告白还是辩白——企业环境表现与环境信息披露关系研究

Confess or Defense?A Study on the Relationship between Environmental Performance and Environmental Disclosure

本文以环境信息披露为切入点,从经济学的信号传递理论和政治学的合法性理论两个竞争性的视角,验证企业自愿披露非财务信息的动机。借助自行构建的企业环境表现和环境信息披露评价指标,基于2008-2010年重污染行业上市公司的大样本数据检验发现:(1)企业环境表现与环境信息披露之间存在显著的U型关系;(2)当企业环境表现水平较高时,环境表现越好的企业环境信息披露水平越高,并且信息质量较高;(3)当企业环境表现水平较低时,环境表现越差的企业环境信息披露水平越高,这一特征在国有企业中尤为显著,并且披露的信息以数量而非质量取胜。本文突破了以往基于单一视角和线性关系的研究,在理论和数据等方面丰富了自愿性非财务信息披露的文献。

With the increasing public attention to environmental events, there is a growing academic interest in accounting on environmental disclosure. This paper explores the motivation of corporate voluntary disclosure of environmental information from two competing perspectives, signaling theory in economics and legitimacy theory in sociology. Based on previous studies of relationship between environmental performance and environmental disclosure, this paper extends the research to the influences on the relationship of environmental performance level, the ownership of corporation and the type of environmental information. Using self- developed index of environmental performance and environmental disclosure for Chinese enterprises, and based on the data of heavy polluting companies listed in Shanghai and Shenzhen Stock Exchange from 2008 to 2011, the empirical results show that： （1） There exists a significant U-shaped relationship between corporate environmental performance and environmental disclosure, rather than a linear relationship suggested by existing researches; （2） For companies with high level environmental performance, the better the environmental performance, the more environmental disclosure with higher quality, showing that firms with good environmental performance tend to confess to the public through disclosure. This relationship is not significantly different in state-owned and non-state-owned corporations; （3） For companies with low level environmental performance, the worse the environmental performance, the more environmental disclosure with larger quantity, showing that firms with poor environmental performance tend to defense through environmental disclosure. This relationship is especially significant in state-owned enterprises, implying that the state-owned corporations are subject to more legitimacy pressure. This paper contributes to accounting literature in three aspects. Firstly, it introduces institutional factors into the research on motivations of voluntary non- financial disclosure. Secondly, it reconciles the existing contradictory explanations for the relationship between environmental performance and environmental disclosure. Finally, it establishes the measure and database of environmental performance for firms in China, which will enrich the empirical study in this area.