IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/wly/accper/v17y2018i2p275-305.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Environmental and Social Matters in Mandatory Corporate Reporting: An Academic Note

Author

Listed:
  • Thomas Schneider
  • Giovanna Michelon
  • Mari Paananen

Abstract

This note provides an overview of mandatory corporate reporting for environmental and social matters in Canada, the United States and the EU. When researchers and educators consider reporting on these matters, they often look to voluntary corporate reporting. However, we argue that a lot of related information exists in companies’ mandatory reports, either in the disclosures dictated by securities regulators, or via other required channels. Our objective is threefold. First, to describe what currently exists regarding mandatory reporting on environmental and social matters (to inform). Second, to discuss several of the current ongoing debates regarding such reporting (to encourage discourse). Third, to encourage research into the mandatory reporting of environmental and social matters. Questions environnementales et sociales dans l'information obligatoire communiquée par l'entreprise : un bref essai Résumé Les auteurs proposent un survol de la communication par les entreprises d'information obligatoire relative aux questions environnementales et sociales au Canada, aux États‐Unis et dans les pays de l'UE. Les chercheurs et les formateurs qui s'intéressent à la communication d'information sur ces sujets se concentrent souvent sur l'information facultative communiquée par les entreprises. Or, de l'avis des auteurs, les déclarations obligatoires des sociétés contiennent bon nombre de renseignements apparentés, soit dans les informations qu'exigent les autorités de réglementation des valeurs mobilières soit dans d'autres informations dont la communication leur est imposée. Les auteurs poursuivent un triple objectif : premièrement, décrire en quoi consiste actuellement l'information obligatoire relative aux questions environnementales et sociales (dans le but d'informer) ; deuxièmement, analyser plusieurs des débats dont fait actuellement l'objet la communication de cette information (afin de favoriser les échanges de vues) ; troisièmement, stimuler la recherche dans le domaine de l'information obligatoire relative aux questions environnementales et sociales.

Suggested Citation

  • Thomas Schneider & Giovanna Michelon & Mari Paananen, 2018. "Environmental and Social Matters in Mandatory Corporate Reporting: An Academic Note," Accounting Perspectives, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 17(2), pages 275-305, June.
  • Handle: RePEc:wly:accper:v:17:y:2018:i:2:p:275-305
    DOI: 10.1111/1911-3838.12173
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/1911-3838.12173
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/1911-3838.12173?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. O'Dwyer, Brendan & Owen, David L., 2005. "Assurance statement practice in environmental, social and sustainability reporting: a critical evaluation," The British Accounting Review, Elsevier, vol. 37(2), pages 205-229.
    2. Barbu, Elena M. & Dumontier, Pascal & Feleagă, Niculae & Feleagă, Liliana, 2014. "Mandatory Environmental Disclosures by Companies Complying with IASs/IFRSs: The Cases of France, Germany, and the UK," The International Journal of Accounting, Elsevier, vol. 49(2), pages 231-247.
    3. Mia Kaspersen & Thomas Riise Johansen, 2016. "Changing Social and Environmental Reporting Systems," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 135(4), pages 731-749, June.
    4. Hannes Hofmann & Martin C. Schleper & Constantin Blome, 2018. "Conflict Minerals and Supply Chain Due Diligence: An Exploratory Study of Multi-tier Supply Chains," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 147(1), pages 115-141, January.
    5. Campbell, Katherine & Sefcik, Stephan E. & Soderstrom, Naomi S., 1998. "Site uncertainty, allocation uncertainty, and superfund liability valuation," Journal of Accounting and Public Policy, Elsevier, vol. 17(4-5), pages 331-366.
    6. Thomas E. Schneider, 2011. "Is Environmental Performance a Determinant of Bond Pricing? Evidence from the U.S. Pulp and Paper and Chemical Industries," Contemporary Accounting Research, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 28(5), pages 1537-1561, December.
    7. Matthew Wegener & Réal Labelle, 2017. "Value Relevance of Environmental Provisions Pre‐ and Post‐IFRS," Accounting Perspectives, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 16(3), pages 139-168, September.
    8. 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.
    9. Thomas Schneider & Giovanna Michelon & Michael Maier, 2017. "Environmental liabilities and diversity in practice under international financial reporting standards," Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 30(2), pages 378-403, February.
    10. Christensen, Hans B. & Floyd, Eric & Liu, Lisa Yao & Maffett, Mark, 2017. "The real effects of mandated information on social responsibility in financial reports: Evidence from mine-safety records," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 64(2), pages 284-304.
    11. Islam, Muhammad Azizul & van Staden, Chris J., 2018. "Social movement NGOs and the comprehensiveness of conflict mineral disclosures: evidence from global companies," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 65(C), pages 1-19.
    12. Barth, Me & Mcnichols, Mf, 1994. "Estimation And Market Valuation Of Environmental Liabilities Relating To Superfund Sites," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 32, pages 177-209.
    13. Derek Johnston & Steve Rock, 2005. "Earnings Management to Minimize Superfund Clean†up and Transaction Costs," Contemporary Accounting Research, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 22(3), pages 617-642, September.
    14. Elena Barbu & Pascal Dumontier & Liliana Feleagă & Niculae Feleagă, 2014. "Mandatory environmental disclosures by companies complying with IASs/IFRSs. The cases of France, Germany and UK," Post-Print halshs-01319288, HAL.
    15. E. Barbu & P. Dumontier & Niculae Feleagă & Liliana Feleagă, 2014. "Mandatory Environmental Disclosures by Companies Complying with IASs/IFRSs: The Cases of France, Germany, and the UK," Post-Print halshs-01025802, HAL.
    16. Giovanna Michelon & Saverio Bozzolan & Sergio Beretta, 2015. "Board monitoring and internal control system disclosure in different regulatory environments," Journal of Applied Accounting Research, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 16(1), pages 138-164, May.
    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. Simona Fiandrino & Alberto Tonelli, 2021. "A Text-Mining Analysis on the Review of the Non-Financial Reporting Directive: Bringing Value Creation for Stakeholders into Accounting," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(2), pages 1-18, January.

    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. Tsang, Albert & Frost, Tracie & Cao, Huijuan, 2023. "Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) disclosure: A literature review," The British Accounting Review, Elsevier, vol. 55(1).
    2. Florence Depoers & Tiphaine Jérôme, 2017. "Environmental expenditure disclosure strategies in a regulated context [Stratégies de publication des dépenses environnementales dans un cadre réglementaire]," Post-Print hal-01576195, HAL.
    3. Radhakrishnan, Suresh & Tsang, Albert & Liu, Rubing, 2018. "A Corporate Social Responsibility Framework for Accounting Research," The International Journal of Accounting, Elsevier, vol. 53(4), pages 274-294.
    4. Zhihua Cheng & Feng Wang & Christine Keung & Yongxiu Bai, 2017. "Will Corporate Political Connection Influence the Environmental Information Disclosure Level? Based on the Panel Data of A-Shares from Listed Companies in Shanghai Stock Market," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 143(1), pages 209-221, June.
    5. Jane Andrew & Max Baker, 2020. "Corporate Social Responsibility Reporting: The Last 40 Years and a Path to Sharing Future Insights," Abacus, Accounting Foundation, University of Sydney, vol. 56(1), pages 35-65, March.
    6. Patricia Milanés Montero & Esteban Pérez Calderón & Ana Isabel Lourenço Dias, 2020. "Transparency of Financial Reporting on Greenhouse Gas Emission Allowances: The Influence of Regulation," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(3), pages 1-25, January.
    7. Mădălina Dumitru & Justyna Dyduch & Raluca-Gina Gușe & Joanna Krasodomska, 2017. "Corporate Reporting Practices in Poland and Romania – An Ex-ante Study to the New Non-financial Reporting European Directive," Accounting in Europe, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 14(3), pages 279-304, September.
    8. Jonathan Maurice, 2019. "When environmental accounting choices are not only opportunistic: the case of environmental accounting provisions [Quand les choix comptables liés à l’environnement ne sont pas qu’opportunistes : c," Post-Print hal-02128271, HAL.
    9. Rohaida Abdul Latif & Nurul Huda Yahya & Kamarun Nisham Taufil Mohd & Hasnah Kamardin & Arifatul Husna Mohd Ariffin, 2020. "The Influence of Board Diversity on Environmental Disclosures and Sustainability Performance in Malaysia," International Journal of Energy Economics and Policy, Econjournals, vol. 10(5), pages 287-296.
    10. Mihaela Turturea, 2015. "Social and Environmental Reporting as a Part of the Integrated Reporting," Acta Universitatis Agriculturae et Silviculturae Mendelianae Brunensis, Mendel University Press, vol. 63(6), pages 2161-2170.
    11. 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.
    12. Ali Meftah Gerged, 2021. "Factors affecting corporate environmental disclosure in emerging markets: The role of corporate governance structures," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 30(1), pages 609-629, January.
    13. Viorel Avram & Daniela Artemisa Calu & Valentin Florentin Dumitru & Tatiana Danescu, 2019. "The Clarity of the Information Regarding the Bioeconomy: An Analysis of the Reports Published by the Organizations," The AMFITEATRU ECONOMIC journal, Academy of Economic Studies - Bucharest, Romania, vol. 21(50), pages 1-41, February.
    14. Ali Meftah Gerged & Eshani Beddewela & Christopher J. Cowton, 2021. "Is corporate environmental disclosure associated with firm value? A multicountry study of Gulf Cooperation Council firms," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 30(1), pages 185-203, January.
    15. Raphaela Helbig & Sven von Höveling & Andreas Solsbach & Jorge Marx Gómez, 2021. "Strategic analysis of providing corporate sustainability open data," Intelligent Systems in Accounting, Finance and Management, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 28(3), pages 195-214, July.
    16. Viorel Avram & Daniela Artemisa Calu & Valentin Florentin Dumitru & Mădălina Dumitru & Mariana Elena Glăvan & Gabriel Jinga, 2018. "The Institutionalization of the Consistency and Comparability Principle in the European Companies," Energies, MDPI, vol. 11(12), pages 1-24, December.
    17. Xiaofang Chen & P.R. Weerathunga & Mohammad Nurunnabi & K.M.M.C.B. Kulathunga & W.H.M.S. Samarathunga, 2020. "Influences of Behavioral Intention to Engage in Environmental Accounting Practices for Corporate Sustainability: Managerial Perspectives from a Developing Country," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(13), pages 1-30, June.
    18. Alina Almã?an & Cristina Circa & Mãdãlina Dumitru & Raluca Gina Gu?e & Drago? Marian Mangiuc, 2019. "Effects of Integrated Reporting on Corporate Disclosure Practices regarding the Capitals and Performance," The AMFITEATRU ECONOMIC journal, Academy of Economic Studies - Bucharest, Romania, vol. 21(52), pages 572-572, August.
    19. Samuel Akpovwre Eyenubo & Mudzamir Mohamed & Mohammad Ali, 2017. "An Empirical Analysis on the Financial Reporting Quality of the Quoted Firms in Nigeria: Does Audit Committee Size Matter?," International Journal of Academic Research in Business and Social Sciences, Human Resource Management Academic Research Society, International Journal of Academic Research in Business and Social Sciences, vol. 7(9), pages 50-63, September.
    20. Matthew Wegener & Réal Labelle, 2017. "Value Relevance of Environmental Provisions Pre‐ and Post‐IFRS," Accounting Perspectives, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 16(3), pages 139-168, September.

    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:wly:accper:v:17:y:2018:i:2:p:275-305. 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: https://doi.org/10.1111/(ISSN)1911-3838 .

    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.