IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/bstrat/v27y2018i8p1295-1301.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Limited progress in sustainable development: Factors influencing the environmental management and reporting of South African JSE‐listed companies

Author

Listed:
  • Claudia Kitsikopoulos
  • Ute Schwaibold
  • Douglas Taylor

Abstract

Although public, governmental, international and stakeholder pressure have led to corporations conforming to better sustainability performance, there has been an insignificant reduction in environmental degradation levels, and progress in sustainable development is limited. This study examines which factors influencing environmental management and reporting in South Africa could potentially contribute to this limited progress. The study was based on a series of interviews with sustainability managers of JSE‐listed firms. Results suggest that stock exchange listing requirements, internal processes and structures, experienced staff and the sustainability committee positively influence environmental and overall corporate sustainability, yet that resource and time constraints, as well as reporting fatigue, potentially limit the advancement of sustainable development. This restricts the further reduction of environmental degradation, which is urgently necessary in light of the harmful impacts that for example climate change has on the environment, societies and economies.

Suggested Citation

  • Claudia Kitsikopoulos & Ute Schwaibold & Douglas Taylor, 2018. "Limited progress in sustainable development: Factors influencing the environmental management and reporting of South African JSE‐listed companies," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 27(8), pages 1295-1301, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:bstrat:v:27:y:2018:i:8:p:1295-1301
    DOI: 10.1002/bse.2176
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1002/bse.2176
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1002/bse.2176?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Stephen Brammer & Stephen Pavelin, 2006. "Voluntary Environmental Disclosures by Large UK Companies," Journal of Business Finance & Accounting, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 33(7‐8), pages 1168-1188, September.
    2. Kjell Mårtensson & Karin Westerberg, 2016. "Corporate Environmental Strategies Towards Sustainable Development," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 25(1), pages 1-9, January.
    3. Antony Paulraj, 2009. "Environmental motivations: a classification scheme and its impact on environmental strategies and practices," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 18(7), pages 453-468, November.
    4. Simone de Colle & Adrian Henriques & Saras Sarasvathy, 2014. "The Paradox of Corporate Social Responsibility Standards," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 125(2), pages 177-191, December.
    5. Bouten, Lies & Everaert, Patricia & Van Liedekerke, Luc & De Moor, Lieven & Christiaens, Johan, 2011. "Corporate social responsibility reporting: A comprehensive picture?," Accounting forum, Elsevier, vol. 35(3), pages 187-204.
    6. Alberto Romolini & Silvia Fissi & Elena Gori, 2014. "Scoring CSR Reporting in Listed Companies – Evidence from Italian Best Practices," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 21(2), pages 65-81, March.
    7. Chitra Sriyani De Silva Lokuwaduge & Kumudini Heenetigala, 2017. "Integrating Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) Disclosure for a Sustainable Development: An Australian Study," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 26(4), pages 438-450, May.
    8. Barkemeyer, Ralf & Preuss, Lutz & Lee, Lindsay, 2015. "On the effectiveness of private transnational governance regimes—Evaluating corporate sustainability reporting according to the Global Reporting Initiative," Journal of World Business, Elsevier, vol. 50(2), pages 312-325.
    9. Maria J. Charlo & Ismael Moya & Ana M. Muñoz, 2015. "Sustainable Development and Corporate Financial Performance: A Study Based on the FTSE4Good IBEX Index," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 24(4), pages 277-288, May.
    10. Anita Jose & Shang-Mei Lee, 2007. "Environmental Reporting of Global Corporations: A Content Analysis based on Website Disclosures," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 72(4), pages 307-321, June.
    11. Gary Peters & Andrea Romi, 2014. "Does the Voluntary Adoption of Corporate Governance Mechanisms Improve Environmental Risk Disclosures? Evidence from Greenhouse Gas Emission Accounting," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 125(4), pages 637-666, December.
    12. Eugenio D'Amico & Daniela Coluccia & Stefano Fontana & Silvia Solimene, 2016. "Factors Influencing Corporate Environmental Disclosure," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 25(3), pages 178-192, March.
    13. Ans Kolk, 2003. "Trends in sustainability reporting by the Fortune Global 250," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 12(5), pages 279-291, September.
    14. Stephen Brammer & Stephen Pavelin, 2006. "Voluntary Environmental Disclosures by Large UK Companies," Journal of Business Finance & Accounting, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 33(7-8), pages 1168-1188.
    15. Rory Sullivan & Andy Gouldson, 2017. "The Governance of Corporate Responses to Climate Change: An International Comparison," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 26(4), pages 413-425, May.
    16. Mohammad Jizi, 2017. "The Influence of Board Composition on Sustainable Development Disclosure," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 26(5), pages 640-655, July.
    17. Bernd Siebenhüner & Marlen Arnold, 2007. "Organizational learning to manage sustainable development," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 16(5), pages 339-353, July.
    18. Cory Searcy, 2016. "Measuring Enterprise Sustainability," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 25(2), pages 120-133, February.
    19. Jacob Hörisch & Matthew P. Johnson & Stefan Schaltegger, 2015. "Implementation of Sustainability Management and Company Size: A Knowledge‐Based View," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 24(8), pages 765-779, December.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Zhang, Shengling & Wu, Zihao & He, Yinan & Hao, Yu, 2022. "How does the green credit policy affect the technological innovation of enterprises? Evidence from China," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 113(C).
    2. Ewelina Zarzycka & Joanna Krasodomska, 2021. "Environmental key performance indicators: the role of regulations and stakeholder influence," Environment Systems and Decisions, Springer, vol. 41(4), pages 651-666, December.
    3. Guo, Shu & Zhang, ZhongXiang, 2023. "Green credit policy and total factor productivity: Evidence from Chinese listed companies," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 128(C).
    4. Ge Wang & Huijin Zhang & Saixing Zeng & Xiaohua Meng & Han Lin, 2023. "Reporting on sustainable development: Configurational effects of top management team and corporate characteristics on environmental information disclosure," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 30(1), pages 28-52, January.
    5. Varaidzo Denhere, 2022. "Sustainability: The adoption of green economy and sustainable accounting principles by South African listed companies and lessons learnt," International Journal of Research in Business and Social Science (2147-4478), Center for the Strategic Studies in Business and Finance, vol. 11(5), pages 366-376, July.
    6. Ayman Hassan Bazhair & Saleh F. A. Khatib & Hamzeh Al Amosh, 2022. "Taking Stock of Carbon Disclosure Research While Looking to the Future: A Systematic Literature Review," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(20), pages 1-24, October.
    7. Monday Nweke Igwe & Saleh F. A. Khatib & Ayman Hassan Bazhair, 2023. "Sustainability reporting in Africa: A systematic review and agenda for future research," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 30(5), pages 2081-2100, September.
    8. Shi Chen & Fu-Wei Huang & Jyh-Horng Lin, 2022. "Effects of Cap-and-Trade Mechanism and Financial Gray Rhino Threats on Insurer Performance," Energies, MDPI, vol. 15(15), pages 1-20, July.
    9. Jannik Gerwanski & Othar Kordsachia & Patrick Velte, 2019. "Determinants of materiality disclosure quality in integrated reporting: Empirical evidence from an international setting," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 28(5), pages 750-770, July.
    10. Minga Negash & Tesfaye T. Lemma, 2020. "Institutional pressures and the accounting and reporting of environmental liabilities," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 29(5), pages 1941-1960, July.
    11. Simone Pizzi & Francesco Rosati & Andrea Venturelli, 2021. "The determinants of business contribution to the 2030 Agenda: Introducing the SDG Reporting Score," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 30(1), pages 404-421, January.
    12. Sha, Yezhou & Zhang, Ping & Wang, Yiru & Xu, Yifan, 2022. "Capital market opening and green innovation——Evidence from Shanghai-Hong Kong stock connect and the Shenzhen-Hong Kong stock connect," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 111(C).
    13. Yao, Shouyu & Pan, Yuying & Sensoy, Ahmet & Uddin, Gazi Salah & Cheng, Feiyang, 2021. "Green credit policy and firm performance: What we learn from China," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 101(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Rongbing Huang & Yubo Huang, 2020. "Does Internal Control Contribute to a Firm’s Green Information Disclosure? Evidence from China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(8), pages 1-23, April.
    2. Ismail N.B. & Sébastien Alcouffe & Galy N & Ceulemans K, 2020. "The impact of international sustainability initiatives on Life Cycle Assessment voluntary disclosures: The case of France’s CAC40 listed companies," Post-Print hal-03082800, HAL.
    3. Nicola Cucari & Salvatore Esposito De Falco & Beatrice Orlando, 2018. "Diversity of Board of Directors and Environmental Social Governance: Evidence from Italian Listed Companies," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 25(3), pages 250-266, May.
    4. Faizul Haque & Collins G Ntim, 2018. "Environmental Policy, Sustainable Development, Governance Mechanisms and Environmental Performance," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 27(3), pages 415-435, March.
    5. Maria Aluchna & Maria Roszkowska‐Menkes & Sana Khan, 2024. "Corporate governance perspective on environmental reporting: Literature review and future research agenda," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 31(3), pages 1550-1577, May.
    6. Katia Furlotti & Tatiana Mazza & Veronica Tibiletti & Silvia Triani, 2019. "Women in top positions on boards of directors: Gender policies disclosed in Italian sustainability reporting," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 26(1), pages 57-70, January.
    7. Riccardo Torelli & Federica Balluchi & Katia Furlotti, 2020. "The materiality assessment and stakeholder engagement: A content analysis of sustainability reports," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 27(2), pages 470-484, March.
    8. Ishmael Tingbani & Lyton Chithambo & Venancio Tauringana & Nikolaos Papanikolaou, 2020. "Board gender diversity, environmental committee and greenhouse gas voluntary disclosures," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 29(6), pages 2194-2210, September.
    9. Xin Xu & Zizhen Liu, 2023. "ESG, Cultural Distance and Corporate Profitability: Evidence from Chinese Multinationals," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(8), pages 1-23, April.
    10. S. Zeng & X. Xu & H. Yin & C. Tam, 2012. "Factors that Drive Chinese Listed Companies in Voluntary Disclosure of Environmental Information," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 109(3), pages 309-321, September.
    11. Breeda Comyns, 2016. "Determinants of GHG Reporting: An Analysis of Global Oil and Gas Companies," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 136(2), pages 349-369, June.
    12. Dewan Muktadir‐Al‐Mukit & Firoz Haroon Bhaiyat, 2024. "Impact of corporate governance diversity on carbon emission under environmental policy via the mandatory nonfinancial reporting regulation," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 33(2), pages 1397-1417, February.
    13. María Consuelo Pucheta‐Martínez & Isabel Gallego‐Álvarez, 2018. "Environmental reporting policy and corporate structures: An international analysis," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 25(5), pages 788-798, September.
    14. Saeed, Abubakr & Riaz, Hammad & Liedong, Tahiru Azaaviele & Rajwani, Tazeeb, 2022. "The impact of TMT gender diversity on corporate environmental strategy in emerging economies," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 141(C), pages 536-551.
    15. Ans Kolk & Paolo Perego, 2010. "Determinants of the adoption of sustainability assurance statements: an international investigation," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 19(3), pages 182-198, March.
    16. Mumtaheena Anwar & Sohanur Rahman & Md. Nurul Kabir, 2021. "Does national carbon pricing policy affect voluntary environmental disclosures? A global evidence," Environmental Economics and Policy Studies, Springer;Society for Environmental Economics and Policy Studies - SEEPS, vol. 23(2), pages 211-244, April.
    17. Walid Ben‐Amar & Mohamed Chelli, 2018. "What drives voluntary corporate water disclosures? The effect of country‐level institutions," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 27(8), pages 1609-1622, December.
    18. Akshita Arora & Khaoula Aliani, 2024. "Nexus between corporate environmental disclosures and gender diversity: Interaction effects of board independence," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 33(2), pages 1113-1128, February.
    19. Kerstin Lopatta & Thomas Kaspereit & Sebastian A. Tideman & Anna R. Rudolf, 2022. "The moderating role of CEO sustainability reporting style in the relationship between sustainability performance, sustainability reporting, and cost of equity," Journal of Business Economics, Springer, vol. 92(3), pages 429-465, April.
    20. Jones, Michael John, 2011. "The nature, use and impression management of graphs in social and environmental accounting," Accounting forum, Elsevier, vol. 35(2), pages 75-89.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bla:bstrat:v:27:y:2018:i:8:p:1295-1301. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/10.1002/(ISSN)1099-0836 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.