IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/wly/corsem/v30y2023i2p846-857.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Minding the gap‐relating disclosure to contexts of sustainability reporting in the automotive industry

Author

Listed:
  • Imke Rhoden
  • Christopher Stephen Ball
  • Stefan Vögele
  • Wilhelm Kuckshinrichs

Abstract

Sustainability is a major issue in the automotive sector and players are at different points in their transition. Adopting a multi‐method approach, we identify the positioning of automotive manufacturers in relation to sustainability, highlighting the main foci of their sustainability strategies. This is achieved using a topic model based on automated language processing. Subsequently, we use a Seemingly Unrelated Regression model, applied to manufacturers' operational data, to establish the degree of alignment between sustainability strategies and operations. Results show that sustainability in the automotive sector is highly differentiated and manufacturers emphasize diverging topics in their communication strategy and have different production practices. In relation to sustainability reporting, we identify certain operational variables, which are significantly related with certain dominant sustainability narratives.

Suggested Citation

  • Imke Rhoden & Christopher Stephen Ball & Stefan Vögele & Wilhelm Kuckshinrichs, 2023. "Minding the gap‐relating disclosure to contexts of sustainability reporting in the automotive industry," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 30(2), pages 846-857, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:wly:corsem:v:30:y:2023:i:2:p:846-857
    DOI: 10.1002/csr.2392
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1002/csr.2392
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1002/csr.2392?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. Rüdiger Hahn & Regina Lülfs, 2014. "Legitimizing Negative Aspects in GRI-Oriented Sustainability Reporting: A Qualitative Analysis of Corporate Disclosure Strategies," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 123(3), pages 401-420, September.
    2. Teece, David J., 2018. "Tesla and the Reshaping of the Auto Industry," Management and Organization Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 14(3), pages 501-512, September.
    3. Salzmann, Oliver & Ionescu-somers, Aileen & Steger, Ulrich, 2005. "The Business Case for Corporate Sustainability:: Literature Review and Research Options," European Management Journal, Elsevier, vol. 23(1), pages 27-36, February.
    4. Greene, Derek & Cross, James P., 2017. "Exploring the Political Agenda of the European Parliament Using a Dynamic Topic Modeling Approach," Political Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 25(1), pages 77-94, January.
    5. Edi Lukin & Aleksandra Krajnović & Jurica Bosna, 2022. "Sustainability Strategies and Achieving SDGs: A Comparative Analysis of Leading Companies in the Automotive Industry," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(7), pages 1-15, March.
    6. Miguel F. Salvado & Susana G. Azevedo & João C. O. Matias & Luís M. Ferreira, 2015. "Proposal of a Sustainability Index for the Automotive Industry," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 7(2), pages 1-32, February.
    7. Michael L. Barnett & Robert M. Salomon, 2012. "Does it pay to be really good? addressing the shape of the relationship between social and financial performance," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 33(11), pages 1304-1320, November.
    8. Anderson Gwanyebit Kehbila & Jürgen Ertel & Alan Colin Brent, 2009. "Strategic corporate environmental management within the South African automotive industry: motivations, benefits, hurdles," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 16(6), pages 310-323, November.
    9. Philippe Aghion & Cameron Hepburn & Alexander Teytelboym & Dimitri Zenghelis, 2019. "Path dependence, innovation and the economics of climate change," PSE-Ecole d'économie de Paris (Postprint) halshs-02489451, HAL.
    10. Elisa Truant & Laura Corazza & Simone Domenico Scagnelli, 2017. "Sustainability and Risk Disclosure: An Exploratory Study on Sustainability Reports," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 9(4), pages 1-20, April.
    11. Altenburg, Tilman, 2014. "From combustion engines to electric vehicles: a study of technological path creation and disruption in Germany," IDOS Discussion Papers 29/2014, German Institute of Development and Sustainability (IDOS).
    12. Georg Weinhofer & Volker H. Hoffmann, 2010. "Mitigating climate change – how do corporate strategies differ?," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 19(2), pages 77-89, February.
    13. Thomas P. Lyon & John W. Maxwell, 2011. "Greenwash: Corporate Environmental Disclosure under Threat of Audit," Journal of Economics & Management Strategy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 20(1), pages 3-41, March.
    14. Robert G. Eccles & George Serafeim & Michael P. Krzus, 2011. "Market Interest in Nonfinancial Information," Journal of Applied Corporate Finance, Morgan Stanley, vol. 23(4), pages 113-127, December.
    15. Robert G. Eccles & Michael P. Krzus & George Serafeim, 2011. "Market Interest in Nonfinancial Information," Harvard Business School Working Papers 12-018, Harvard Business School.
    16. Levy, David L. & Kolk, Ans, 2002. "Strategic Responses to Global Climate Change: Conflicting Pressures on Multinationals in the Oil Industry," Business and Politics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 4(3), pages 275-300, November.
    17. Claudia Arena & Saverio Bozzolan & Giovanna Michelon, 2015. "Environmental Reporting: Transparency to Stakeholders or Stakeholder Manipulation? An Analysis of Disclosure Tone and the Role of the Board of Directors," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 22(6), pages 346-361, November.
    18. Levy David L. & Kolk Ans, 2002. "Strategic Responses to Global Climate Change: Conflicting Pressures on Multinationals in the Oil Industry," Business and Politics, De Gruyter, vol. 4(3), pages 1-27, November.
    19. Tiziana Russo-Spena & Marco Tregua & Alessandra De Chiara, 2018. "Trends and Drivers in CSR Disclosure: A Focus on Reporting Practices in the Automotive Industry," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 151(2), pages 563-578, August.
    20. Martina Sukitsch & Sabrina Engert & Rupert J. Baumgartner, 2015. "The Implementation of Corporate Sustainability in the European Automotive Industry: An Analysis of Sustainability Reports," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 7(9), pages 1-28, August.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. Samuel Tang & David Demeritt, 2018. "Climate Change and Mandatory Carbon Reporting: Impacts on Business Process and Performance," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 27(4), pages 437-455, May.
    2. Mohammed Bouaddi & Mohamed A. K. Basuony & Neveen Noureldin, 2023. "The Heterogenous Effects of Carbon Emissions and Board Gender Diversity on a Firm’s Performance," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(19), pages 1-20, October.
    3. Tiziana Russo-Spena & Marco Tregua & Alessandra De Chiara, 2018. "Trends and Drivers in CSR Disclosure: A Focus on Reporting Practices in the Automotive Industry," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 151(2), pages 563-578, August.
    4. Perello-Marin, M Rosario & Rodríguez-Rodríguez, Raúl & Alfaro-Saiz, Juan-Jose, 2022. "Analysing GRI reports for the disclosure of SDG contribution in European car manufacturers," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 181(C).
    5. Tantawy Moussa & Amir Allam & Said Elbanna & Ahmed Bani‐Mustafa, 2020. "Can board environmental orientation improve U.S. firms' carbon performance? The mediating role of carbon strategy," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 29(1), pages 72-86, January.
    6. Matthew P. Johnson & Theresa S. Rötzel & Brigitte Frank, 2023. "Beyond conventional corporate responses to climate change towards deep decarbonization: a systematic literature review," Management Review Quarterly, Springer, vol. 73(2), pages 921-954, June.
    7. Kira R. Fabrizio & Eun-Hee Kim, 2019. "Reluctant Disclosure and Transparency: Evidence from Environmental Disclosures," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 30(6), pages 1207-1231, November.
    8. Thomas A. Tsalis & Ioannis E. Nikolaou, 2017. "Assessing the Effects of Climate Change Regulations on the Business Community: A System Dynamic Approach," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 26(6), pages 826-843, September.
    9. Zahra Borghei, 2021. "Carbon disclosure: a systematic literature review," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 61(4), pages 5255-5280, December.
    10. Tiberio Daddi & Niccolò Maria Todaro & Maria Rosa De Giacomo & Marco Frey, 2018. "A Systematic Review of the Use of Organization and Management Theories in Climate Change Studies," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 27(4), pages 456-474, May.
    11. Konstantinos Evangelinos & Ioannis Nikolaou & Walter Leal Filho, 2015. "The Effects of Climate Change Policy on the Business Community: A Corporate Environmental Accounting Perspective," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 22(5), pages 257-270, September.
    12. Matthias Damert & Rupert J. Baumgartner, 2018. "External Pressures or Internal Governance – What Determines the Extent of Corporate Responses to Climate Change?," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 25(4), pages 473-488, July.
    13. Timo Busch & Marcel Richert & Matthew Johnson & Sven Lundie, 2020. "Climate inaction and managerial sensemaking: The case of renewable energy," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 27(6), pages 2502-2514, November.
    14. 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.
    15. Christian Lebelhuber & Dorothea Greiling, 2022. "Strategic response to institutional pressures of climate change: an exploration among gas sector companies," Review of Managerial Science, Springer, vol. 16(3), pages 863-905, April.
    16. Misani, Nicola & Pogutz, Stefano, 2015. "Unraveling the effects of environmental outcomes and processes on financial performance: A non-linear approach," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 109(C), pages 150-160.
    17. Su‐Yol Lee, 2012. "Corporate Carbon Strategies in Responding to Climate Change," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 21(1), pages 33-48, January.
    18. Su‐Yol Lee & Robert D. Klassen, 2016. "Firms’ Response to Climate Change: The Interplay of Business Uncertainty and Organizational Capabilities," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 25(8), pages 577-592, December.
    19. Sanjay Patnaik, 2020. "Emissions permit allocation and strategic firm behavior: Evidence from the oil sector in the European Union emissions trading scheme," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 29(3), pages 976-995, March.
    20. Basak Kalkanci & Erica L. Plambeck, 2020. "Managing Supplier Social and Environmental Impacts with Voluntary Versus Mandatory Disclosure to Investors," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 66(8), pages 3311-3328, August.

    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:wly:corsem:v:30:y:2023:i:2:p:846-857. 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: https://doi.org/10.1002/(ISSN)1535-3966 .

    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.