Governmental Ownership of Voluntary Sustainability Information Disclosure in an Emerging Economy: Evidence from Vietnam

Hang Thi Thuy Pham, Sung-Chang Jung and Su-Yol Lee
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Hang Thi Thuy Pham: Department of Finance, Banking and Business Administration, Quy Nhon University, 170 An Duong Vuong, Quy Nhon 55113, Vietnam
Sung-Chang Jung: College of Business Administration, Chonnam National University, Yongbong-ro 77, Buk-gu, Gwangju 61186, Korea
Su-Yol Lee: College of Business Administration, Chonnam National University, Yongbong-ro 77, Buk-gu, Gwangju 61186, Korea

Sustainability, 2020, vol. 12, issue 16, 1-21

Abstract: Emerging economies have increasingly paid attention to sustainability issues in the business circle. However, few studies have explored what facilitates sustainability information disclosure. This study examines how corporate governance mechanisms, particularly government ownership, affect sustainability disclosure in an emerging economy—Vietnam. By combining related research streams, including stakeholder theory, institutional perspective, and principal–agent theory, we present a hypothesis on the effect of corporate governance on sustainability reporting. The logistic regression analysis and analysis of variance on 2678 Vietnamese sample firm-years from 2010 through 2016 indicate that government ownership is negatively associated with voluntary environmental and social information disclosure. Additionally, they demonstrate that ownership concentration tends to lower non-financial information disclosure, while individual largest shareholder has a positive effect. These findings provide managers and policymakers with theoretical and practical implications to encourage firms in emerging Asian economies such as Vietnam to adopt sustainability activities and disclose social information.

Keywords: sustainability management; sustainability information disclosure; government ownership; corporate governance; emerging economies (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

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