IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/bstrat/v28y2019i6p1072-1082.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Sustainable development carbon pricing initiative and voluntary environmental disclosures quality

Author

Listed:
  • Sohanur Rahman
  • Tehmina Khan
  • Pavithra Siriwardhane

Abstract

Although corporate environmental disclosures have been researched extensively, empirical evidence regarding the indirect impact of carbon pricing on firms' voluntary disclosures is scarce. The objective of this study is to identify the indirect impact of carbon pricing initiatives on the voluntary environmental disclosures (VEDs) of electricity generating companies, analyzed through the lens of institutional theory. This study adds to the growing literature on the determinants of VED, investigating the impact of adoption of the Global Reporting Initiative and ISO 14001 on VED. Secondary data were collected from 2015 annual reports and/or standalone sustainability reports of electricity generating companies from 53 countries around the world. Content analysis approach was adopted for measuring the extent of the quality of VED. Findings of multiple regression analysis suggest that there is an indirect institutional impact of carbon pricing on the quality of VED. This study also finds that, as the form of nongovernment guidance, the Global Reporting Initiative adoption and ISO 14001 certification also have an institutional influence on the VED. VED is also affected by company size although this study reveals no significant relationship of leverage with VED.

Suggested Citation

  • Sohanur Rahman & Tehmina Khan & Pavithra Siriwardhane, 2019. "Sustainable development carbon pricing initiative and voluntary environmental disclosures quality," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 28(6), pages 1072-1082, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:bstrat:v:28:y:2019:i:6:p:1072-1082
    DOI: 10.1002/bse.2302
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1002/bse.2302
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1002/bse.2302?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. Kittiya Yongvanich & James Guthrie, 2006. "An extended performance reporting framework for social and environmental accounting," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 15(5), pages 309-321, September.
    2. Tehmina Khan, 2017. "The initiation of environmental auditing in the United States," Managerial Auditing Journal, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 32(8), pages 810-826, September.
    3. Ball, Amanda & Craig, Russell, 2010. "Using neo-institutionalism to advance social and environmental accounting," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 21(4), pages 283-293.
    4. Qiu, Yan & Shaukat, Amama & Tharyan, Rajesh, 2016. "Environmental and social disclosures: Link with corporate financial performance," The British Accounting Review, Elsevier, vol. 48(1), pages 102-116.
    5. S. Zeng & X. Xu & H. Yin & C. Tam, 2012. "Factors that Drive Chinese Listed Companies in Voluntary Disclosure of Environmental Information," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 109(3), pages 309-321, September.
    6. Matthew Potoski & Aseem Prakash, 2005. "Covenants with weak swords: ISO 14001 and facilities' environmental performance," Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 24(4), pages 745-769.
    7. Fredrik Burström von Malmborg, 2002. "Environmental management systems, communicative action and organizational learning," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 11(5), pages 312-323, September.
    8. Elizabeth Stanny & Kirsten Ely, 2008. "Corporate environmental disclosures about the effects of climate change," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 15(6), pages 338-348, November.
    9. Rob Gray & Mohammed Javad & David M. Power & C. Donald Sinclair, 2001. "Social and Environmental Disclosure and Corporate Characteristics: A Research Note and Extension," Journal of Business Finance & Accounting, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 28(3-4), pages 327-356.
    10. Shanyong Wang & Jun Li & Dingtao Zhao, 2018. "Institutional Pressures and Environmental Management Practices: The Moderating Effects of Environmental Commitment and Resource Availability," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 27(1), pages 52-69, January.
    11. Ans Kolk & David Levy & Jonatan Pinkse, 2008. "Corporate Responses in an Emerging Climate Regime: The Institutionalization and Commensuration of Carbon Disclosure," European Accounting Review, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 17(4), pages 719-745.
    12. Rob Gray & Mohammed Javad & David M. Power & C. Donald Sinclair, 2001. "Social and Environmental Disclosure and Corporate Characteristics: A Research Note and Extension," Journal of Business Finance & Accounting, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 28(3‐4), pages 327-356, April.
    13. Hannu Schadewitz & Mikael Niskala, 2010. "Communication via responsibility reporting and its effect on firm value in Finland," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 17(2), pages 96-106, March.
    14. Sven Horak & Bindu Arya & Kiran M Ismail, 2018. "Organizational Sustainability Determinants in Different Cultural Settings: A Conceptual Framework," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 27(4), pages 528-546, May.
    15. Luis Perez-Batres & Van Miller & Michael Pisani, 2010. "CSR, Sustainability and the Meaning of Global Reporting for Latin American Corporations," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 91(2), pages 193-209, February.
    16. Renzo Junior & Peter Best & Julie Cotter, 2014. "Sustainability Reporting and Assurance: A Historical Analysis on a World-Wide Phenomenon," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 120(1), pages 1-11, March.
    17. Azlan Amran & Vinod Periasamy & Abdul Hadi Zulkafli, 2014. "Determinants of Climate Change Disclosure by Developed and Emerging Countries in Asia Pacific," Sustainable Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 22(3), pages 188-204, May.
    18. Martin Freedman & Jin Dong Park, 2014. "Mandated Climate Change Disclosures by Firms Participating in the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative," Social and Environmental Accountability Journal, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 34(1), pages 29-44, April.
    19. Isabel Gallego‐Alvarez & Eduardo Ortas & José Luis Vicente‐Villardón & Igor Álvarez Etxeberria, 2017. "Institutional Constraints, Stakeholder Pressure and Corporate Environmental Reporting Policies," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 26(6), pages 807-825, September.
    20. Patrycja Hąbek & Radosław Wolniak, 2016. "Assessing the quality of corporate social responsibility reports: the case of reporting practices in selected European Union member states," Quality & Quantity: International Journal of Methodology, Springer, vol. 50(1), pages 399-420, January.
    21. Abbott, Kenneth W. & Snidal, Duncan, 2000. "Hard and Soft Law in International Governance," International Organization, Cambridge University Press, vol. 54(3), pages 421-456, July.
    22. Bakhtiar Alrazi & Charl de Villiers & Chris J. Van Staden, 2016. "The environmental disclosures of the electricity generation industry: a global perspective," Accounting and Business Research, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 46(6), pages 665-701, September.
    23. Hrasky, Sue, 2012. "Visual disclosure strategies adopted by more and less sustainability-driven companies," Accounting forum, Elsevier, vol. 36(3), pages 154-165.
    24. Freedman, Martin & Jaggi, Bikki, 2005. "Global warming, commitment to the Kyoto protocol, and accounting disclosures by the largest global public firms from polluting industries," The International Journal of Accounting, Elsevier, vol. 40(3), pages 215-232.
    25. de Aguiar, Thereza Raquel Sales & Bebbington, Jan, 2014. "Disclosure on climate change: Analysing the UK ETS effects," Accounting forum, Elsevier, vol. 38(4), pages 227-240.
    26. R. Scott Marshall & Darrell Brown, 2003. "Corporate environmental reporting: what's in a metric?," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 12(2), pages 87-106, March.
    27. Duff, Angus, 2016. "Corporate social responsibility reporting in professional accounting firms," The British Accounting Review, Elsevier, vol. 48(1), pages 74-86.
    28. Haitao Yin & Peter J. Schmeidler, 2009. "Why do standardized ISO 14001 environmental management systems lead to heterogeneous environmental outcomes?," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 18(7), pages 469-486, November.
    29. Michaela Rankin & Carolyn Windsor & Dina Wahyuni, 2011. "An investigation of voluntary corporate greenhouse gas emissions reporting in a market governance system," Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 24(8), pages 1037-1070, October.
    30. Giacomo Manetti, 2011. "The quality of stakeholder engagement in sustainability reporting: empirical evidence and critical points," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 18(2), pages 110-122, March.
    31. Stephen Tsang & Richard Welford & Michelle Brown, 2009. "Reporting on community investment," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 16(3), pages 123-136, May.
    32. Thereza Raquel Sales de Aguiar & Jan Bebbington, 2014. "Disclosure on climate change: Analysing the UK ETS effects," Accounting Forum, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 38(4), pages 227-240, December.
    33. José M. Moneva & Pablo Archel & Carmen Correa, 2006. "GRI and the camouflaging of corporate unsustainability," Accounting Forum, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 30(2), pages 121-137, June.
    34. Roberts, Robin W., 1992. "Determinants of corporate social responsibility disclosure: An application of stakeholder theory," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 17(6), pages 595-612, August.
    35. Denis Cormier & Michel Magnan, 2015. "The Economic Relevance of Environmental Disclosure and its Impact on Corporate Legitimacy: An Empirical Investigation," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 24(6), pages 431-450, September.
    36. Jan Bebbington & Carlos Larrinaga-Gonzalez, 2008. "Carbon Trading: Accounting and Reporting Issues," European Accounting Review, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 17(4), pages 697-717.
    37. Clyde Geoffrey Mitchell & Trevor Hill, 2009. "Corporate social and environmental reporting and the impact of internal environmental policy in South Africa," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 16(1), pages 48-60, January.
    38. Stacey Cowan & Craig Deegan, 2011. "Corporate disclosure reactions to Australia’s first national emission reporting scheme," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 51(2), pages 409-436, June.
    39. Simon Cadez & Albert Czerny & Peter Letmathe, 2019. "Stakeholder pressures and corporate climate change mitigation strategies," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 28(1), pages 1-14, January.
    40. Breeda Comyns, 2016. "Determinants of GHG Reporting: An Analysis of Global Oil and Gas Companies," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 136(2), pages 349-369, June.
    41. Kim, Eun-Hee & Lyon, Thomas P., 2011. "Strategic environmental disclosure: Evidence from the DOE's voluntary greenhouse gas registry," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 61(3), pages 311-326, May.
    42. Jose‐Manuel Prado‐Lorenzo & Isabel Gallego‐Alvarez & Isabel M. Garcia‐Sanchez, 2009. "Stakeholder engagement and corporate social responsibility reporting: the ownership structure effect," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 16(2), pages 94-107, March.
    43. Ali M Gerged & Christopher J Cowton & Eshani S Beddewela, 2018. "Towards Sustainable Development in the Arab Middle East and North Africa Region: A Longitudinal Analysis of Environmental Disclosure in Corporate Annual Reports," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 27(4), pages 572-587, May.
    44. Benjamin Neville & Bulent Menguc, 2006. "Stakeholder Multiplicity: Toward an Understanding of the Interactions between Stakeholders," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 66(4), pages 377-391, July.
    45. Clarkson, Peter M. & Li, Yue & Richardson, Gordon D. & Vasvari, Florin P., 2008. "Revisiting the relation between environmental performance and environmental disclosure: An empirical analysis," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 33(4-5), pages 303-327.
    46. Chen, Lujie & Feldmann, Andreas & Tang, Ou, 2015. "The relationship between disclosures of corporate social performance and financial performance: Evidences from GRI reports in manufacturing industry," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 170(PB), pages 445-456.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Md. Abdul Kaium Masud & Md. Harun Ur Rashid & Tehmina Khan & Seong Mi Bae & Jong Dae Kim, 2019. "Organizational Strategy and Corporate Social Responsibility: The Mediating Effect of Triple Bottom Line," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 16(22), pages 1-18, November.
    2. Sun Ae Kim & Jong Dae Kim, 2022. "Voluntary Carbon Disclosure (VCD) Strategy under the Korean ETS: With the Interaction among Carbon Performance, Foreign Sales Ratio and Media Visibility," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(18), pages 1-19, September.
    3. Nusirat Ojuolape Gold & Fauziah Md. Taib & Yaxin Ma, 2022. "Firm-Level Attributes, Industry-Specific Factors, Stakeholder Pressure, and Country-Level Attributes: Global Evidence of What Inspires Corporate Sustainability Practices and Performance," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(20), pages 1-28, October.
    4. Ayman Hassan Bazhair & Saleh F. A. Khatib & Hamzeh Al Amosh, 2022. "Taking Stock of Carbon Disclosure Research While Looking to the Future: A Systematic Literature Review," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(20), pages 1-24, October.
    5. Mumtaheena Anwar & Sohanur Rahman & Md. Nurul Kabir, 2021. "Does national carbon pricing policy affect voluntary environmental disclosures? A global evidence," Environmental Economics and Policy Studies, Springer;Society for Environmental Economics and Policy Studies - SEEPS, vol. 23(2), pages 211-244, April.
    6. Syeda Humayra Abedin & Silima Subha & Mumtaheena Anwar & Md. Nurul Kabir & Yasean A. Tahat & Mohammed Hossain, 2023. "Environmental Performance and Corporate Governance: Evidence from Japan," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(4), pages 1-20, February.
    7. Zhen Li & Shenglan Li & Zhuoyu Huo & Yuxia Liu & Hua Zhang, 2023. "Does CSR Information Disclosure Improve Investment Efficiency? The Moderating Role of Analyst Attention," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(16), pages 1-17, August.

    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. Rong He & Le Luo & Abul Shamsuddin & Qingliang Tang, 2022. "Corporate carbon accounting: a literature review of carbon accounting research from the Kyoto Protocol to the Paris Agreement," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 62(1), pages 261-298, March.
    2. Mumtaheena Anwar & Sohanur Rahman & Md. Nurul Kabir, 2021. "Does national carbon pricing policy affect voluntary environmental disclosures? A global evidence," Environmental Economics and Policy Studies, Springer;Society for Environmental Economics and Policy Studies - SEEPS, vol. 23(2), pages 211-244, April.
    3. Faisal Faisal & Erika Dwi Andiningtyas & Tarmizi Achmad & Haryanto Haryanto & Wahyu Meiranto, 2018. "The content and determinants of greenhouse gas emission disclosure: Evidence from Indonesian companies," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 25(6), pages 1397-1406, November.
    4. Ge Wang & Huijin Zhang & Saixing Zeng & Xiaohua Meng & Han Lin, 2023. "Reporting on sustainable development: Configurational effects of top management team and corporate characteristics on environmental information disclosure," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 30(1), pages 28-52, January.
    5. Daniel Kouloukoui & Ângelo Marcio Oliveira Sant'Anna & Sônia Maria da Silva Gomes & Marcia Mara de Oliveira Marinho & Pieter de Jong & Asher Kiperstok & Ednildo Andrade Torres, 2019. "Factors influencing the level of environmental disclosures in sustainability reports: Case of climate risk disclosure by Brazilian companies," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 26(4), pages 791-804, July.
    6. Parvez Mia & Tarek Rana & Lutfa Tilat Ferdous, 2021. "Government Reform, Regulatory Change and Carbon Disclosure: Evidence from Australia," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(23), pages 1-17, November.
    7. Emerald Edem Welbeck & Godfred Matthew Yaw Owusu & Rita Amoah Bekoe & John Amoah Kusi, 2017. "Determinants of environmental disclosures of listed firms in Ghana," International Journal of Corporate Social Responsibility, Springer, vol. 2(1), pages 1-12, December.
    8. Xiaohua Meng & Saixing Zeng & Xuemei Xie & Hailiang Zou, 2019. "Beyond symbolic and substantive: Strategic disclosure of corporate environmental information in China," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 28(2), pages 403-417, February.
    9. Yang Stephanie Liu & Xiaoyan Zhou & Jessica Yang & Andreas Hoepner, 2016. "Corporate Carbon Emission and Financial Performance: Does Carbon Disclosure Mediate the Relationship in the UK?," ICMA Centre Discussion Papers in Finance icma-dp2016-03, Henley Business School, University of Reading.
    10. Abeer Hassan & Essam Ibrahim, 2012. "Corporate Environmental Information Disclosure: Factors Influencing Companies' Success in Attaining Environmental Awards," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 19(1), pages 32-46, January.
    11. Sónia Maria da Silva Monteiro & Beatriz Aibar‐Guzmán, 2010. "Determinants of environmental disclosure in the annual reports of large companies operating in Portugal," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 17(4), pages 185-204, July.
    12. Sun Ae Kim & Jong Dae Kim, 2022. "Voluntary Carbon Disclosure (VCD) Strategy under the Korean ETS: With the Interaction among Carbon Performance, Foreign Sales Ratio and Media Visibility," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(18), pages 1-19, September.
    13. Eduardo Ortas & Isabel Gallego‐Alvarez & Igor Álvarez Etxeberria, 2015. "Financial Factors Influencing the Quality of Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management Disclosure: A Quantile Regression Approach," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 22(6), pages 362-380, November.
    14. Bikki Jaggi & Alessandra Allini & Riccardo Macchioni & Annamaria Zampella, 2018. "Do investors find carbon information useful? Evidence from Italian firms," Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting, Springer, vol. 50(4), pages 1031-1056, May.
    15. Mitzi Cubilla‐Montilla & Ana‐Belén Nieto‐Librero & Ma Purificación Galindo‐Villardón & Ma Purificación Vicente Galindo & Isabel‐María Garcia‐Sanchez, 2019. "Are cultural values sufficient to improve stakeholder engagement human and labour rights issues?," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 26(4), pages 938-955, July.
    16. Ismail N.B. & Sébastien Alcouffe & Galy N & Ceulemans K, 2020. "The impact of international sustainability initiatives on Life Cycle Assessment voluntary disclosures: The case of France’s CAC40 listed companies," Post-Print hal-03082800, HAL.
    17. Concetta Carnevale & Maria Mazzuca & Sergio Venturini, 2012. "Corporate Social Reporting in European Banks: The Effects on a Firm's Market Value," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 19(3), pages 159-177, May.
    18. Halil Emre Akbaş & Seda Canikli, 2018. "Determinants of Voluntary Greenhouse Gas Emission Disclosure: An Empirical Investigation on Turkish Firms," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(1), pages 1-24, December.
    19. Fan, Hanlu & Tang, Qingliang & Pan, Lipeng, 2021. "An international study of carbon information asymmetry and independent carbon assurance," The British Accounting Review, Elsevier, vol. 53(1).
    20. Cao, Feng & Peng, Songlan (Stella) & Ye, Kangtao, 2019. "Multiple large shareholders and corporate social responsibility reporting," Emerging Markets Review, Elsevier, vol. 38(C), pages 287-309.

    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:28:y:2019:i:6:p:1072-1082. 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.