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Tone at the top: CEO environmental rhetoric and environmental performance |
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| Authors: | Yu Cong Martin Freedman Jin Dong Park |
| Institution: | 1. Department of Accounting and Finance, Graves School of Business and Management, Morgan State University, 1700 East Cold Spring Lane, Baltimore, MD 21251, United States;2. Department of Accounting, College of Business and Economics, Towson University, 8000 York Rd., Towson, MD 21252, United States |
| Abstract: | In this study we attempted to ascertain the environmental leadership and commitment of the CEO as evidence of “tone at the top” in the belief that this would lead to enhanced environmental performance. We measure “tone at the top” by the environmental disclosure score which is collected from a content analysis of CEO letters to shareholders. We adopt the two environmental performance measures: (1) Environmental Impact Score (EIS) from Newsweek Green Ranking and (2) Modeled Hazard Population Results (MHPR) based on Risk-Screening Environmental Indicator (RSEI) models built by EPA. The results indicate that the environmental disclosure score from the CEO letter is inversely correlated with environmental performance. The overall findings support legitimacy theory in that CEOs essentially “spin” firms' environmental performance so it looks better than it actually is. |
| Keywords: | Environmental disclosure Environmental performance CEO environmental rhetoric Corporate social responsibility |
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