利益相关者对企业环境信息披露的驱动机制研究——以H石油公司渤海漏油事件为例

Stakeholders and Their Driving Mechanism towards Corporate Environmental Information Disclosure——A Case Study of 'H' Oil Company's Spill Event in Bohai Bay

研究了当前中国情境下,企业环境信息披露的压力来自哪些重要的利益相关者,这些利益相关者的环境利益诉求是什么,进而分析利益相关者对企业环境信息披露的驱动机制。基于利益相关者的理论视角,采用案例研究方法,以H石油公司渤海漏油这一典型的公开环境事件,依据公共危机事件四个阶段的划分理论,研究不同阶段利益相关者的行为和要求,以及企业的回应或措施。研究发现不同的利益相关者对企业环境披露的关注点与影响力具有较大的差异,并随着环境事件的孕育、震荡、调整和适应、结束四个阶段具有不同的表现。研究提出了政府如何完善企业环境信息披露制度并加强企业环境责任的政策建议。本研究价值在于揭示中国情境下企业环境信息披露的核心利益相关者及其利益诉求特点,以及各个阶段中利益相关者的作用力不是平行的,而是交织形成复杂的驱动力,这丰富了利益相关者理论在中国环境披露实践中的应用。

The pressure of stakeholders is one of the determinants that drive firms disclosing environmental information in the context of China.The objective of this paper is to address a set of questions in the process of corporate environmental disclosure,that is,what were the important stakeholders,what were stakeholders interested in,and how firms were drove and responded.Based on stakeholder theory,this paper uses the method of case study,that is,adopts the 'H' company's oil spill event in China's Bohai Bay.According to the four stages of public crisis division,the behaviors and requirements of stakeholders and corporate responses or measures at different stages were conducted.The results show that different stakeholders had different interests and influence on corporate environmental information disclosure,and acted with different modes in the four crisis stages(i.e.,prodromal,breakout or acute,response,recovery).Also,we found that the power of stakeholders upon the firms related to environment information disclosure was not parallel,but mutually interacted and thereby formed complex driving forces.The findings have important practical implications for firms to better manage and balance the appeal of stakeholders,and for regulators to further improve the policy of environmental disclosure so as to strengthen corporate environmental responsibility.This paper dissects a case of a serious oil spill event from the theoretical framework of stakeholder theory.It revealed the core stakeholders of corporate environmental information disclosure and their appeal,as well as the mode of stakeholder's pressure and evolution in the four stages.The driven mechanism of stakeholders on corporate environmental information disclosure was proposed in the setting of China,which enriched the stakeholder theory in the domain of disclosure of corporate environmental responsibility.