A study of the determinants of environmental disclosure quality: evidence from French listed companies

Fatma Baalouch (), Salma Damak Ayadi () and Khaled Hussainey ()
Additional contact information
Fatma Baalouch: University of Carthage
Salma Damak Ayadi: University of Carthage

Journal of Management & Governance, 2019, vol. 23, issue 4, No 7, 939-971

Abstract: Abstract We examine the impact of various factors on the quality of environmental disclosure. Combining multi-theories in a unique framework, it focuses on factors related to the strategy and vision of the firm (environmental audit, presence of an environmental committee), diversity of and within boards (independence of the board, gender diversity) and factors related to the environment (environmental performance, degree of pollution of the company). This study involves an attempt to develop a self-constructed index to measure environmental disclosure quality using qualitative attributes as provided by IASB and GRI frameworks and following (Chauvey et al. in J Bus Ethics, 130(4):789–803, 2014). A number of econometric techniques are used including panel data specifications using a sample of French listed companies in SBF120 for the period 2009–2014. The study found that quality of disclosure remains relatively low. In addition, the findings indicate that a company’s strategy and vision (environmental audit), diversity in boards (gender diversity) and environmental performance play significant roles in explaining variations in quality of environmental disclosure. This paper sheds light on whether various factors could affect the credibility of disclosed information using a multi theory framework. Standards setters and policy makers are recommended to think about implementing a generally accepted framework of non-financial reporting to answer the demand for more transparency and accountability. This paper fills the gap in the literature by highlighting an unexplored area of literature related to the quality of non-financial reporting drawing upon the regulatory framework of financial reporting.

Keywords: Environmental disclosure; Disclosure quality; Strategy and vision; Diversity; Environmental performance; France (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (48)

Downloads: (external link)
http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s10997-019-09474-0 Abstract (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:kap:jmgtgv:v:23:y:2019:i:4:d:10.1007_s10997-019-09474-0

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.springer. ... 29/journal/10997/PS2

DOI: 10.1007/s10997-019-09474-0

Access Statistics for this article

Journal of Management & Governance is currently edited by Lino Cinquini

More articles in Journal of Management & Governance from Springer, Accademia Italiana di Economia Aziendale (AIDEA) Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().