Mind the Gap: Is Water Disclosure a Missing Component of Corporate Social Responsibility?

Linhan Zhang, Qingliang Tang and Robin Hui Huang

The British Accounting Review, 2021, vol. 53, issue 1

Abstract: Corporate water stewardship is conventionally internally focused, but now it is becoming a critical issue in a wider socio-political context. Drawing on the theory of self-regulation, we investigate the rationale behind, and the factors contributing to, corporate decisions to voluntarily disclose water information via the CDP. The study uses innovative proxies for corporate self-regulation, including water governance, water policy, water actions, and water performance. Our results show that these proxies are significantly related to the propensity of the companies participating in the CDP to disclose water information. Furthermore, belonging to a water-intensive industry may moderate the impact of self-regulation on water transparency. Finally, sharing water information privately with key institutional investors is a strategic tool for implementing self-regulation. The study suggests that corporate self-regulation can play a powerful role in reducing corporate water opaqueness when mandatory water legislation is absent or not yet applicable.

Keywords: Water disclosure; Self-regulation; Private disclosure; Corporate social responsibility (CSR); Sustainability (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (9)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:bracre:v:53:y:2021:i:1:s0890838920300603

DOI: 10.1016/j.bar.2020.100940

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