Asymmetric Response: Explaining Corporate Social Disclosure by Multi-National Firms in Environmentally Sensitive Industries

Steven Toms

No 42, The York Management School Working Papers from The York Management School, University of York

Abstract: The paper examines the determinants of corporate social disclosure (CSD) using a sample drawn from environmentally sensitive industries. It extends the traditional literature in two respects. First, it is international in scope, examining the accounting disclosure responses of multi-national companies to the pressures implied by the nature and scope of their operations. Second, variables measuring political risk and social development are developed so that these pressures can be measured, thereby introducing new dimensions to the literature. In common with previous studies, financial risk, size and other control variables are included. The relationships are tested econometrically utilising regression techniques not previously applied in the CSD literature but nonetheless more generally appropriate when using count dependent variables. Our results suggest that managers feel an unequal sense of responsibility to different constituencies and their disclosure priorities are determined by stock market accountability, lobbying power of their domestic audience and the political risk of their activities rather than the impact of their activities in countries of operation.

Pages: 28 pages
Date: 2008-07
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://eprints.whiterose.ac.uk/4157/1/wp42toms.pdf (application/pdf)

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:wrc:ymswp1:42

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in The York Management School Working Papers from The York Management School, University of York Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by White Rose Research Online () and The York Management School ( this e-mail address is bad, please contact ).