Tone at the top: CEO environmental rhetoric and environmental performance

Yu Cong, Martin Freedman and Jin Dong Park

Advances in accounting, 2014, vol. 30, issue 2, 322-327

Abstract: In this study we attempted to ascertain the environmental leadership and commitment of the CEO as evidence of “tone at the top” in the belief that this would lead to enhanced environmental performance. We measure “tone at the top” by the environmental disclosure score which is collected from a content analysis of CEO letters to shareholders. We adopt the two environmental performance measures: (1) Environmental Impact Score (EIS) from Newsweek Green Ranking and (2) Modeled Hazard Population Results (MHPR) based on Risk-Screening Environmental Indicator (RSEI) models built by EPA. The results indicate that the environmental disclosure score from the CEO letter is inversely correlated with environmental performance. The overall findings support legitimacy theory in that CEOs essentially “spin” firms' environmental performance so it looks better than it actually is.

Keywords: Environmental disclosure; Environmental performance; CEO environmental rhetoric; Corporate social responsibility (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2014
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (8)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:advacc:v:30:y:2014:i:2:p:322-327

DOI: 10.1016/j.adiac.2014.09.007

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