Impacts of stakeholder pressure on water disclosure within Asian mining companies

This study investigates the role of stakeholder pressure on water disclosure that is examined through the lens of managerial stakeholder theory. After reviewing the literature, we find that government, media, and international stakeholders have a higher potential to stimulate corporate water disclosure. The authors use a sample comprising 263 listed Asian mining companies from 23 countries over three years from 2017 to 2019. The authors show that these stakeholder pressures are significantly associated with water disclosure practices in Asian mining. This finding indicates that more stringent environmental regulations result in higher levels of water disclosure. Companies tend to disclose water information when corporate exposure is high, as it can attract public attention. Our findings reveal that international stakeholders are why firms create water disclosure to maintain a license to operate internationally. Although all hypotheses have been supported, further analysis shows that media exposure is insignificant in Central Asia. International stakeholders are not the drivers of water disclosure in East, West, and Central Asia.