Corporate Political Strategy: An Examination of the Relation between Political Expenditures, Environmental Performance, and Environmental Disclosure

Two fundamental business ethics issues that repeatedly surface in the academic literature relate to business’s role in the development of public policy [Suarez, S. L.: 2000, Does Business Learn? (The University of Michigan Press, Ann Arbor, MI); Roberts, R. W. and D. D. Bobek: 2004, Accounting, Organizations and Society 29(5–6), 565–590] and its role in responsibly managing the natural environment [Newton, L.: 2005, Business Ethics and the Natural Environment (Blackwell Publishing, Oxford)]. When studied together, researchers often examine if, and how, corporations influence environmental policy decisions. Drawing from literatures on?corporate political activity, corporate social and environmental performance, and corporate environmental disclosure, we develop and empirically examine two research questions concerning the relations between corporate political expenditures, environmental performance, and environmental disclosure. The questions are: (1) Do corporations that are poorer environmental performers spend more on political activities than their better-performing counterparts? (2) Is there an association between corporations’ spending on political activities and the extent of their financial report environmental disclosures? We investigated these questions through analyses of data we gathered on a sample consisting of 119 U.S. environmentally sensitive firms for the 2001–2002 election cycle. After controlling for firm size and specific industry effects, our tests reveal a significant, inverse relationship between firm environmental performance and political spending. This is consistent with the notion that U.S. firms with relatively poorer environmental performance records engage more intensely in corporate political activities as part of their overall strategic management of their relationship with the state. In addition, a significant and positive association between the amount of political spending and the extent of environmental disclosure suggests that environmental disclosure and political spending are both proactive, complementary tactics to strategically manage public policy pressure. If corporations’ strategies are intentionally designed to unreasonably limit their environmental responsibilities or to misrepresent firm environmental performance, then we argue that these activities reflect a significant lapse in ethical conduct.     

Factors that Drive Chinese Listed Companies in Voluntary Disclosure of Environmental Information

Based on the institutional theory, this article attempts to examine two consecutive questions regarding the impact of various factors on corporate decision in environmental information disclosure (EID): (1) whether or not to disclose; and (2) the level of disclosure. The relevance of these factors is empirically tested using data collected from publicly listed manufacturing companies from 2006 to 2008 in China. Some interesting findings appear. We find that firms that are state-owned, those that operate in environmentally sensitive industries, those having more industrial peers engaged in EID, and those with better reputation are more likely to disclose environmental information. When it comes to the content of EID, variables that attempt to capture external institutional pressures exhibit either no or weak explanatory power. Only the variable of organizational image and reputation is demonstrated to have a significant impact on both the act and the content of EID. This study provides a snapshot of the dialogues between constituencies in the organizational field and EID development.     

政治关联、环境信息披露与环境业绩——基于中国上市公司的经验证据

"紫金矿业"事件引发了众多媒体对政治关联环境效果的关注,一般认为政治关联是导致紫金矿业环境业绩持续低下与环境信息披露不足的主要原因之一。但此结论是否具有普遍性需要进行深入研究。通过使用上市公司研究样本,具体验证政治关联对环境业绩与环境信息披露的影响,结果表明,政治关联与环境业绩低下没有显著的关系,但对环境信息披露具有显著的负向影响。     

From Voluntarism to Regulation: A Study on Ownership, Economic Performance and Corporate Environmental Information Disclosure in China

This article examines whether economic performance could affect EID and how the relationship is determined by the form of ownership from voluntarism to regulation under the current Chinese context. In this study, our empirical results show that the relationship between firms’ performance and EID is complex and the interactive impact of ownership and economic performance on EID significantly varies from voluntary disclosure to mandatory disclosure. This study provides a more comprehensive understanding of the motivations in corporate EID. The performance–impression theory can be used to explain the disclosure behaviors during the period of voluntary disclosure, while the pressure–legitimacy theory can be used during the period of mandatory disclosure. The finding suggests that when evaluating corporate EID associated with economic performance in emerging economies such as China, it needs to be cautious, as which tends to vary with the form of ownership and whether there is any mandatory regulation in place.     

碳信息披露、透明度与管理绩效

碳会计及信息披露作为一项制度机制,成为应对气候风险和建设低碳经济的基础性步骤。由此,不同于以往研究更多关注会计信息透明度,本文以CDP对世界500强公司的调查数据为样本,实证分析碳信息披露的透明度及管理绩效,研究发现,企业披露碳信息的主动性和透明度日益提高,降低了信息环境的不确定性,有助于为投资者提供决策有用性信息。     

National Culture,Economic Development,Population Growth and Environmental Performance: The Mediating Role of Education

Literature on ethical behavior has paid little attention to the mechanism between macro-environmental variables and environmental performance. This study aims at constructing a model to examine the␣relationships which link cultural values, population growth, economic development, and environmental performance by incorporating the mediating role of education. The multiple linear regression model was employed to test the hypotheses on a 3-year-pooled sample of 51 countries. Empirical results conclude that national culture, economic development, and population growth would significantly influence environmental performance directly. In addition, through the mediating effect of education, population growth and national culture would significantly affect environmental performance indirectly. These findings provide theoretical and managerial implications for constructing the mechanism of cultural values and ethical behavior in general and environmental management in particular.     

Not Good,Not Bad: The Effect of Family Control on Environmental Performance Disclosure by Business Group Firms

In this study, we examine the influence of senior leadership on firms’ corporate social responsibility (CSR). We integrate upper echelons research that has investigated either the influence of the CEO or the top management team (TMT) on CSR. We contend that functional experience complementarity between CEOs and TMTs in formulating and implementing CSR strategy may underlie differentiated strategies in CSR. We find that when CEOs who have predominant experience in output functions are complemented by TMTs with a lower proportion of members who have experience in output functions, there is a pronounced effect on the community, product, and diversity dimensions of CSR. In turn, when output-oriented CEOs are complemented by output-oriented TMTs, we observe an effect on the employee relations dimension of CSR. Interestingly, we find no influence of CEO-TMT complementarity on the environment dimension of CSR. In general, our empirical results support the relevance of the interaction between CEOs and their TMTs in defining their firms’ CSR profile.     

市场化进程、环境信息披露与绿色信贷

本文基于中国资本市场的经验数据,并考虑了产权性质和市场化程度差异的影响,研究了我国商业银行贷款决策与环境信息披露的关系。结果发现,环保企业能获取更优惠的银行信贷,即绿色信贷是客观存在的,但其效果仅表现在环境信息披露不过度及市场化进程高的地区的情形下。上述研究发现对于构建和完善我国商业银行的绿色信贷机制建设,实现其可持续发展具有重要意义。     

机构投资者、信息披露质量与公司绩效

本文以深交所信息披露考评结果作为信息披露质量的替代变量,从信息披露的视角考察了机构投资者在我国上市公司的持股行为和治理效应,研究发现上市公司信息披露质量对机构投资者的持股决策具有正向影响,机构投资者的持股比例在信息披露质量较好的公司显著高于信息披露较差的公司,随着信息披露质量改善,机构投资者持股比例增加;机构投资者的治理作用因信息披露质量存在显著差异,随着信息披露质量提高,机构投资者对公司业绩的改善逐渐凸显出来,而在信息披露质量很差的公司其治理作用受到限制。换言之,机构投资者的治理作用受制于公司信息环境的影响,改善公司信息披露质量对促进机构投资者发挥其应有作用具有重要启示意义。     

上市公司盈利预测信息自愿披露悖论:提出与解读

本文提出了一个关于上市公司盈利预测信息自愿性披露的悖论。该悖论的发现和解读表明,上市公司自愿披露盈利预测信息对减少信息不对称、增加财务信息的有用性具有重要意义。同时,自愿披露盈利预测信息对改善与投资者关系、降低上市公司的融资成本有着正面效应。然而,披露成本的存在使得公司管理层不得不在自愿披露的收益与成本之间反复斟酌,并且盈利预测信息的供求结构、资本市场的竞争强度以及经理人市场发展水平等对上市公司披露盈利预测信息的意愿程度也会产生重要影响。     

地理位置、环境信息披露与股价同步性--基于政策变动的研究视角

在政策变动的背景下,公共压力与空间距离都是影响股价同步性的重要因素,前者减弱股价同步性,后者增加股价同步性,但两者共同通过环境信息披露进行作用对股价同步性会产生怎样的影响是目前必须解决的问题。本文选取2004－2006年和2009－2011年我国上市制造业企业为样本,以政策变动为视角,研究了环境信息披露差异对股价同步性的影响机制。结果发现,在《办法》颁布前,远距离企业的环境信息披露与股价同步性负相关,《办法》颁布后则正相关。而对于近距离企业,在《办法》颁布前后均不显著。因此,在公共压力增大的情况下,环境信息披露对股价同步性影响的过程中,地理位置起到了决定性的调节作用,应引起监管层的足够重视。     

Drivers of Environmental Disclosure and Stakeholder Expectation: Evidence from Taiwan

This article investigates stakeholder expectations associated with corporate environmental disclosure. Several articles have studied the effect that stakeholder pressure has on environmental disclosing strategies. In this article, we extend previous research to an examination of the influence of external, internal, and intermediary stakeholder groups or constituencies in turn to clarify the demands of multiple stakeholders as to firms’ disclosure of sufficient and adequate environmental information. The sample comprised Taiwanese firms listed on the Taiwan Stock Exchange. Our results show that the level of environmental disclosure is significantly affected by stakeholder groups’ demands. External stakeholder groups, such as the government, debtors, and consumers, exert a strong influence over management intentions regarding the extent of environmental disclosure. Internal stakeholder groups, such as shareholders and employees, impose additional pressures on firms to disclose environmental information. As for intermediate stakeholder groups, environmental protection organizations, and accounting firms, these can greatly influence managerial choices regarding their environmental disclosure strategies.     

Environmental Legitimacy,Green Innovation,and Corporate Carbon Disclosure: Evidence from CDP China 100

Firms worldwide are increasingly required to disclose (and make efforts to reduce) their carbon emissions due to the environmental damage associated with climate change. Because there has been no previous literature focusing on the determinants of corporate carbon disclosure integrating environmental legitimacy and green innovation, the present study attempted to develop an original framework to fill the research gap. This study explored the influence of environmental legitimacy (an external informal mechanism) on corporate carbon disclosure, and investigated the role of green innovation (an internal formal mechanism) as a mediator. With the samples of Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) in China from 2008 to 2012, the results demonstrate that environmental legitimacy significantly negatively influences the likelihood of corporate carbon disclosure, and that green process innovation mediates the relationship, while green product innovation has no significant mediating effect. It means that environmental legitimacy not only directly affects the likelihood of corporate carbon disclosure, but also indirectly affects it via green process innovation. Hence, companies must increase both informal and formal mechanisms, i.e., external environmental legitimacy and internal green process innovation, to engage in carbon information disclosure and ensure sustainability.     

Environmental Performance Focus in Private Family Firms: The Role of Social Embeddedness

The macro-level business ethics in Scholasticism contrasts with modern Anglo-Saxon Capitalism, which is very influential worldwide. Scholasticism, developed between the thirteenth and the mid-seventeenth centuries, deals with key elements of free market morality, including private property, contracts, profits, prices, and free competition. For over 500 years Scholasticism tried to understand economic phenomena and business activities and reflected on them from an ethical perspective. Scholasticism offered the crucial lesson of the centrality of justice and the role of practical wisdom in considering market morality. Justice is seen as both a virtue and a principle, and commutative justice (justice in exchanges) with the common good of society as the reference for the Scholastics, is regarded as being especially important.     

Religiosity and Voluntary Simplicity: The Mediating Role of Spiritual Well-Being

Although there has been considerable theoretical support outlining a positive relationship between religiosity and voluntary simplicity, there is limited empirical evidence validating this relationship. This study examines the relationships among religious orientations (Allport and Ross in J Pers Soc Psychol 5(4):432–443, 1967) and voluntary simplicity in a sample of Australian consumers. The results demonstrate that intrinsic religiosity is positively related to voluntary simplicity; however, there is no relationship between extrinsic religiosity and voluntary simplicity. Furthermore, this research investigates the processes through which intrinsic religiosity affects voluntary simplicity. The relationship between intrinsic religiosity and voluntary simplicity is sequentially mediated by communal/personal well-being and environmental well-being. The findings not only identify a prosocial role of intrinsic religiosity in motivating voluntary simplicity, but also indicate that secular pursuits that enhance communal/personal well-being and environmental well-being may also motivate voluntary simplicity.