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Symmetric Response: Explaining Corporate Social Disclosure by Multi-National Firms in Environmentally Sensitive Industries

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Toms, Steven

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Abstract

The paper examines the determinants of corporate social disclosure (CSD) using a sample drawn from environmentally sensitive industries. It extends the traditional literature in two respects. First, it is international in scope, examining the accounting disclosure responses of multi-national companies to the pressures implied by the nature and scope of their operations. Second, variables measuring political risk and social development are developed so that these pressures can be measured, thereby introducing new dimensions to the literature. In common with previous studies, financial risk, size and other control variables are included. The relationships are tested econometrically utilising regression techniques not previously applied in the CSD literature but nonetheless more generally appropriate when using count dependent variables. Our results suggest that managers feel an unequal sense of responsibility to different constituencies and their disclosure priorities are determined by stock market accountability, lobbying power of their domestic audience and the political risk of their activities rather than the impact of their activities in countries of operation.

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Paper provided by The York Management School, University of York in its series The York Management School Working Papers with number 42.

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Length: 28 pages
Date of creation: Jul 2008
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Handle: RePEc:wrc:ymswp1:42

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  1. Patten, Dennis M., 1991. "Exposure, legitimacy, and social disclosure," Journal of Accounting and Public Policy, Elsevier, vol. 10(4), pages 297-308. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  2. 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. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  3. 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. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  4. Patten, Dennis M., 1992. "Intra-industry environmental disclosures in response to the Alaskan oil spill: A note on legitimacy theory," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 17(5), pages 471-475, July. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  5. A Giner Inchausti, 1997. "The influence of company characteristics and accounting regulation on information disclosed by Spanish firms," European Accounting Review, Taylor and Francis Journals, vol. 6(1), pages 45-68, May. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  6. 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. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  7. Anita Jose & Shang-Mei Lee, 2007. "Environmental Reporting of Global Corporations: A Content Analysis based on Website Disclosures," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 72(4), pages 307-321, June. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  8. Charles Cho & Dennis Patten & Robin Roberts, 2006. "Corporate Political Strategy: An Examination of the Relation between Political Expenditures, Environmental Performance, and Environmental Disclosure," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 67(2), pages 139-154, August. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  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, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 28(3-4), pages 327-356. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  10. 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. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  11. Dierkes, Meinolf & Antal, Ariane Berthoin, 1985. "The usefulness and use of social reporting information," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 10(1), pages 29-34, January. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  12. Al-Tuwaijri, Sulaiman A. & Christensen, Theodore E. & Hughes, K. II, 2004. "The relations among environmental disclosure, environmental performance, and economic performance: a simultaneous equations approach," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 29(5-6), pages 447-471. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  13. 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. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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