Floodlight or Spotlight? Public Attention and the Selective Disclosure of Environmental Information

Shawn Pope, Jonathan Peillex, Imane El Ouadghiri and Mathieu Gomes ()
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Mathieu Gomes: CleRMa - Clermont Recherche Management - ESC Clermont-Ferrand - École Supérieure de Commerce (ESC) - Clermont-Ferrand - UCA [2017-2020] - Université Clermont Auvergne [2017-2020]

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Abstract: Abstract To meet growing demands for information on their environmental impacts, firms may engage in selective disclosure by strategically reporting only a subset of relevant data. In this article, we draw out and problematize an antecedent to selective disclosure, public attention . Prior studies suggest that public attention brings scrutiny that reduces selective disclosure by increasing the risk of getting caught ( the floodlight thesis ). The impression management literature, however, suggests that public attention offers the possibility of broad‐based image benefits from the disclosure of strategically filtered data ( the spotlight thesis ). Panel regressions with Trucost data from 2008–19 provide overall support for the spotlight thesis as well as a negative moderator, environmental damage. Results also point to an underlying mechanism: Companies receiving public attention disclose a larger number of environmental metrics, but not ones that, altogether, represent more environmental damage, a tactic that we call strategic fluffing .

Date: 2023-04-03
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Published in Journal of Management Studies, 2023, ⟨10.1111/joms.12920⟩

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:hal:journl:hal-04368061

DOI: 10.1111/joms.12920

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