IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/kap/jbuset/v144y2017i1d10.1007_s10551-015-2844-5.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

What Do Stakeholders Care About? Investigating Corporate Social and Environmental Disclosure in China

Author

Listed:
  • Yingjun Lu

    (Shanghai University of International Business and Economics)

  • Indra Abeysekera

    (CQ University)

Abstract

This study investigates the social and environmental disclosure practices of socially responsible Chinese listed firms as displayed in their annual reports and corporate social responsibility (CSR) reports from the perspective of stakeholders. A stakeholder-driven, three-dimensional social and environmental disclosure index that integrates the quantity and two aspects of the quality of disclosure perceived by stakeholders is constructed to assess the social and environmental disclosures in firm annual reports and CSR reports. The study results indicate that stakeholders perceive different disclosure types and disclosure items as important to differing degrees. CSR reports provide more stakeholder-relevant social and environmental disclosure than annual reports.

Suggested Citation

  • Yingjun Lu & Indra Abeysekera, 2017. "What Do Stakeholders Care About? Investigating Corporate Social and Environmental Disclosure in China," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 144(1), pages 169-184, August.
    • Handle: RePEc:kap:jbuset:v:144:y:2017:i:1:d:10.1007_s10551-015-2844-5
    DOI: 10.1007/s10551-015-2844-5
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s10551-015-2844-5
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s10551-015-2844-5?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
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Campbell, David & Abdul Rahman, Mara Ridhuan, 2010. "A longitudinal examination of intellectual capital reporting in Marks & Spencer annual reports, 1978–2008," The British Accounting Review, Elsevier, vol. 42(1), pages 56-70.
    2. Hopkins, Michael,, 2004. "Corporate social responsibility : an issues paper," ILO Working Papers 993709523402676, International Labour Organization.
    3. repec:ilo:ilowps:370952 is not listed on IDEAS
    4. Darrell, W. & Schwartz, Bill N., 1997. "Environmental disclosures and public policy pressure," Journal of Accounting and Public Policy, Elsevier, vol. 16(2), pages 125-154.
    5. Cho, Charles H. & Patten, Dennis M., 2007. "The role of environmental disclosures as tools of legitimacy: A research note," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 32(7-8), pages 639-647.
    6. Jouni Korhonen, 2002. "The dominant economics paradigm and corporate social responsibility," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 9(1), pages 66-79, March.
    7. van den Bergh, Jeroen C. J. M. & Verbruggen, Harmen, 1999. "Spatial sustainability, trade and indicators: an evaluation of the 'ecological footprint'," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 29(1), pages 61-72, April.
    8. Vivien Beattie & Bill McInnes & Stella Fearnley, 2004. "A methodology for analysing and evaluating narratives in annual reports: a comprehensive descriptive profile and metrics for disclosure quality attributes," Accounting Forum, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 28(3), pages 205-236, September.
    9. Wiseman, Joanne, 1982. "An evaluation of environmental disclosures made in corporate annual reports," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 7(1), pages 53-63, January.
    10. Cormier, Denis & Magnan, Michel, 2003. "Environmental reporting management: a continental European perspective," Journal of Accounting and Public Policy, Elsevier, vol. 22(1), pages 43-62.
    11. Cooper, Stuart M. & Owen, David L., 2007. "Corporate social reporting and stakeholder accountability: The missing link," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 32(7-8), pages 649-667.
    12. Peter M. Clarkson & Michael B. Overell & Larelle Chapple, 2011. "Environmental Reporting and its Relation to Corporate Environmental Performance," Abacus, Accounting Foundation, University of Sydney, vol. 47(1), pages 27-60, March.
    13. Rowbottom, N. & Lymer, A., 2009. "Exploring the use of online corporate sustainability information," Accounting forum, Elsevier, vol. 33(2), pages 176-186.
    14. Al-Tuwaijri, Sulaiman A. & Christensen, Theodore E. & Hughes, K. II, 2004. "The relations among environmental disclosure, environmental performance, and economic performance: a simultaneous equations approach," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 29(5-6), pages 447-471.
    15. van Staden, Chris J. & Hooks, Jill, 2007. "A comprehensive comparison of corporate environmental reporting and responsiveness," The British Accounting Review, Elsevier, vol. 39(3), pages 197-210.
    16. Cowen, Scott S. & Ferreri, Linda B. & Parker, Lee D., 1987. "The impact of corporate characteristics on social responsibility disclosure: A typology and frequency-based analysis," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 12(2), pages 111-122, March.
    17. Craig Deegan & Michaela Rankin & Peter Voght, 2000. "Firms' Disclosure Reactions to Major Social Incidents: Australian Evidence," Accounting Forum, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 24(1), pages 101-130, March.
    18. Lei Wang & Heikki Juslin, 2009. "The Impact of Chinese Culture on Corporate Social Responsibility: The Harmony Approach," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 88(3), pages 433-451, October.
    19. Vivien Beattie & Sarah Jane Thomson, 2007. "Lifting the lid on the use of content analysis to investigate intellectual capital disclosures," Accounting Forum, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 31(2), pages 129-163, June.
    20. N. Rowbottom & A. Lymer, 2009. "Exploring the use of online corporate sustainability information," Accounting Forum, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 33(2), pages 176-186, June.
    21. Simon S. Gao & Saeed Heravi & Jason Zezheng Xiao, 2005. "Determinants of corporate social and environmental reporting in Hong Kong: a research note," Accounting Forum, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 29(2), pages 233-242, June.
    22. Geoff Frost & Stewart Jones & Janice Loftus & Sandra Laan, 2005. "A Survey of Sustainability Reporting Practices of Australian Reporting Entities," Australian Accounting Review, CPA Australia, vol. 15(35), pages 89-96, March.
    23. van der Laan Smith, Joyce & Adhikari, Ajay & Tondkar, Rasoul H., 2005. "Exploring differences in social disclosures internationally: A stakeholder perspective," Journal of Accounting and Public Policy, Elsevier, vol. 24(2), pages 123-151.
    24. Clarkson, Peter M. & Li, Yue & Richardson, Gordon D. & Vasvari, Florin P., 2008. "Revisiting the relation between environmental performance and environmental disclosure: An empirical analysis," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 33(4-5), pages 303-327.
    25. Hasseldine, J. & Salama, A.I. & Toms, J.S., 2005. "Quantity versus quality: the impact of environmental disclosures on the reputations of UK Plcs," The British Accounting Review, Elsevier, vol. 37(2), pages 231-248.
    26. Natasja Steenkamp & Deryl Northcott, 2007. "Content Analysis in Accounting Research: the Practical Challenges," Australian Accounting Review, CPA Australia, vol. 17(43), pages 12-25, November.
    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. Li, Yueshan & Mao, Jinzhou & Chen, Shoudong & Yang, Dongliang, 2022. "Tax-reducing incentive and corporate green performance: What we learn from China," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 199(C), pages 791-802.
    2. Fan Xia & Jiaying Chen & Xue Yang & Xiaoliang Li & Bing Zhang, 2023. "Financial constraints and corporate greenwashing strategies in China," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 30(4), pages 1770-1781, July.
    3. Francesco Paolone & Fabrizio Granà & Laura Martiniello & Riccardo Tiscini, 2021. "Environmental risk indicators disclosure and value relevance: An empirical analysis of Italian listed companies after the implementation of the Legislative Decree 254/2016," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 28(5), pages 1471-1482, September.
    4. Laila Mohamed Alshawadfy Aladwey & Raghad Abdulkarim Alsudays, 2024. "Unveiling the Significance: Sustainability and Environmental Disclosure in Saudi Arabia through Stakeholders’ Theory," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(9), pages 1-20, April.
    5. Yuexiang Yang & Zhihui Du & Zhen Zhang & Guanqun Tong & Rongxi Zhou, 2021. "Does ESG Disclosure Affect Corporate-Bond Credit Spreads? Evidence from China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(15), pages 1-15, July.
    6. Dirk C. Moosmayer & Yanyan Chen & Susannah M. Davis, 2019. "Deeds Not Words: A Cosmopolitan Perspective on the Influences of Corporate Sustainability and NGO Engagement on the Adoption of Sustainable Products in China," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 158(1), pages 135-154, August.
    7. Junru Zhang & Hadrian Geri Djajadikerta & Zhaoyong Zhang, 2018. "Does Sustainability Engagement Affect Stock Return Volatility? Evidence from the Chinese Financial Market," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(10), pages 1-21, September.
    8. Xie, Dongchun & Li, Xiaofeng & Zhou, Di, 2022. "Does environmental information disclosure increase firm exports?," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 73(C), pages 620-638.
    9. Suraiyah Akbar & Craig Deegan, 2021. "Analysis of corporate social disclosures of the apparel industry following crisis: an institutional approach," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 61(2), pages 3565-3600, June.
    10. Tian Luan, 2024. "A Review of Corporate Social Responsibility Decoupling and Its Impact: Evidence from China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(10), pages 1-17, May.
    11. Miguel Pombinho & Ana Fialho & Jorge Novas, 2023. "Readability of Sustainability Reports: A Bibliometric Analysis and Systematic Literature Review," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(1), pages 1-21, December.
    12. Ali Meftah Gerged, 2021. "Factors affecting corporate environmental disclosure in emerging markets: The role of corporate governance structures," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 30(1), pages 609-629, January.
    13. Jing Wei, 2023. "Does the “Greenwashing” and “Brownwashing” of Corporate Environmental Information Affect the Analyst Forecast Accuracy?," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(14), pages 1-28, July.
    14. Ali Meftah Gerged & Khaldoon Albitar & Lara Al‐Haddad, 2023. "Corporate environmental disclosure and earnings management—The moderating role of corporate governance structures," International Journal of Finance & Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 28(3), pages 2789-2810, July.
    15. Lívia Maria da Silva Santos & Wenner Glaucio Lopes Lucena & Wesley Vieira da Silva & Tatiana Marceda Bach & Claudimar Pereira da Veiga, 2019. "Explanatory Factors of the Environmental Disclosure of Potentially Polluting Companies: Evidence From Brazil," SAGE Open, , vol. 9(1), pages 21582440198, February.
    16. Valter Cantino & Alain Devalle & Simona Fiandrino & Donatella Busso, 2019. "The level of compliance with the Italian Legislative Decree No. 254/2016 and its determinants: Insights from Italy," FINANCIAL REPORTING, FrancoAngeli Editore, vol. 2019(1), pages 113-143.
    17. Binbin Yang & Sang Do Park, 2024. "Under the ESG Dome of China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(16), pages 1-23, August.
    18. Wanli Li & Tiantian Yan & Yue Li & Ziqiao Yan, 2023. "Earnings management and CSR report tone: Evidence from China," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 30(4), pages 1883-1902, July.
    19. Helna Almeida de Araujo Góes & Ghulam Fatima & Ronaldo de Oliveira Santos Jhunior & João Maurício Gama Boaventura, 2023. "Managing for stakeholders towards corporate environmental sustainability," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 30(4), pages 1561-1572, July.

    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. Charles H. Cho & Jonathan Maurice & Emmanuelle Nègre & Marie-Anne Verdier, 2016. "Is environmental disclosure good for the environment? A meta-analysis and research agenda," Post-Print halshs-01369422, HAL.
    2. Beck, A. Cornelia & Campbell, David & Shrives, Philip J., 2010. "Content analysis in environmental reporting research: Enrichment and rehearsal of the method in a British–German context," The British Accounting Review, Elsevier, vol. 42(3), pages 207-222.
    3. 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.
    4. Denis Cormier & Michel Magnan, 2015. "The Economic Relevance of Environmental Disclosure and its Impact on Corporate Legitimacy: An Empirical Investigation," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 24(6), pages 431-450, September.
    5. Hooks, Jill & van Staden, Chris J., 2011. "Evaluating environmental disclosures: The relationship between quality and extent measures," The British Accounting Review, Elsevier, vol. 43(3), pages 200-213.
    6. María Luisa Pajuelo Moreno & Teresa Duarte-Atoche, 2019. "Relationship between Sustainable Disclosure and Performance—An Extension of Ullmann’s Model," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(16), pages 1-33, August.
    7. Michelon, Giovanna & Pilonato, Silvia & Ricceri, Federica, 2015. "CSR reporting practices and the quality of disclosure: An empirical analysis," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 33(C), pages 59-78.
    8. Stefano Fontana & Daniela Coluccia & Silvia Solimene, 2019. "VAIC as a Tool for Measuring Intangibles Value in Voluntary Multi-Stakeholder Disclosure," Journal of the Knowledge Economy, Springer;Portland International Center for Management of Engineering and Technology (PICMET), vol. 10(4), pages 1679-1699, December.
    9. Luo, Le & Tang, Qingliang, 2014. "Does voluntary carbon disclosure reflect underlying carbon performance?," Journal of Contemporary Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 10(3), pages 191-205.
    10. Abeer Hassan & Essam Ibrahim, 2012. "Corporate Environmental Information Disclosure: Factors Influencing Companies' Success in Attaining Environmental Awards," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 19(1), pages 32-46, January.
    11. Sónia Maria da Silva Monteiro & Beatriz Aibar‐Guzmán, 2010. "Determinants of environmental disclosure in the annual reports of large companies operating in Portugal," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 17(4), pages 185-204, July.
    12. Aerts, Walter & Cormier, Denis, 2009. "Media legitimacy and corporate environmental communication," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 34(1), pages 1-27, January.
    13. Cornelia Beck & Geoffrey Frost & Stewart Jones, 2018. "CSR disclosure and financial performance revisited: A cross-country analysis," Australian Journal of Management, Australian School of Business, vol. 43(4), pages 517-537, November.
    14. Giorgio Mion & Cristian R. Loza Adaui, 2019. "Mandatory Nonfinancial Disclosure and Its Consequences on the Sustainability Reporting Quality of Italian and German Companies," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(17), pages 1-28, August.
    15. Denis Cormier & Marie-Josée Ledoux & Michel Magnan, 2010. "The Informational Contribution of Social and Environmental Disclosures for Investors," Post-Print hal-00481571, HAL.
    16. Linyan Fan & Sheng Yao, 2022. "Analyst Site Visits and Corporate Environmental Information Disclosure: Evidence from China," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(23), pages 1-21, December.
    17. Emerald Edem Welbeck & Godfred Matthew Yaw Owusu & Rita Amoah Bekoe & John Amoah Kusi, 2017. "Determinants of environmental disclosures of listed firms in Ghana," International Journal of Corporate Social Responsibility, Springer, vol. 2(1), pages 1-12, December.
    18. Xie, Guanghua & Chen, Lin & Chen, Xichan, 2021. "The role of short selling threat in corporate environmental disclosure strategies: Evidence from China," Resource and Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 66(C).
    19. Jane Andrew & Max Baker, 2020. "Corporate Social Responsibility Reporting: The Last 40 Years and a Path to Sharing Future Insights," Abacus, Accounting Foundation, University of Sydney, vol. 56(1), pages 35-65, March.
    20. Jean-Noël Chauvey & Sophie Giordano-Spring & Charles Cho & Dennis Patten, 2015. "The Normativity and Legitimacy of CSR Disclosure: Evidence from France," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 130(4), pages 789-803, September.

    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:kap:jbuset:v:144:y:2017:i:1:d:10.1007_s10551-015-2844-5. 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: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    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.