Social and Environmental Disclosure by Chinese Firms Yingjun Lu and Indra Abeysekera Routledge Taylor & Francis Group LONDON AND NEW YORK
Contents List offigures List of tables A cknowledgements 1 Introduction 1.1 Introduction 1 1.2 Motivations for considering China 1 1.3 Three research issues 4 1.4 An overview of research methods usedfor this study 5 1.5 Research contributions 6 1.6 Overview of remaining chapters 7 2 Literature review 2.1 Introduction 8 2.2 Definitions of social and environmental accounting 8 2.3 An overview of the development of social and environmental accounting literature 11 2.4 Social and environmental disclosure studies in developed countries 16 2.5 Social and environmental disclosure studies in developing countries 29 2.6 Social and environmental disclosure studies in China 31 2.7 Corporate governance - a related literature to social and environmental disclosure and corporate reputation 33 2.8 Gaps in the literature 36 2.9 Conclusions 37
vi Contents 3 Theoretical framework 39 3.1 Introduction 39 3.2 A brief overview of theorising in social and environmental disclosure studies 39 3.3 Legitimacy theory 42 3.4 Impression management theory 49 3.5 Stakeholder theory 54 3.6 A Joint consideration of legitimacy theory and stakeholder theory to investigate corporate social and environmental disclosure 57 3.7 A Joint consideration of Impression management theory, stakeholder theory and legitimacy theory to study corporate reputation 59 3.8 The application of the theoretical framework in the Chinese context 60 3.9 Research hypotheses 64 3.10 Conclusions 73 4 Research methodology and methods 74 4.1 Introduction 74 4.2 Research methodology 74 4.3 Research methods 77 4.4 A summary of methods employed in the social and environmental accounting literature 80 4.5 An overview of research designfor this study 82 4.6 Research methods usedfor the first stage of research 83 4.7 Research methods usedfor the second stage of research 100 4.8 Research methods usedfor the third stage of research 102 4.9 Conclusions 105 5 Empirical results - the current social and environmental disclosure practices of socially responsible Chinese listed firms 106 5.1 Introduction 106 5.2 Social and environmental disclosure: communicating legitimacy and stakeholder engagement 106 5.3 Results and analyses of the questionnaire survey 108 5.4 Results of stakeholder panel consultation 112 5.5 A general comparison of disclosure between different reporting media at SEDI level 113 5.6 A gener al comparison of disclosure between different reporting media on GRI categories 114
5.7 Disclosure on GR1 indicators by media 115 5.8 Conclusions 126 Empirical results - stakeholders' power, corporate characteristics, and social and environmental disclosure 6.1 Introduction 128 6.2 Descriptive analysis for the variables 128 6.3 Analysis - disclosure at the SEDI level 129 6.4 Further analysis - disclosure at the GRI categories level 132 6.5 Additional analysis 133 6.6 Conclusions 140 Empirical results - CSR report, corporate governance and corporate reputation 7.1 Introduction 142 7.2 Descriptive analysis for the variables 142 7.3 Correlation matrix and bivariate analysis 143 7.4 Regression and multivariate analysis 144 7.5 Additional analysis 147 7.6 Conclusions 149 Conclusions 8.1 Introduction 150 8.2 Research overview 150 8.3 Findings 151 8.4 Practical implications 152 8.5 Research limitations 153 8.6 Future research 153 Appendix 1: 2008 and 2009 Chinese listed firms' social responsibility ranking list Appendix 2: Standard disclosure items of the GRI (G3) sustainability reporting guidelines Appendix 3: Social and environmental disclosure measurement in the literature Appendix 4: Questionnaire Appendix 5: Rating criteria of the Chinese listed firms' social responsibility ranking list
viii Contents Appendix 6: Nonparametric tests for context disclosure types 201 Appendix 7: Nonparametric tests for Performance disclosure types 204 Appendix 8: Importance of SEDI items 215 References 218 Index 237