Factors influencing corporate social and environmental disclosures: a systematic review

Odhiambo Odera, Albert H.S. Scott and Jeff Gow

International Journal of Business Governance and Ethics, 2016, vol. 11, issue 2, 116-134

Abstract: This study reviews the literature which attempts to analyse factors influencing corporate social and environmental disclosure (SED). Of particular interest are two questions: 1) Which companies are motivated to provide information on their SED responsibilities?; 2) Why are companies interested in SED? The review was carried out by primarily consulting leading corporate management and accounting journals over the past 30 years. An analysis of the factors affecting SED reporting was undertaken. The motivations of companies for SED vary widely, yet the literature strongly suggests there is inconsistency in motives. So why are companies interested in SED? This was explained primarily as a function of corporate image making and to avoid scrutiny by government which could lead to adverse publicity. There is wide variation in both the quantity and quality of disclosures. There are also noticeable differences in SED between developed, transition and developing country companies.

Keywords: corporate social responsibility; CSR; social disclosure; environmental disclosure; SEDs; developed countries; developing countries; annual reports; literature review; corporate image; disclosure quantity; disclosure quality. (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2016
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.inderscience.com/link.php?id=78199 (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ids:ijbget:v:11:y:2016:i:2:p:116-134

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in International Journal of Business Governance and Ethics from Inderscience Enterprises Ltd
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sarah Parker ().