Does adoption of ISO 56002-2019 and green innovation reporting enhance the firm sustainable development goal performance? An emerging paradigm

Reporting is a means of communication for companies to their respective stakeholders. The literature on non-financial reporting has mostly focused on operational, Carbon Discloser Project (CDP), and environmental disclosure to firm performance. This reporting and disclosure approach adopted by companies in their sustainability practices appears to be a normative approach. However, there has been a growing demand by stakeholders to incorporate proactive approach in business activities. To meet that, green innovation practices (GIPs) has been integrated as a new element in environmental reporting, thereby reflecting the proactiveness of companies in their adoption of green innovation reporting (GIR). The objective of this study is to advocate for greater disclosure on sustainability reporting by incorporating the GIPs of companies and substantial, sustainable development goal contribution, along with the moderation of the newly upgraded ISO 56002-2019 innovation management system. Adoption of green innovation reporting and ISO 56002-2019 will enhance the level of transparency of business activities and create greater stakeholder confidence along with enhancing the firm's sustainable development of goal performance. Furthermore, an extensive literature review was undertaken to create a GIR framework (i.e., product, process, service and technology) for firms to integrate GIPs into sustainability reporting. The conceptual model proposed the adoption of green innovation reporting and ISO 56002-2019 innovation management system to firm sustainable development goal. This needs to be injected into the sustainable reporting of companies to reflect their innovativeness, actual sustainable business practices and sustainable development goal performance for the firm.     

Integrating Environmental,Social and Governance (ESG) Disclosure for a Sustainable Development: An Australian Study

Addressing environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues has become a critical part of business strategy. This article explores the extent of ESG reporting of metal and mining sector companies listed in the Australian Securities Exchange to determine the nature of ESG indicators in use in the sector. The current study argues that stakeholder engagement is the key to enhance company environmental policy and sustainable development. According to the results of this study, ESG reporting motives are highly influenced by reporting regulations. Given the diversity in reporting of ESG, comparability of ESG strategic performance is problematic. This study contributes towards developing an ESG disclosure index, which companies could use as a legitimacy tool that external stakeholders could use to reliably measure and compare the ESG performance of companies. It also reveals there is an increased demand for more empirical research on integration of sustainability into strategic planning process. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment     

Corporate social and environmental disclosure as a sustainable development tool provided by board sub-committees: Do women directors play a relevant moderating role?

The aim of this research is to examine the impact of three audit committee characteristics on corporate social and environmental responsibility (CSR) disclosure: the existence of an audit committee, audit committee independence, and audit committee financial expertise. Moreover, this research analyzes the moderating effect of board gender diversity between these audit committees' attributes and CSR reporting. The results of analyzing 13,178 firm-year observations of non-financial companies show that the presence of an audit committee and audit committee financial expertise are positively associated with CSR disclosure. However, a higher proportion of non-executive directors in audit committees has a negative effect on the disclosure of CSR information. These findings suggest that some audit committees' features play an important role in ensuring the reporting of environmental, social, and economic information. Our evidence also indicates that the presence of female directors on boards increases the positive impact of financial expert membership of audit committees on CSR disclosure, while women directors moderate any negative effect of the percentage of independent directors on audit committees on CSR reporting by increasing the latter. In addition, female directors moderate the positive impact of the existence of an audit committee on the disclosure of CSR information by reducing the latter.     

The impact of direct environmental,social, and governance reporting: Empirical evidence in European-listed companies in the agri-food sector

Companies are continuously pressured for the dissemination of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) information, because of the constant debate on the issue of corporate sustainability, considered a critical and very important topic for society; despite this pressure, ESG's disclosure practices vary considerably from company to company, both in quantity and quality. The study aims to address the issue and verify the effectiveness of ESG reporting through the influence that the ESG disclosure has on profitability and value of listed European agri-food companies. The results obtained, studying a sample of 57 European-listed companies (EU28) in the agri-food sector observed in the period 2010–2018, show that the ESG disclosure practices of the companies impact corporate profitability; specifically, evidence is provided for the existence of a positive relationship between profitability and disclosure practices of strictly environmental and social information and a negative effect between company market value and disclosure practices relating to governance. These results suggest that greater transparency and accountability help to improve business profitability.     

Board structures,liberal countries,and developed market economies. Do they matter in environmental reporting? An international outlook

Previous empirical evidence has shown the effect of most corporate governance mechanisms on corporate social responsibility and environmental disclosure. However, there is scant empirical evidence that examines the influence of liberal countries, developed market economies, and board structures on environmental disclosure. Thus, this research aims to explore how liberal and developed countries and board structures affect environmental reporting. We hypothesise a linear and positive association between companies located in countries with liberal and developed market economies and environmental reporting. Moreover, we hypothesise that one‐tier board structures negatively affect environmental disclosure. Focusing on 13,100 companies domiciled in 39 different countries from 2005 to 2015, it is established that those companies located in liberal and developed economies are more likely to disclose environmental information, whereas one‐tier boards have a negative effect.     

Defining Eco‐efficiency: A Case Study on the Finnish Forest Industry

Environmental reporting is a tool of corporate environmental management that can also be used as research material. The aim of this paper is to produce a comprehensive definition of eco‐efficiency based on the literature and then compare it with definitions identified in the environmental reports published by selected companies. In addition, this paper presents a conceptual framework of the relationship between environmental and economic performance in the companies. Three Finnish companies in the forest industry are selected as case companies. This analysis reviews environmental reports published by the companies from 1998 to 2007. In short, eco‐efficiency can be seen either as an indicator of environmental performance, or as a business strategy for sustainable development. The case companies very seldom give an exact definition of eco‐efficiency in their environmental reports. However, different aspects of eco‐efficiency are often referred to. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment.     

上市公司环境会计信息披露对财务绩效影响分析

随着上市公司外部信息使用者越来越关注环境会计信息的披露,为了研究环境会计信息披露对企业经营业绩的影响,文中通过构建环境会计披露水平和财务绩效的回归模型进行实证分析,发现环境会计披露对企业资产负债率、主营业务增长率、公司规模和综合财务绩效均有显著影响。     

User needs in sustainability reporting: Perspectives of stakeholders in Ireland

Abstract

By means of a questionnaire survey, this paper ascertains and analyses the views of a number of Irish stakeholders regarding the adequacy and potential of corporate sustainability reporting to meet their information needs and help them hold corporations to account. The study focuses on ascertaining the views of a sample of Irish social and environmental non-governmental organisations (NGOs), who we argue constitute an important group of non-financial stakeholders. This emphasis on examining NGO perceptions represents an attempt to fill a gap in the academic sustainability reporting research literature whereby the views of non-managerial stakeholders are largely absent. The paper represents the second phase of a determined effort to examine the adequacy of sustainability reporting from the perspective of less economically powerful stakeholders in Ireland and responds specifically to O'Dwyer's (2002) call for research to examine the nature of stakeholder demand for sustainability reporting in Ireland in order to inform the future development of Irish sustainability reporting practices. The results present evidence of a widespread demand for mandated, externally verified sustainability reporting in either the annual report or a separate stand-alone report. This demand is primarily driven by a desire to gain knowledge of companies' commitment to responsible business practices but is also, albeit to a lesser extent, influenced by the perceived ability of sustainability reporting to facilitate increased NGO pressure on companies. Current sustainability reporting practice is viewed negatively with regard to its credibility and sufficiency, as well as the opportunities it provides for engagement with companies, particularly among environmental NGO respondents. While respondents tended to be suspicious of corporate motives for sustainability reporting, many were optimistic about the potential for NGO engagement with companies aimed at tackling social and environmental issues and improving current sustainability reporting practice. Drawing on the survey results, the paper makes some recommendations for future research aimed at improving sustainability reporting practices in Ireland and more broadly.     

How cultural dimensions,legal systems,and industry affect environmental reporting? Empirical evidence from an international perspective

Past research has paid little attention to the impact of stakeholder engagement, cultural, legal, and industrial contexts on environmental disclosure. Thus, the aim of this paper is to explore how these three institutional factors affect the reporting of environmental information by companies in different countries. This research draws on institutional theory: normative isomorphism, coercive isomorphism, and mimetic isomorphism. This study uses the generalised method of moments procedure. The findings show that the legal system and certain cultural dimensions such as individualism, uncertainty avoidance, long‐term orientation, and indulgence are determinants of voluntary disclosure of environmental information (individualism and indulgence—negatively; uncertainty avoidance and long‐term orientation—positively), particularly when companies belong to industries with high environmental risk.     

Does designing environmental sustainability disclosure quality measures make a difference?

Assessing the quality of information disclosed by companies is a complex task. Accounting studies usually rely on analysing the content of corporate reports using measures to obtain a proxy for the information reported by companies. However, there is no consensus about the best design for these measures. The objective of the current paper is to investigate if there are significant differences in the results generated from seven alternative measures for assessing the quality of FTSE100 environmental sustainability reporting. Seven measures/indices have been used to assess disclosure quality. The three unidimensional measures include two “quantity measures” and one “scope measure” that measure the volume and width/coverage of information, respectively. Three compound measures are adopted from the literature, and the final measure is a multidimensional quality model, based on the results of a questionnaire ascertaining the perceptions of 86 preparers and 177 users of annual report (AR) and/stand‐alone corporate responsibility report (CRR). Although the results of the empirical analysis indicate that the measures are significantly correlated, the choice of a specific method can result in the very different ranking of companies. The evidence presented indicates that the choice of measure is of key importance.     

Environmental strategy in the global banking industry within the varieties of capitalism approach: The moderating role of gender diversity and board members with specific skills

This research sets out to analyse environmental disclosure in the banking industry by considering the varieties of capitalism framework. This approach is concerned with the way companies interact strategically to resolve coordination issues arising from their operations, and it is supported by prior research. This is a fruitful perspective for exploring the association between country‐level factors and disclosure by firms, such as environmental reporting. This research is based on an international sample of countries operating in coordinated market economies (CMEs) and liberal market economies (LMEs). The results obtained show that financial institutions operating in CME countries are involved in more environmental matters than banks domiciled in LME countries. As regards the moderating variables, the evidence shows that women on the boards of banks in CME countries encourage the reporting of environmental information, as predicted. Nonetheless, and contrary to our expectations, members with specific skills on boards within CME cultures do not favour greater disclosure of environmental information compared with those on boards of banks operating in LME contexts.     

Environmental Management Systems and Local Community Perceptions: the Case of Petrochemical Complexes Located in Ports

Most oil refineries and factories producing basic chemical products are located in port areas, with the result that industrial complexes potentially have a strong environmental impact on their area of influence. These externalities result in a loss of welfare for citizens residing in neighbouring areas. In a context of sustainable development, companies must integrate concerns about the natural environment in their business strategy. External stakeholders, as residents, find it difficult to visualize the actions firms take to reduce their environmental impact, and the adoption of voluntary certified environmental management systems (EMSs) acts as a signal indicating the adequate environmental behaviour of these companies. These certifications enable companies to achieve the social legitimacy they need for long‐term survival and competitiveness. In the context of a petrochemical industrial complex located in the port of Castellón (Spain), this paper primarily discusses whether such certifications – which act as signals of firms’ desirable environmental conduct – translate into higher trust in firms and lower risk perception by residents. Contrary to what might be expected, despite the widespread use by companies of voluntary and certified EMSs, the research findings confirm a relatively high citizen perception of risk regarding the industrial complex and a low trust in companies. On the other hand, the findings also show a low trust in the public institutions responsible for authorizing and monitoring firms’ activities and for enforcing possible sanctions in non‐compliance cases. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment     

Environmental and Social Policy and Earning Persistence

In recent years, the effect of disclosure on environmental and social information has been the subject of much research in an Anglo‐Saxon context. The European field, and especially the French companies, have not been sufficiently discussed. In this paper, we investigate the relationship between social and environmental disclosure and earning persistence (as a proxy of earning quality). We use the content analysis method with annual reports as a measure of social and environmental disclosure; the empirical validation is applied to the companies listed in the SBF 250 French stock market index over the 2005–2010 period. To measure earning persistence we opt for a regression of a time‐series model on panel data. The findings show that French companies are characterized by a high level of social and environmental reporting; this situation may affect positively the quality of earnings such as more persistent earnings. This means that companies with a higher level of social and environmental commitment are more likely to take benefits and to communicate more persistent earnings and be desirable to investors. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment.     

Company Characteristics and Environmental Policy

This paper investigates the relationship between various firm characteristics and environmental disclosures. Our findings evidence that firms with higher environmental ratings present a statistically significant larger size, belong to more environmentally sensitive industries as compared with firms with lower environmental ratings and disclose environmental information according to GRI guidelines. However, neither profitability nor listing status seems to explain differences in environmental disclosure practices between Greek companies. The most influential variable for explaining firms' variation in environmental ratings is size, followed by GRI reporting and industry membership. This study adds to the international research on environmental disclosure by providing empirical data from a country, Greece, where empirical evidence is still relatively unknown, extending the scope of the current understanding of the environmental reporting practices. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment.     

Two decades of XBRL: a science mapping of research trends and future research agenda

eXtensible Business Reporting Language (XBRL) is a software standard of significant importance in the current shift in financial reporting. This new standard is representative of the dramatic developments in how financial information is presented and reported. Over the past 20 years (2000–2020), we have witnessed how information systems and technology advancement have continued to shape current practices in accounting, which has resulted in an increasing trend toward Internet reporting, and thus the XBRL adoption. This study investigates the current trends and various characteristics of worldwide research on XBRL using bibliometric analysis, subsequently presenting a plausible future research direction. The Scopus database was searched for articles indexed under the terms “XBRL*” or “Digital Financial Reporting*” or “Internet Financial Reporting*” or “Web financial reporting*”, which yielded a total of 661 documents from the years 2000–2020. We analysed a total of 621 documents as our final sample after excluding those not related to the interest of the study. Our analysis discovered six (6) main research clusters related to XBRL, which are financial reporting, development of XBRL, decision making, XBRL adoption, corporate governance and disclosure, and financial analytics. We also proposed a future research direction within XBRL-related research.

     

Benefits of Environmental Stewardship

Abstract

Environmental sensitivity has gained much attention in business organizations; however, there is little empirical evidence on the business benefits from environment oriented measures. Some of the many promised benefits from environmental sensitivity are categorized and rated. The framework proposed by the Management Institute for Environment and Business (MEB) is used to assess company environment stewardship. A pretested questionnaire was used to collect data from 66 business organizations in the United States and from 31 organizations in Pacific Rim nations. These organizations were known to have undertaken at least some “green business” activities. The results suggest that companies showing higher degrees of environment stewardship will derive greater business benefits than organizations which aim at minimum compliance with government regulations in this area. While, compared with American organizations, on the average the Pacific Rim companies show significantly less environmental stewardship and derive significantly less benefits from it, “their efforts in the area have also been rewarded.”     

The effects of environmental,social and governance disclosure on the cost of capital in small and medium enterprises: The role of family business status

Environmental, social, and governance (ESG) disclosure has become a critical component of corporate reporting. However, the effectiveness of this type of disclosure remains poorly explored among small and medium enterprises (SMEs), despite the fact that these businesses represent the majority of firms around the world. By leveraging on a dataset of Italian listed SMEs, we fill this gap to shed new light on the effects of nonfinancial disclosure on the cost of capital. The study reveals that, in stark contrast with the evidence on large companies, environmental disclosure for SMEs is bound to provoke an increase in the cost of capital. Yet this pattern is capsized when the company is a family SME, as it benefits from environmental disclosure, as large companies do.     

关于提高创业板上市公司信息披露质量的思考

深圳创业板已经成为许多高成长性和技术创新型中小企业发展的助推器。由于这些企业入市门槛相对于主板市场而言比较低,以及其治理结构不尽合理等,导致创业板上市公司信息披露质量偏低,从而影响了上市公司的信誉及创业板市场的进一步发展。《证券法》等相关法规的制定和完善,是提高创业板上市公司信息披露质量的基础。而强化证券交易所监管职能、优化上市公司治理结构、提高信息披露相关人员业务水平等,则是解决问题的关键。     

Environmental,Social and Governance Reporting in China

What is the current state of environmental, social and governance (ESG) reporting and what is the relation between ESG reporting and the financial performance of Chinese companies? This study analyses corporate ESG disclosure in China between 2005 and 2012 by analysing the members of the main indexes of the biggest Chinese stock exchanges. After discussing theories that explain the ESG performance of firms such as institutional theory, accountability and stakeholder theory we present uni‐ and multivariate statistical analyses of ESG reporting and its relation to environmental and financial performance. Our results suggest that ownership status and membership of certain stock exchanges influence the frequency of ESG disclosure. In turn, ESG reporting influences both environmental and financial performance. We conclude that the main driver for ESG disclosure is accountability and that Chinese corporations are catching up with respect to the frequency of ESG reporting as well as with respect to the quality. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment