IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/bstrat/v10y2001i1p29-37.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The objectivity of corporate environmental reporting: a study of Finnish listed firms' environmental disclosures

Author

Listed:
  • Jyrki Niskanen
  • Terhi Nieminen

Abstract

This study examines the objectivity of Finnish listed companies' environmental reporting in their ordinary annual reports during the period 1985–1996. We study the firms' practice to disclose negative versus positive environmental events that are ex ante publicly known. As regards the entire research period, the results show that the environmental reporting of the sample firms cannot be considered objective, since the proportional share of negative events reported was negligible compared to the respective percentage for positive events. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment

Suggested Citation

  • Jyrki Niskanen & Terhi Nieminen, 2001. "The objectivity of corporate environmental reporting: a study of Finnish listed firms' environmental disclosures," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 10(1), pages 29-37, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:bstrat:v:10:y:2001:i:1:p:29-37
    DOI: 10.1002/1099-0836(200101/02)10:13.0.CO;2-D
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1002/1099-0836(200101/02)10:13.0.CO;2-D
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1002/1099-0836(200101/02)10:13.0.CO;2-D?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Halme, Minna & Huse, Morten, 1997. "The influence of corporate governance, industry and country factors on environmental reporting," Scandinavian Journal of Management, Elsevier, vol. 13(2), pages 137-157, June.
    2. Ingram, Rw & Frazier, Kb, 1980. "Environmental Performance And Corporate Disclosure," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 18(2), pages 614-622.
    3. Niskala, Mikael & Pretes, Michael, 1995. "Environmental reporting in Finland: A note on the use of annual reports," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 20(6), pages 457-466, August.
    4. Paul R. Milgrom, 1981. "Good News and Bad News: Representation Theorems and Applications," Bell Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 12(2), pages 380-391, Autumn.
    5. Gary K Meek & Clare B Roberts & Sidney J Gray, 1995. "Factors Influencing Voluntary Annual Report Disclosures By U.S., U.K. and Continental European Multinational Corporations," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 26(3), pages 555-572, September.
    6. Páll M. Rikhardsson, 1996. "Developments In Danish Environmental Reporting," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 5(4), pages 269-272, December.
    7. Josephine Maltby, 1997. "Setting its own standards and meeting those standards: voluntarism versus regulation in environmental reporting," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 6(2), pages 83-92, May.
    8. Giovanni Azzone & Raffaella Manzini & Giuliano Noci, 1996. "Evolutionary Trends In Environmental Reporting," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 5(4), pages 219-230, December.
    9. Skinner, Dj, 1994. "Why Firms Voluntarily Disclose Bad-News," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 32(1), pages 38-60.
    10. Grossman, Sanford J, 1981. "The Informational Role of Warranties and Private Disclosure about Product Quality," Journal of Law and Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 24(3), pages 461-483, December.
    11. Trotman, Ken T. & Bradley, Graham W., 1981. "Associations between social responsibility disclosure and characteristics of companies," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 6(4), pages 355-362, October.
    12. Wiseman, Joanne, 1982. "An evaluation of environmental disclosures made in corporate annual reports," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 7(1), pages 53-63, January.
    13. Cowen, Scott S. & Ferreri, Linda B. & Parker, Lee D., 1987. "The impact of corporate characteristics on social responsibility disclosure: A typology and frequency-based analysis," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 12(2), pages 111-122, March.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Matthias S. Fifka, 2013. "Corporate Responsibility Reporting and its Determinants in Comparative Perspective – a Review of the Empirical Literature and a Meta‐analysis," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 22(1), pages 1-35, January.
    2. Gary Peters & Andrea Romi, 2014. "Does the Voluntary Adoption of Corporate Governance Mechanisms Improve Environmental Risk Disclosures? Evidence from Greenhouse Gas Emission Accounting," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 125(4), pages 637-666, December.
    3. Eugenio D'Amico & Daniela Coluccia & Stefano Fontana & Silvia Solimene, 2016. "Factors Influencing Corporate Environmental Disclosure," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 25(3), pages 178-192, March.
    4. Neu, D. & Warsame, H. & Pedwell, K., 1998. "Managing public impressions: environmental disclosures in annual reports," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 23(3), pages 265-282, April.
    5. Aerts, Walter & Cormier, Denis & Magnan, Michel, 2008. "Corporate environmental disclosure, financial markets and the media: An international perspective," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 64(3), pages 643-659, January.
    6. Ali Fekrat, M. & Inclan, Carla & Petroni, David, 1996. "Corporate environmental disclosures: Competitive disclosure hypothesis using 1991 annual report data," The International Journal of Accounting, Elsevier, vol. 31(2), pages 175-195.
    7. Tony McMurtrie, 2005. "Factors influencing the publication of social performance information: an Australian case study," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 12(3), pages 129-143, September.
    8. Denis Cormier & Michel Magnan, 2003. "Les Modes De Divulgation D'Informations Environnementales : Une Analyse Intersectorielles," Post-Print halshs-00582749, HAL.
    9. Salma Damak Ayadi, 2004. "Determinants of the corporate decision to disclose stakeholders' reports in France," Post-Print halshs-00154181, HAL.
    10. Cheng-Li Huang & Fan-Hua Kung, 2010. "Drivers of Environmental Disclosure and Stakeholder Expectation: Evidence from Taiwan," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 96(3), pages 435-451, October.
    11. Laura Girella & Paola Rossi & Stefano Zambon, 2019. "Exploring the firm and country determinants of the voluntary adoption of integrated reporting," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 28(7), pages 1323-1340, November.
    12. Luminita Enache & Antonio Parbonetti & Anup Srivastava, 2020. "Are all outside directors created equal with respect to firm disclosure policy?," Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting, Springer, vol. 55(2), pages 541-577, August.
    13. José Allouche & Patrice Laroche, 2005. "A Meta-analytical investigation of the relationship between corporate social and financial performance," Post-Print hal-00923906, HAL.
    14. Toms, Steven, 2008. "Asymmetric Response: Explaining Corporate Social Disclosure by Multi-National Firms in Environmentally Sensitive Industries," The York Management School Working Papers 42, The York Management School, University of York.
    15. Patten, Dennis M., 2005. "The accuracy of financial report projections of future environmental capital expenditures: a research note," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 30(5), pages 457-468, July.
    16. Charles H. Cho & Jonathan Maurice & Emmanuelle Nègre & Marie-Anne Verdier, 2016. "Is environmental disclosure good for the environment? A meta-analysis and research agenda," Post-Print halshs-01369422, HAL.
    17. Bruno Oxibar, 2005. "La Diffusion D'Information Societale : Outil De Mesure Et Determinants. Une Comparaison Multisupports," Post-Print halshs-00581258, HAL.
    18. Daniel, Kent & Hirshleifer, David & Teoh, Siew Hong, 2002. "Investor psychology in capital markets: evidence and policy implications," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 49(1), pages 139-209, January.
    19. Renato Camodeca & Alex Almici & Umberto Sagliaschi, 2018. "Sustainability Disclosure in Integrated Reporting: Does It Matter to Investors? A Cheap Talk Approach," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(12), pages 1-34, November.
    20. Beck, A. Cornelia & Campbell, David & Shrives, Philip J., 2010. "Content analysis in environmental reporting research: Enrichment and rehearsal of the method in a British–German context," The British Accounting Review, Elsevier, vol. 42(3), pages 207-222.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bla:bstrat:v:10:y:2001:i:1:p:29-37. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/10.1002/(ISSN)1099-0836 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.