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Corporate Environmental Reporting and News Coverage of Environmental Issues: an Agenda‐Setting Perspective

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  • Irene Pollach

Abstract

Departing from agenda‐setting theory, this paper explores whether environmental content in newspapers is related to corporate environmental agendas presented in corporate environmental reports and annual reports. Based on a sample of 1668 corporate reports published between 1997 and 2008, this paper compares corporate reporting against environmental news content over the same period with time lags of one and two years as well as without time lags. The results suggest that the media agenda and the corporate environmental agenda mirror each other. The results further suggest that, for some issues, there may be an impact of the news media agenda on corporate environmental agendas, but not vice versa. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment.

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  • Irene Pollach, 2014. "Corporate Environmental Reporting and News Coverage of Environmental Issues: an Agenda‐Setting Perspective," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 23(5), pages 349-360, July.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:bstrat:v:23:y:2014:i:5:p:349-360
    DOI: 10.1002/bse.1792
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    Cited by:

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    2. Die Wu & Shuzhen Zhu & Aftab Ahmed Memon & Hafeezullah Memon, 2020. "Financial Attributes, Environmental Performance, and Environmental Disclosure in China," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(23), pages 1-14, November.
    3. Huixiang Zeng & Tao Zhang & Zhifang Zhou & Yang Zhao & Xiaohong Chen, 2020. "Water disclosure and firm risk: Empirical evidence from highly water‐sensitive industries in China," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 29(1), pages 17-38, January.
    4. Swarnalakshmi Umamaheswaran & Vandita Dar & Jagadish Thaker, 2022. "The Evolution of Climate Change Reporting in Business Media: Longitudinal Analysis of a Business Newspaper," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(22), pages 1-21, November.
    5. Irene Pollach, 2015. "Strategic corporate social responsibility: the struggle for legitimacy and reputation," International Journal of Business Governance and Ethics, Inderscience Enterprises Ltd, vol. 10(1), pages 57-75.

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