Environmental Responsibility and Firm Performance: The Application of an Environmental,Social and Governance Model

This paper investigates the way in which environmental responsibility impacts on corporate financial performance, measured by return on equity (ROE) and return on assets (ROA). Using a sample of Korean firms covering the period 2011–2012, and employing two different test methods, namely the OLS and 2SLS methods, we show that the relationships between environmental responsibility performance and firms’ ROE and ROA are positive and statistically significant. However, we show that research and development (R&D) intensity (expenditure) does not affect either environmental responsibility or corporate financial performance. The results of this analysis encourage further empirical analysis of the industries, as well as the use of more than one estimation method to determine environmental responsibility and corporate financial performance within firms. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment     

Convergence in Environmental Reporting: Assessing the Carbon Disclosure Project

We perform content analysis on Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) responses from 2003 to 2010, focusing on the extent to which firms account for indirect emissions and have exhibited convergence in carbon reporting. We also examine standardization in reporting and the variation of reporting behavior across industry and country. We find that the CDP has produced a mixed record of improved transparency. In some areas, such as Scope 2 emissions, the CDP has demonstrated an increase in transparency in later years. However, the transparency and quality of direct emissions and Scope 3 emissions have not improved over time. Japanese and European Union firms have increased transparency, while American firms have decreased transparency. Energy‐intensive industries have either increased transparency or remained the same, while less energy‐intensive industries have become less transparent. We demonstrate some evidence of a learning effect among firms after participating in the CDP survey. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment.     

Enhancing the Credibility of Reporting on Corporate Social Responsibility in Europe

This paper studies variables that have an effect on the choice of whether or not reports on corporate social responsibility are assured and who is selected to provide assurance. Such assurance reports increase the credibility of environmental and social reporting. In a European sample we observe some differences from previous research. Overall, industry effects seem small, but size and media visibility have a significant impact on assuring CSR reports. It seems that companies differentiate less between auditors and consultants. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment     

Corporate performance patterns of Canadian listed firms: Balancing financial and corporate social responsibility outcomes

Based on stakeholder theory and considering the conflicting performance interests of a wide range of stakeholders, this research investigates corporate performance patterns using a cluster analysis of financial, social, and environmental performance dimensions. An analysis of a Canadian sample of 771 company-year observations for the period 2014–2018 reveals three types of corporate performance: financially focused performance, balanced performance, and corporate social responsibility (CSR)-focused performance. Firms in the largest cluster, financially focused performance, deliver poor sustainable performance and prioritize financial performance over social and environmental performance. The CSR-focused performance cluster scores low for financial performance and high for environmental and social performance. The balanced-performance cluster also has higher levels of sustainable performance but is the smallest cluster, accounting for a quarter of the sample. Overall, this study presents a portrait of corporate performance balancing financial and CSR objectives and the evolution of this activity over the research period.     

Conformance and Deviance: Company Responses to Institutional Pressures for Corporate Social Responsibility Reporting

This paper analyses how large Danish companies are responding to new governmental regulation which requires them to report on corporate social responsibility (CSR). The paper is based on an analysis of 142 company annual reports required by the new Danish regulation regarding CSR reporting, plus 10 interviews with first‐time reporting companies and six interviews with companies that failed to comply with the new law. It is concluded that coercive pressures from government have an impact on CSR reporting practices. Further, the analysis finds traces of mimetic isomorphism which inspires a homogenisation in CSR reporting practices. Finally, it is argued that non‐conformance with the new regulatory requirements is not solely about conscious resistance but may also be caused by, for example, lack of awareness, resource limitations, misinterpretations, and practical difficulties. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment.     

Corporate Responsibility Reporting and its Determinants in Comparative Perspective – a Review of the Empirical Literature and a Meta‐analysis

For four decades, reporting on corporate responsibility by businesses has been the subject of empirical research. In the 1970s and 1980s, studies mostly originated from Anglo‐Saxon and Western European countries. During the last two decades research on responsibility reporting was increasingly undertaken in emerging and developing countries as well – always following the reporting practices of the respective businesses. Consequentially, a very large number of studies exist today. Many of these have empirically investigated the determinants of responsibility reporting and examined whether internal factors like size and industry or external factors like stakeholder pressures have an impact on disclosure. Thus, the purpose of the following paper is twofold. First, it seeks to provide an overview of the existing literature in order to facilitate further research. Overall, 186 studies have been examined for the determinants which they considered and have been grouped according to their geographical origin. This provides for an analysis of whether academics from different regions have taken different approaches to the empirical examination of responsibility reporting and if their results differed. The findings show that scholars across regions have taken different paths in empirical research, but indications for a variation in the impact of specific determinants on reporting are weak. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment.     

我国上市公司社会责任信息披露的现状分析

文章首次对我国上市公司社会责任信息的披露现状进行了描述性研究。研究发现，公司社会责任信息披露表现不同的公司在规模和盈利能力上存在显著的差异，同时还发现，我国上市公司社会责任信息的披露在《上市公司治理准则》出台后有了明显的改善，但是在披露内容和披露方式上有很大的随意性和不一致性，尤其是在信息披露数量提高的同时，披露的质量并未有相应的提高。     

论我国财务会计报告

随着市场经济日益完善和知识经济时代的快速发展,现行的财务会计报告已不能满足经济发展的要求。文章针对现行财务会计报告反映的可靠性、相关性、软性资产、未来风险等方面的信息不够以及信息披露方式单一、内容缺乏及时性等问题,提出了改进现行财务会计报告的几点建议,对今后财务会计报告的改革和发展有一定的意义。     

Sustainability Targets in Executive Remuneration: Targets,Time Frame,Country and Sector Specification

Existing remuneration plans for CEOs still mainly focus on financial performance and do not necessarily promote sustainable value creation for their firms. By way of reaction to this, a growing number of academics and practitioners are acknowledging the need for the inclusion of sustainability targets in executive remuneration. This study examines the current status of the use of sustainability targets in executive remuneration specified by country, sector and targets. Based on a sample of 490 listed firms from 11 countries and different sectors, the use of targets related to sustainability in executive remuneration is assessed. The targets are specified by kind of target (short term and long term) and content of target (environmental, social or a combination of both). The results of this study show that (a) in 2010 on average 33% of the firms used sustainability targets in remuneration, (b) mainly the ‘dirty’ industries use targets, (c) the targets used are mainly short‐term targets and (d) they focus on social issues. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment     

Environmental performance,sustainability, governance and financial performance: Evidence from heavily polluting industries in China

This study seeks to contribute to the existing business strategy and the environment literature by examining the effect of governance structures on Chinese firms' environmental performance, and consequently ascertain the extent to which the financial performance–environmental performance nexus is moderated by governance mechanisms. Using a sample of Chinese companies from heavily polluting industries over a 5-year period, our baseline findings suggest that, on average, board size and governing board meetings are positively associated with Chinese firms' environmental performance, whilst board independence and gender diversity have positive, but insignificant association with firms' environmental performance. Our evidence suggests further that the examined internal governance mechanisms have a mixed moderating effect on the link between financial performance and environmental performance. Our findings have important implications for company executives, environmental activists, policy-makers, and regulators. Our results support insights drawn from agency, resource dependence, stakeholder, and legitimacy theories.     

Sustainability reporting in Norway – an assessment of performance in the context of legal demands and socio‐political drivers

This article explores the influence of societal, political and regulatory characteristics and developments on the quality of corporate sustainability disclosures in Norway. The paper presents an assessment both of mandatory reporting under the Norwegian Accounting Act, and of voluntary reporting in annual and separate non‐financial reports, by the 100 largest firms in Norway. Our results reveal that only 10% of the companies comply with the legal requirements on environmental reporting, while only half of the firms comply with the legal reporting provisions on working environment and gender equality. The vast majority of firms also report unsatisfactorily on non‐financial issues in the voluntary disclosures assessed. Analysing the causes of these results, we contend that the situation is characterized by (1) an apparent lack of political and social drivers for sustainability reporting in Norway and (2) an absence of sufficient monitoring and enforcement of the environmental reporting legislation on the part of Norwegian authorities. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment.     

Enhancing Corporate Environmental Performance Through Reporting and Roadmaps

Managing the carbon footprint of companies and addressing their respective decarbonization plans is a challenging endeavour. The aim of this study is to help companies better understand the issues around decarbonization and environmental performance by suggesting a holistic management process on which they could embark. This process comprises two crucial steps, which are (a) sustainability reporting and (b) low‐carbon roadmaps. These steps are covered and further developed based on a detailed study of the UK food retail sector. This sector is relevant due to its economic and environmental importance, but most importantly it has a significant record of available environmental reports in the public domain and a large potential to influence consumers, policy makers and multiple supply chains. Sustainability reporting is assessed by analysing environmental KPIs disclosed in corporate social responsibility (CSR) reports, and then these are compared against industry standards. This analysis highlights a general lack of consistency and transparency in CSR reporting of UK food retailers. Consequently, a low‐carbon roadmap based on relevant KPIs and on the ‘backcasting’ framework is presented as a case study in order to showcase how a hypothetical UK food retailer can employ a low‐carbon roadmap. The case study demonstrates that ambitious environmental targets are achievable if robust corporate action plans are followed. Furthermore, the case study indicates that capital might be misallocated in favour of highly visible environmental stores and on‐site energy generation technologies, whilst more could be done by applying energy efficiency measures that have the potential to deliver substantial carbon savings. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment.     

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     

关于我国企业实施社会责任会计的思考

社会责任会计的产生有其理论渊源,实施社会责任会计则是时代的呼唤,而我国现行社会责任会计及其信息披露方面还很不尽如人意。改革开放以来,我国经济迅速发展的同时,也面临着越来越严重的资源、就业、环境、社会分配不公等问题。而社会责任会计可以反映企业履行社会责任的相关信息,因此在我国企业中应要求全面实施社会责任会计。     

Institutional Constraints,Stakeholder Pressure and Corporate Environmental Reporting Policies

Within the theoretical framework of socio‐political economics, and more specifically of stakeholder theory, this work examines whether companies operating under different institutional constraints and stakeholder pressure tend to emphasize different models of corporate environmental reporting. Furthermore, the paper tests whether different corporate environmental reporting policies are driven by the countries' corporate governance systems. A sample of 3931 international companies was examined through a logistic biplot and conditional mean linear regression models. The main results reveal that companies follow two distinct environmental reporting approaches, which depend on specific stakeholders and institutional requirements. The first model, which is followed by firms within codified law countries, mostly focuses on water and emissions. The second approach, mainly followed by companies operating in common law countries, emphasizes materials and energy issues. This finding reveals that companies gradually modify their environmental strategies to make themselves more compatible with the characteristics of the social and institutional environment, which will result in several corporate benefits. The paper provides several outstanding implications for companies' strategic managers, national institutions and firms' stakeholders, especially for investors and customers. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment     

Explanatory Factors of Integrated Sustainability and Financial Reporting

The complexity of the business world has led to growing demands being made of companies regarding the information provided on their financial performance, corporate governance and contribution to developing sustainability. In response, some leading companies have begun to publish integrated reporting, in the form of a document providing a coherent summary of this information, thus facilitating stakeholder engagement. This paper examines the validity of the hypotheses of the theories of agency and of signalling, and analyses the political costs and those borne by owners in voluntarily developing this new type of business document. More specifically, in order to determine their prevalence among the suggested reasons for these paradigms, we analyse the effect of industry concentration, together with other factors, in the development of integrated reporting. The analysis of a non‐balanced sample of 1590 international companies for the years 2008–2010, in which a logistic regression methodology is applied to panel data, reveals the negative impact of industry concentration on the development of a more pluralist report, simultaneously taking into account stakeholders, sustainability and the long‐term viewpoint, as well as questions of responsible investment, business ethics and transparency. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment     

Relating Environmental,Social, and Governance scores and sustainability performances of firms: An empirical analysis

Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) scores can act as an indicator for sustainability performance of organizations. This paper explores an empirical evidence for the relationship binding ESG scores and sustainability performances of firms. We observe and evaluate the ESG performance scores of 1,820 firms globally for 5 years, from 2014 to 2018 on 10 major themes and over 400 different indicators, as listed by Thomson Reuters and is captured from the Bloomberg terminal data. We posit five hypotheses to check the relations binding ESG scores and the total sustainability performances of firms. A Partial Least Square (PLS) analysis and standard bootstrapping using Smart PLS 3.0 software is used to observe the results and to evidence the direct and moderating effects among latent variables contributing to sustainability performances. We observe a significant and negative moderating effect of ESG performances, independently over the all direct relations, considering their relationship to ESG performances. One of the major implications of this research is in the direction of assigning priorities while considering environmental‐, social‐, and governance‐related themes in the implementation of any strategies or policies into practice.     

Environmental,social and governance disclosure and default risk

We investigate whether environmental, social and governance (ESG) disclosure is related to default risk. Using a sample of US nonfinancial institutions from 2006 to 2017, we find that ESG disclosure is positively related to Merton's distance to default and is negatively related to the credit default swap spread, which suggests that firms with a higher ESG disclosure have lower default risk. Our analysis further indicates that the inverse effect of ESG disclosure on default risk is through increased profitability and reduced performance variability and cost of debt. We also document that the negative impact of ESG disclosure on default risk is existent only for mature and older firms. These results are important for all stakeholders of firms, including shareholders and bondholders to consider firm's ESG disclosure in conjunction with life cycle stage before making their investment decisions.     

Do Board's Corporate Social Responsibility Strategy and Orientation Influence Environmental Sustainability Disclosure? UK Evidence

The environmental implications of corporate economic activities have led to growing demands for firms and their boards to adopt sustainable strategies and to disseminate more useful information about their activities and impacts on environment. This paper investigates the impact of board's corporate social responsibility (CSR) strategy and orientation on the quantity and quality of environmental sustainability disclosure in UK listed firms. We find that effective board CSR strategy and CSR‐oriented directors have a positive and significant impact on the quality of environmental sustainability disclosure, but not on the quantity. Our findings also suggest that the existence of a CSR committee and issuance of a stand‐alone CSR report are positively and significantly related to environmental sustainability disclosure. When we distinguish between firms with high and low environmental risk, we find that the board CSR/sustainability practices that affect the quantity (quality) of environmental sustainability disclosure appear to be driven more by highly (lowly) environmentally sensitive firms. These results suggest that the board CSR/sustainability practices play an important role in ensuring a firm's legitimacy and accountability towards stakeholders. Our findings shed new light on this under‐researched area and could be of interest to companies, policy‐makers and other stakeholders. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment