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The objectivity of corporate environmental reporting: a study of Finnish listed firms' environmental disclosures
Author(s) -
Niskanen Jyrki,
Nieminen Terhi
Publication year - 2001
Publication title -
business strategy and the environment
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.123
H-Index - 105
eISSN - 1099-0836
pISSN - 0964-4733
DOI - 10.1002/1099-0836(200101/02)10:1<29::aid-bse268>3.0.co;2-d
Subject(s) - environmental reporting , objectivity (philosophy) , accounting , business , sample (material) , ex ante , annual report , actuarial science , economics , philosophy , chemistry , epistemology , chromatography , macroeconomics
This study examines the objectivity of Finnish listed companies' environmental reporting in their ordinary annual reports during the period 1985–1996. We study the firms' practice to disclose negative versus positive environmental events that are ex ante publicly known. As regards the entire research period, the results show that the environmental reporting of the sample firms cannot be considered objective, since the proportional share of negative events reported was negligible compared to the respective percentage for positive events. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment