linear regression using panel data from Thomson Reuters and Bloomberg databases. Panel data were collected from a sample of 523 companies listed on the North American and West European stock exchanges. The obtained results show a positive and significant relationship between environmental disclosure (ED) and financial performance (FP). This implies that a strong environmental disclosure increases financial performance while a weak one decreases it. Furthermore, the study suggests a moderating effect of social and ethical practices in the link between en...

Industrial activities have a positive impact on the economy; on the other hand they have a negative impact on the environment. Therefore it must be controlled and balanced. So that issues related to green industry and environmental accounting are increasingly urgent to be formulated by the government. This research aims to analyse the effect of company size, financial performance, and environmental performance on environmental disclosure using good corporate as the moderating variable. By using the purposive sampling technique, the final samples of the research are 23 companies from top 45 listed companies in Indonesia during the period of 2011-2016. Data were analysed with SEM by using Smart PLS 3.0 software. The result showed that the company size and environmental performance have a significant positive effect on the environmental disclosure. Conversely, the effect of financial performance on environmental disclosure is negative. Good Corporate Governance moderates the effect of ...

Industrial activities have a positive impact on the economy; on the other hand they have a negative impact on the environment. Therefore it must be controlled and balanced. So that issues related to green industry and environmental accounting are increasingly urgent to be formulated by the government. This research aims to analyse the effect of company size, financial performance, and environmental performance on environmental disclosure using good corporate as the moderating variable. By using the purposive sampling technique, the final samples of the research are 23 companies from top 45 listed companies in Indonesia during the period of 2011-2016. Data were analysed with SEM by using Smart PLS 3.0 software. The result showed that the company size and environmental performance have a significant positive effect on the environmental disclosure. Conversely, the effect of financial performance on environmental disclosure is negative. Good Corporate Governance moderates the effect of company size on environmental disclosure. Nevertheless, good corporate governance does not moderate the effect of financial performance and environmental performance on environmental disclosure. Based on the results, top 45 companies in Indonesia are still low in reporting their environmental performance. The practical implication from this study, the authorized bodies should encourage the company by providing education and supervision on the implementation of existing regulations to increase the environmental disclosure.

This research is aimed to examine the effect of environmental performance on firm value with environmental disclosure as a mediation variable. Sample of research is non-financial companies at the Indonesia Stock Exchange that have followed the Environmental Performance Assessment Program (PROPER) held by the Ministry of Life Environment and Forestry. The data analysis method is Structural Equation Modeling-Partial Least Square (SEM-PLS), and the analysis operation is facilitated by the software of WarpPLS 6.0. The result of analysis has given a few findings. One is that environmental performance has a positive effect on firm value and environmental disclosure. Other result shows that environmental disclosure does not affect firm value and does not mediate the effect of environmental performance on firm value. In general, all the results support the stakeholder theory and the resource-based view theory. Companies with environmentally friendly commitments can be a strategy in creating...

Disclosure is an accounting activity which holds great significance in the era of modern economic growth where the availability of capital is the major driving force. The economic information therefore should be available in the most efficient manner to aid well- informed decision making process. Therefore this paper intends to extend various aspects of corporate disclosure practices, mainly voluntary disclosures of selected Indian companies. The study found significant variation in total disclosures year-wise but not industry-wise. Nevertheless, one thing is for sure that though the extent of disclosures has improved and has become consistent post 2013 but the international reports reviewed in this study still expect more to be done.

This research is aimed to examine the effect of environmental performance on firm value with environmental disclosure as a mediation variable. Sample of research is non-financial companies at the Indonesia Stock Exchange that have followed the Environmental Performance Assessment Program (PROPER) held by the Ministry of Life Environment and Forestry. The data analysis method is Structural Equation Modeling-Partial Least Square (SEM-PLS), and the analysis operation is facilitated by the software of WarpPLS 6.0. The result of analysis has given a few findings. One is that environmental performance has a positive effect on firm value and environmental disclosure. Other result shows that environmental disclosure does not affect firm value and does not mediate the effect of environmental performance on firm value. In general, all the results support the stakeholder theory and the resource-based view theory. Companies with environmentally friendly commitments can be a strategy in creating higher firm value.

– This study examines the effect of the characteristics of the company (which includes the company's profitability, age, earnings per share, size, public ownership, leverage, size of the board) on social and environmental disclosure in the annual report. Multiple linear regression was used for analysis of data on 40 mining companies listed on the Indonesia Stock Exchange in 2014. This study showed that the characteristics of the company has a positive and significant impact on the disclosure of social and environmental data (which consists of the theme of economic, environmental, labor, rights human rights, society, product liability, and additional mining indicators). Partial test results showed that the only variable Earnings Per Share (EPS), which has a positive and significant impact on the company's social and environmental outcomes disclosure. Test between sub-variables / dimensions indicate that EPS significantly influence the disclosure of economic performance, environmental, product liability and additional indicators. Meanwhile, debt had a significant effect on product disclosure, the public and additional indicators. Then, age was significant towards the disclosure of additional indicators of mining. In addition to significantly affect the size of the Board and the public disclosure of additional indicators of mining. Then the size of the company's significant influence on product disclosure.

This research is aimed to examine the effect of environmental performance on firm value with environmental disclosure as a mediation variable. Sample of research is non-financial companies at the Indonesia Stock Exchange that have followed the Environmental Performance Assessment Program (PROPER) held by the Ministry of Life Environment and Forestry. The data analysis method is Structural Equation Modeling-Partial Least Square (SEM-PLS), and the analysis operation is facilitated by the software of WarpPLS 6.0. The result of analysis has given a few findings. One is that environmental performance has a positive effect on firm value and environmental disclosure. Other result shows that environmental disclosure does not affect firm value and does not mediate the effect of environmental performance on firm value. In general, all the results support the stakeholder theory and the resource-based view theory. Companies with environmentally friendly commitments can be a strategy in creating higher firm value.

After reviewing the literature, we noticed that the vast majority of studies in the field of environmental accounting and disclosure have focused on developed countries such as Western Europe, America and Australia, while neglected developing countries. This study investigates the relationship between the level of environmental disclosure and company’s characteristics. The researchers identified a number of characteristics that associate with companies ’ environmental disclosure, these are: Company’s size, company’s privatization, company’s age and company’s nationality. In the light of empirical results it is noticed that almost 100 % of companies disclose some environmental information and they provide three types of environmental information good, neutral and bad news. In addition a significant positive association found between level of environmental disclosure and company’s size, company’s privatization and company’s nationality. Therefore it provide further evidence which emph...

This research is aimed to examine the effect of environmental performance on firm value with environmental disclosure as a mediation variable. Sample of research is non-financial companies at the Indonesia Stock Exchange that have followed the Environmental Performance Assessment Program (PROPER) held by the Ministry of Life Environment and Forestry. The data analysis method is Structural Equation Modeling-Partial Least Square (SEM-PLS), and the analysis operation is facilitated by the software of WarpPLS 6.0. The result of analysis has given a few findings. One is that environmental performance has a positive effect on firm value and environmental disclosure. Other result shows that environmental disclosure does not affect firm value and does not mediate the effect of environmental performance on firm value. In general, all the results support the stakeholder theory and the resource-based view theory. Companies with environmentally friendly commitments can be a strategy in creating...

This study was carried out to examine the relationship between environmental disclosure and financial performance among the companies in Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand that voluntarily disclose environmental information in their financial reports. Two hundred and fifty (250) companies listed in Bursa Malaysia, Singapore Stock Exchange and Thailand Stock Exchange were studied in the current study. From the 250 companies analyzed, 56 companies from Malaysia, 37 companies from Thailand and 15 companies from Singapore were identified as environmental reporting companies and included in the study's sample. The study hypothesizes that high performance companies are more likely to have detailed (that is, one paragraph or more) environmental disclosure. The results however suggest that the performance of the company has no