IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/hal/journl/hal-02091698.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Does the level of assurance statement on environmental disclosure affect investor assessment?

Author

Listed:
  • Géraldine Rivière-Giordano

    (MRM - Montpellier Research in Management - UPVM - Université Paul-Valéry - Montpellier 3 - UPVD - Université de Perpignan Via Domitia - Groupe Sup de Co Montpellier (GSCM) - Montpellier Business School - UM - Université de Montpellier)

  • Sophie Giordano-Spring

    (MRM - Montpellier Research in Management - UPVM - Université Paul-Valéry - Montpellier 3 - UPVD - Université de Perpignan Via Domitia - Groupe Sup de Co Montpellier (GSCM) - Montpellier Business School - UM - Université de Montpellier)

  • Charles H. Cho

    (Schulich School of Business - York University [Toronto], York University [Toronto])

Abstract

Purpose The purpose of this study is to examine whether different levels of assurance statements of environmental disclosures affect investment choices in the French context where environmental assurance was voluntary until 2012 and became regulated and mandatory since then. Design/methodology/approach The authors conducted an experiment during the voluntary context – which represents the vast majority of countries – on a sample of 108 financial analysts. Findings Environmental disclosure has a positive impact on investment recommendations. More surprisingly, financial analysts are less likely to give recommendations in favor of a company that displays environmental disclosure with low-level assurance than for a company with no assurance statement at all. Research limitations/implications When assurance is voluntary and there are at least two levels, this study results suggest that firms should avoid selecting the lowest level of assurance because it negatively affects investor decisions. From this perspective, firms should devote sufficient effort and resources to obtain at least Level 2 environmental disclosure assurance. Practical implications Given the recommendations made by financial analysts, the authors could expect that firms may prefer to engage in a higher level of assurance or to provide no assurance rather than minimize their financial efforts and resources to select a lower level of voluntary assurance regarding environmental disclosure. Social implications This study has implications for the voluntary assurance practices of environmental disclosure and can provide support to regulators to promote higher standards in environmental assurance. It documents the relevance to increase the level of requested assurance for environmental disclosure. Originality/value To the best of the authors' knowledge, very few studies have examined the additional effect of assurance on environmental disclosure in investors' decisions. The experiment is conducted with financial analysts in the context of voluntary assurance.

Suggested Citation

  • Géraldine Rivière-Giordano & Sophie Giordano-Spring & Charles H. Cho, 2018. "Does the level of assurance statement on environmental disclosure affect investor assessment?," Post-Print hal-02091698, HAL.
  • Handle: RePEc:hal:journl:hal-02091698
    DOI: 10.1108/SAMPJ-03-2018-0054
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    To our knowledge, this item is not available for download. To find whether it is available, there are three options:
    1. Check below whether another version of this item is available online.
    2. Check on the provider's web page whether it is in fact available.
    3. Perform a search for a similarly titled item that would be available.

    Citations

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


    Cited by:

    1. Ivan Ruiz Manuel & Kornelis Blok, 2023. "Quantitative evaluation of large corporate climate action initiatives shows mixed progress in their first half-decade," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 14(1), pages 1-15, December.
    2. Quick, Reiner & Gauch, Kevin, 2021. "Is assurance on risk management systems relevant for bankers’ decisions?," Advances in accounting, Elsevier, vol. 55(C).
    3. Delphine Gibassier & Jonathan Maurice & Charles H. Cho, 2018. "Guest editorial introduction," Post-Print hal-01875786, HAL.
    4. Rongjiang Cai & Tao Lv & Xu Deng, 2021. "Evaluation of Environmental Information Disclosure of Listed Companies in China’s Heavy Pollution Industries: A Text Mining-Based Methodology," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(10), pages 1-23, May.
    5. Dolores Gallardo-Vázquez & Luis Enrique Valdez-Juárez & Ángela María Castuera-Díaz, 2019. "Corporate Social Responsibility as an Antecedent of Innovation, Reputation, Performance, and Competitive Success: A Multiple Mediation Analysis," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(20), pages 1-28, October.

    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:hal:journl:hal-02091698. 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.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using 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: CCSD (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/ .

    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.