An implementation assessment of China's Environmental Information Disclosure Decree

China＇s 2007 Open Government Information Regulations is widely considered as a milestone in the country＇s information policy history and is praised as a ＂sunshine program＂. The Environmental Information Disclosure Decree was the first to operationalize these general regulations into a sectorai information disclosure system on environment. This study assessed the implementation of the environmental information disclosure system about six months after the Decree took effect on May 1, 2008. Through reviewing the websites of all 31 provincial Environmental Protection Bureaus and the Ministry of Environmental Protection, conducting an experiment with actual information disclosure request, and through interviews with all provincial Environmental Protection Bureaus, this article concluded that the implementation of the environmental information disclosure system still fails short. Future improvements should focus on further publicity of the regulations and decree to enhance public participation, the establishment of an independent evaluation and supervision system for information disclosure, the exchange of experiences and best practices among provincial Environmental Protection Bureaus, and on strengthening the legal status of environmental information disclosure.

Relationship between Chief Executive Officer characteristics and corporate environmental information disclosure in Thailand

This study focuses on the influence of Chief Executive Officer(CEO)characteristics on environmental information disclosure(EID)in the annual reports of companies listed on the Stock Exchange of Thailand.A regression analysis method is used to explore the relationship between CEO characteristics and corporate environmental disclosure.Pollution-intensive companies are taken as the samples in this study.Results show that financial expertise,educational level,and tenure of CEOs are positively correlated with corporate EID.By contrast,age or gender of CEOs is insignificantly related to EID.

ENVIRONMENTAL INFORMATION DISCLOSURE IN CHINA： IN THE ERA OF INFORMATIZATION AND BIG DATA

The past decade has seen remarkable progress made in the field of environmental information disclosure in China. While the overall institutional changes and the motivation/willingness of the government to open up information are important conditions, China＇s encounter with revolutionary Information and Communication Technological （ICT） advancement and rapidly emerging big data quickly changed China from an ＂information poor environment＂ to an ＂information complex environment.＂ While most previous studies centered on those drives/constraints that were recognized in established informational governance framework, recent advancement in ICTs and emerging big data posed new challenges, opportunities and research questions. When increasing information disclosure became a new game changer in environmental governance, China has had to cope with risks and pitfalls in a new technology-empowered information environment as well. This article updated previous studies on legislation/ regulations/policies regarding environmental information disclosure in China and their implementation effectiveness, and paid special attention to China＇s recent informatization progress and emerging big data. Information disclosure was treated as a process that includes data/information generation/collection, disclosure, functional pathways of communication, and direct/indirect impacts. Changes in environmental information disclosure should be understood in a broader context of overall changing environmental governance and informatization in China. It is important to understand ICTs and information disclosure as a double-edged sword. Normative, substantive, and instrumental benefits of disclosure as well as collection and reporting costs, the issue of targeted transparency, and the risk of unintended use should be strategically considered. Principles and guidelines need to be developed to avoid pitfalls while maximizing benefits.

‘Isomorp hic’behavior of corporate greenwashing

In the implementation of corporate environmental responsibility,‘greenwashing’is a pseudo-social behavior which is theopposite of‘genuine green’behaviors.With the improvement of the public awareness of environmental protection and the strengthening of the government environmental supervision,more and more enterprises are learning the green behavior adaptively.The frequentoccurrence of greenwashing has become a‘disharmonious’voice in the construction of ecological civilization.Institutional theory holdsthat institutional factors make organizations become more similar in structure and performance due to institutional forces.This paper describes an exploratory research on the law of group behavior in corporate greenwashing,analyzes the isomorphic mechanism of corporate greenwashing based on the institutional theory,and carries out an empirical test by using the data of A-share listed companiesin heavily polluting industries during the period of 2010−2016.The research in this paper shows that corporate greenwashing behavioris significantly affected by neighboring enterprises in the same region,and proves the existence of the‘bandwagon’effect.The results of analysis based on the nature of property rights show that state-owned enterprises have more significant regional isomorphic behaviors,indicating that state-owned enterprises are more inclined to claim legitimacy through the institutional isomorphism of greenwashing.Results of further analysis show that,greenwashing isomorphism does not significantly improve the operating performance of enterprises,but the similarity strengthens the ability of these enterprises to bear risks under an uncertain environment.As such,this provides empirical evidence support for the hypothesis that‘organizational isomorphism is usually for legitimacy rather than efficiency’in the institutional theory.The research in this paper reveals the land-derived characteristic of greenwashing behavior,and provides adecisive reference for policy implication.For the control of greenwashing,the central government should enforce and standardize theenterprise environmental report in terms of institutional arrangement,unify the form and content of disclosure,and improve the credibility and comparability of environmental information disclosure.The local governments need to strengthen the supervision of enterprises within their jurisdiction,as well as the coordination,cooperation and information sharing between departments,increase the punishment of violations,break the legal for enterprises to obtain socialrecognition by greenwashing.Meanwhile,it is necessary for the promotion of‘genuine green’large companies and state owned enterprises as role models.