Corporate Sustainability Practices in Polluting Industries: Evidence from India, China and USA

Prem Sagar Mishra


Department of Management Studies, Indian Institute of Technology (ISM) Dhanbad, Jharkhand-826004 (India)

Ajay Kumar


Department of Management Studies, Indian Institute of Technology (ISM) Dhanbad, Jharkhand-826004 (India)

Niladri Das


Department of Management Studies, Indian Institute of Technology (ISM) Dhanbad, Jharkhand-826004 (India)

Abstract

In recent years, the tilt of the corporate world towards non-financial reporting can be clearly seen from traditional accounting practices. Sustainability reporting disclosures are an important tool for providing information about the environmental and social performance of companies to their various stakeholders. From a financial perspective, for any firm, there is always a possibility of reporting more of the information that favours their interests or conceal that which is not in their favour. This study evaluates the annual and sustainability reports of 380 Indian, 400 Chinese and 400 USA companies from five highly polluting industries on the basis of GRI (global reporting initiatives) guidelines. From the result, it is inferred that the findings are consistent with the legitimacy theory. The result shows that the profitability and capital structure of firms in the sample do not affect the sustainability reporting practices significantly. In addition, larger firms have a tendency to disclose more information in their annual and sustainability reports than smaller firms.


Keywords:

environmental management, sustainability reporting, polluting industries, sustainability accounting, legitimacy theory

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Published
2020-01-02

Cited by

Mishra, P. S., Kumar, A., & Das, N. (2020). Corporate Sustainability Practices in Polluting Industries: Evidence from India, China and USA. Problemy Ekorozwoju, 15(1), 161–168. https://doi.org/10.35784/pe.2020.1.17

Authors

Prem Sagar Mishra 

Department of Management Studies, Indian Institute of Technology (ISM) Dhanbad, Jharkhand-826004 India

Authors

Ajay Kumar 

Department of Management Studies, Indian Institute of Technology (ISM) Dhanbad, Jharkhand-826004 India

Authors

Niladri Das 

Department of Management Studies, Indian Institute of Technology (ISM) Dhanbad, Jharkhand-826004 India

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