AN ANALYSIS OF ACCOUNTING RESEARCH ON ENVIRONMENTAL DISCLOSURE: 2006 – 2011

This study aims to contribute for an accounting state-of-the-art on environmental disclosure through the analysis of the articles published in 20 accounting top journals ranging between 2006 and 2011. 130 articles were identified, the majority of which having been published in the journals Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, Accounting Forum, Accounting, Organizations and Society. From the universe composed of the identified studies, 62 articles were analyzed. For each article we decided to focus on the following dimensions: the objectives and obtained results, the adopted methodologies, data sources, industry activities, and the countries of interest. The studies seek to understand the practices and to identify the factors that influence the environmental disclosure, to analyze regulatory impact on environmental disclosure, to validate a “social theory”, to study the environmental accounting systems, and to analyze the relation between environmental disclosure and environmental and economic performance. We have observed that the majority of studies present a longitudinal approach and preferably uses content analysis as a methodology.