The Impact of Corporate Governance Attributes on Environmental Disclosures: Evidence from India

2017 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 24-43 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ezhilarasi G. ◽  
K. C. Kabra

This article empirically investigates the impact of corporate governance attributes on companies’ decision to disclose environmental information since corporate governance ensures fair, responsible, credible and transparent corporate behaviours to its stakeholders. The corporate governance attributes used in the study are board size, chief executive officer duality, domestic institutional ownership and foreign institutional ownership. Environmental disclosures are measured by a checklist of items based on Global Reporting Initiative guidelines as well as environmental regulations prevailing in India. Disclosure scores are drawn individually by using content analysis of annual reports for a sample of 177 most polluting companies in India for a period of 6 years, that is, from 2009–2010 to 2014–2015. Employing panel data regression model, the result indicates that foreign institutional ownership is the most important corporate governance attribute that engages corporates in environmental disclosure behaviour. In addition to this, firm-specific characteristics such as company size and environmental certification are more likely to influence environmental disclosures. For better environmental disclosure, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) should mandate all the companies to disclose detailed monetary and non-monetary information on environmental issues in their companies’ periodic report and also more emphasis should be given to strengthen the corporate governance attributes.

2020 ◽  
Vol 20 (4) ◽  
pp. 739-763 ◽  
Author(s):  
Erhan Kilincarslan ◽  
Mohamed H. Elmagrhi ◽  
Zezeng Li

Purpose This study aims to investigate the impact of corporate governance structures on environmental disclosure practices in the Middle East and Africa (MEA). Design/methodology/approach The research model uses a panel data set of 121 publicly listed (non-financial and non-utility) firms from 11 MEA countries over the period 2010-2017, uses alternative dependent variables and regression techniques and is applied to various sub-groups to improve robustness. Findings The empirical results strongly indicate that MEA firms with high governance disclosures tend to have better environmental disclosure practices. The board characteristics of gender diversity, size, CEO/chairperson duality and audit committee size impact positively on MEA firms’ voluntary environmental disclosures, whereas board independence has a negative influence. Research limitations/implications This study advances research on the relationship between corporate governance structures and environmental disclosure practices in MEA countries, but is limited to firms for which data are available from Bloomberg. Practical implications The results have important practical implications for MEA policymakers and regulators. The positive impact of board gender diversity on firms’ environmental disclosures, policy reforms should aim to increase female directors. MEA corporations aiming to be more environmentally friendly should recruit women to top managerial positions. Originality/value This is thought to be the first study to provide insights from the efficiency and legitimation perspectives of neo-institutional theory to explain the relationship between MEA firms’ internal governance structures and environmental disclosures.


2020 ◽  
Vol 18 (1, Special Issue) ◽  
pp. 423-437
Author(s):  
Jacqueline Jarosz Wukich

The purpose of this paper is to investigate if the detriment to environmental (E) disclosures as a result of a chief executive officer’s (CEO) power is different for outcome versus intention-oriented disclosure characteristics. This paper creates four measures to capture the diverse nature of E disclosures that vary in the degree of accountability and comparability they provide: a) qualitative, b) quantitative, c) effectiveness, and d) effort. Seemingly unrelated regression is used on a sample of over 2,200 U.S. publicly traded companies. Findings suggest that the relationship between CEO power and E disclosures is not uniform. Powerful CEOs suppression of the most comparable outcome-based environmental disclosures (effectiveness) is greater than the suppression of other environmental disclosures. This is a particularly relevant relationship given shifts in corporate priorities as demonstrated by the proliferation of impact investing, the growth in E reporting, and the CEO’s stated commitment to maximizing stakeholder wealth that was discussed at the August 2019 Business Roundtable


2011 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 143 ◽  
Author(s):  
Frendy ◽  
Indra Wijaya Kusuma

Business entities are able to exert their influence on particular stakeholders for the benefit of their interest by managing the information they disseminate to the public, particularly if there is no regulation on such issue in place. Accordingly, the extent of accounting information disclosed to the public, specifically voluntary environmental information, is determined by the internal characteristics of the business entities. The objective of this research is to test the financial, non-financial, and corporate governance attributes of Indonesian public companies which contribute to the extent of environmental information disclosure in Indonesia. This research measured the extent of Indonesian public companies’ environmental disclosure using Environmental Disclosure Index (EDI) as a dependent variable. The index is developed from the parameters under environmental protocols of the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) G3 framework. Samples of 35 Indonesian public companies are purposively chosen for each of the year from 2005-2008 to form a total of 140 observations.The testing results conclude that size of company, economic performance, and industry sensitivity positively affect environmental disclosure. This research is limited by an assumption that Indonesian public companies employ annual report as the primary means to publicize financial and non-financial information to public.     


2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ece Acar ◽  
Kıymet Tunca Çalıyurt ◽  
Yasemin Zengin-Karaibrahimoglu

Purpose In recent years, firms tend to direct their attention in communicating their environmental actions with their stakeholders. However, the level of environmental disclosers varies significantly among firms. This paper aims to explain the variation in environmental disclosure of firms based on their ownership type, namely – state ownership and institutional ownership. The study further aims to understand whether and how the relationship between ownership structure and environmental disclosure changes regarding countries’ development levels. Design/methodology/approach This paper uses a sample of 27,847 firm-year observations from 72 countries/economic districts between the years 2002 and 2017 and regression analysis to test how the relationship between different ownership structures and environmental disclosure and whether this relation is conditional on countries’ development levels. Findings This study finds that firms with higher state ownership have higher environmental disclosures and higher institutional ownership has a negative effect on environmental disclosures. Furthermore, this paper also documents that firms with higher state ownership and operating in developed countries have incrementally higher environmental disclosure, relative to firms operating in developing countries. Research limitations/implications The study has limitations that would provide possible starting points for further research. The first limitation is related to the environmental disclosure measure, which reflects the level of environmental disclosure of firms based on their disclosure information given in the Thomson Reuters, Asset4 database. A more refined measure can be constructed using hand-collected data based on linguistic analysis, which may reflect not only the level of the disclosure but also the quality of the environmental disclosure. The second limitation is the limited focus of the study toward state and institutional shareholding. Therefore, future research may consider examining the different types of ownership such as family ownership. Practical implications The findings of the study may help policymakers and regulators to consider the potential impact of various ownership types on environmental disclosures. Also, given the impact of countries’ development levels, regulators should consider that a one-size-fits-all is not applicable in environmental disclosures. Therefore, each country should consider the institutional dynamics of their operating environment to set appropriate regulations to enhance environmental disclosures. Social implications From a social perspective, the findings indicate that firms’ stakeholder engagement via environmental disclosures depends on the type of the controlling shareholders. Originality/value This study contributes to the literature by developing a new construct for environmental disclosure based on Biodiversity, Climate Change, Environmental Investments and Spill Impact Reduction performance measures. Further, grounding on legitimacy and stakeholder theories, this study shows the influence of ownership type on environmental disclosures and how this effect changes in accordance with the countries’ development.


2002 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 22-40 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hussein Warsame ◽  
Cynthia V. Simmons ◽  
Dean Neu

In this study we consider how a discrediting event such as an environmental fine influences the quality of environmental disclosures in subsequent annual reports. Starting from prior work in the areas of impression management along with environmental and social responsibility disclosures, we propose that environmental disclosures provide organizations with a method of “managing” such discrediting events. Using a matched-pair sample of publicly traded Canadian companies that have been subject to environmental fines and those that have not; we analyze changes in pre-fine and post-fine environmental disclosure quality. After controlling for firm-specific characteristics, the provided results are consistent with this explanation.


2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Benedicte Millet-Reyes ◽  
Nancy Uddin

Theoretical basis The impact of corporate governance on internal controls and quality of financial disclosures. Research methodology Analysis of a real financial fraud event for a non-US multinational corporation. The case relies on accessing and analyzing annual reports for the firm, both before and after the fraud. Additional information on industry governance characteristics are provided in the case itself so that students can compare the firm to the industry. Case overview/synopsis This business case is centered on the analysis of Schneider Electric, a French multinational corporation, which had to restate their financial statements in 2011 because of accounting fraud. Following this event, Schneider undertook major changes in their board structure to improve internal control mechanisms. This pedagogical business case familiarizes students with international differences in ownership and board structure and emphasizes potential corporate governance changes after financial statement fraud. Complexity academic level Managerial finance, corporate finance, international finance, auditing. This case is more appropriate for upper-level undergraduate and graduate courses.


2019 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 96
Author(s):  
Muhammad Fajri

The aim of this research is to provide empirical evidence on the impact of good corporate governance, free cash flow, and leverage ratio on earnings management. Good corporate governance is measured by audit committee’s size, the proportion of independent commissioners, institutional ownership, and managerial ownership. Discretionary accrual is the proxy of earning management. This research used 28 consumer goods companies listed in Indonesia Stock Exchange from 2016 to 2018. Data were analyzed using panel data with random effect model. Based on the result of analysis concluded that all components of good corporate governance (audit committee’s size, the proportion of independent commissioners, institutional ownership, and managerial ownership), have no significant effect on earnings management, on other hand leverage ratio has a negative effect and no significant on earning management, and free cash flow has a positve and no significant effect on earnings management


2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (4) ◽  
pp. 111
Author(s):  
Gbenga Ekundayo ◽  
Ndubuisi Jeffery Jamani ◽  
Festus Odhigu

The paper examines environmental Disclosure Modelling in a Developing Economy using the Craigg double hurdle model and controlling for the role of corporate governance. This study employs the ex-post research design and investigates firm’s environmental disclosures in Nigeria, by controlling for corporate governance characteristics. The study employs a sample of 35 non-financial firms listed on the Nigerian Stock Exchange using the simple random sampling technique. Secondary data retrieved from the financial statements of the selected companies was used for the study. Both the Tobit and double-hurdle models were estimated but based on the Bayesian and Akaike’s information criteria for model selection, the double-hurdle model is preferred. The result reveals that though Board size is not a significant determinant of probability to disclose environmental information in annual reports (-0.0408, p=0.175), it is a significant determinant of the extent of environmental disclosure reports (0.1943, p=0.00) given that a firm has decided to disclose. Board independence is a significant determinant of both probability to disclose environmental information and extent of disclosure (-2.2373, p=0.00) with a negative coefficient. The Board gender diversity is not a significant determinant of probability to disclose environmental information in annual reports (-0.60076, p=0.461), it is a nevertheless a significant determinant of the extent of environmental disclosure reports (-3.5913, p=0.00) when firms then decide to disclose. Institutional ownership turns out to be a significant determinant of both the probability to disclose environmental information and extent of disclosure (0.0273, p=0.00) when firms choose to disclose. Finally, the truncated model results also reveals that though managerial ownership is not a significant determinant of probability to disclose environmental information in annual reports (-0.01352, p=0.148), it is nevertheless a significant determinant of the extent of environmental disclosure reports (-0.0206, p=0.001) when firms then decide to disclose.


2011 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 296-312 ◽  
Author(s):  
Poh-Ling Ho ◽  
Gregory Tower

This paper examines the impact of ownership structure on the voluntary disclosure in the annual reports of Malaysian listed firms. The result shows that there is an increase in the extent of voluntary disclosure in Malaysian listed firms over the eleven-year period from 1996 to 2006. Ownership concentration consistently shows positive association with voluntary disclosure. Firms with higher foreign and institutional ownership have a significantly positive association with voluntary disclosure levels while firms with family ownership exhibit lower voluntary disclosure. Consistent with agency theory, different ownership structures have varied monitoring effects on agency costs and clearly influence firm’s disclosure practices. The findings provide insights to policy makers and regulators in their desire to increase transparency and accountability amidst the continual enhancement of corporate governance. The findings provide evidence that optimized ownership structure in any jurisdiction should be considered in any regulatory process that seeks to improve transparency.


2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sawssan Jbir ◽  
Souhir Neifar ◽  
Yosra Makni Fourati

Purpose This paper aims to examine the impact of CEO (chief executive officer) compensation and CEO attributes on the level of tax aggressiveness of French companies. Design/methodology/approach The sample comprises 180 firm-year observations of 40 companies listed on the CAC 40 during the period ranging from 2008 to 2018. For the purpose of overcoming the problems of heteroscedasticity and autocorrelation, the authors apply the generalized least square panel regression. Findings This study’s results corroborate the importance of CEO compensation and CEO attributes as determinants of tax aggressiveness. In addition, the authors come up with the fact that CEO compensation has a negative effect on tax aggressiveness, and that older CEOs and CEOs with accounting expertise are negatively linked with tax aggressiveness. The authors also find out that there is a positive relationship between the CEO tenure and tax aggressiveness. Moreover, the authors report that foreign CEOs are more likely to engage in tax aggressiveness practices than local CEOs. Research limitations/implications The unavailability of all annual reports and the use of only one proxy to measure tax aggressiveness present limitations. This study shows significant implications for shareholders, regulators and researchers. As a matter of fact, shareholders will observe the effect of appointing a foreign CEO on the tax aggressiveness level. This study may also provide regulators with new ideas regarding the role of the CEO and its impact on aggressive decision-making. And it brings forth new insight for researchers through adding a foreign CEO as a new determinant of tax aggressiveness. Originality/value According to the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first to provide empirical evidence regarding the effect of both CEO compensation and CEO attributes on tax aggressiveness. It also looks into the impact of a foreign CEO on tax aggressiveness.


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