Research On Present Situation And Motivation Of Environmental Information Disclosure Of Listed Company

With the development of economics and society, environmental pollution is getting worse. At present, it has been fully recognized that companies have the responsibility of protecting environment. But generally speaking, it is difficult to know the extent of damage to the environment, and it is difficult to know measures of protecting environment taken by companies. In general, in order to understand the business development of companies, we can read the annual reports or prospectus. Now environmental pollution is drawing our attention increasingly, many companies began to disclose environmental information in different mediums because of various reasons. Thus, it is necessary to study environmental information disclosure of listed companies. We can have a clear understanding about the situation of environmental information disclosure of listed companies in China, and then we can make recommendations. We can also analyze variables which can affect disclosure of environmental information, and then propose suggestions to enhance the level of environmental information disclosure.In this article, normative research and empirical research are united, qualitative and quantitative research are united, we study situation and causes of environmental information disclosure from a theoretical point of view,and then we adopt the method of empirical research to analyze the influencing factors of environmental information disclosure, at last, the author attempts to provide policy recommendations which can improve the environmental information disclosure system and enhance the level of disclosure of environmental information.This article is divided into six chapters:Chapter one:IntroductionThis chapter introduced the background and significance of this article, and then proposes the research framework.Chapter two:Literature Review of Environmental Information DisclosureThis chapter summarized the domestic and international literatures of environmental information disclosure, found that most research have confirmed that variables including the size of company, profitability, degree of corporate liabilities affect the level of environmental information disclosure. But the research of environmental information disclosure is still not far enough, scholars did not focus on other variables which can affect environmental information disclosure. It is necessary to make research on environmental information disclosure.Chapter three:Theoretical Analysis of the Environmental Information DisclosureMany scholars researched the environmental information disclosure and produced a lot of theoretical viewpoints. The main points are:concept of fiduciary duty, decision-usefulness theory, corporate contract theory, external pressures theory, voluntary disclosure theory. In this chapter, author made the detailed explanation and analysis for these kinds of viewpoints, and concluded that:each view has its basic economic theory as its research premise. The "concept of fiduciary duty" is based on agent theory; the "decision-usefulness theory" is standing in the position of the function of information; the "corporate contract theory" is based on contract theory, the "external pressure theory" is standing in the position of the demand of public;the "voluntary disclosure theory" illustrate the problem from the enterprise's own initiative and adaptability perspective Although these theories are different, each has own research perspective. Therefore, each theory is reasonable.Chapter four:Current Situation of Environmental Information Disclosure of Listed Companies in ChinaFirst, this chapter outlined the laws and regulations about environmental information disclosure of listed companies. Now laws and regulations of environmental information disclosure are developing at an early construction phase, therefore it has not created great pressure for the environmental information disclosure. This paper believed that Chinese current environmental information disclosure system is not perfect yet, companies disclose environmental information are due to voluntary. Secondly, the chapter analyzed the way of environmental information disclosure of listed companies, pointing out that China's corporate environmental information disclosure is similar to the general information disclosure, mainly through the prospectus, listing particulars, annual reports, interim reports. The difference is that environmental information can also be reported through the independent accounting reports or environmental reports. Thirdly, this chapter designed a framework of environmental information disclosure, and on this basis, this article evaluated the different levels of disclosure of environmental information of listed companies according to the application of environmental information disclosure index. Finally, this article identified the object of study:the chemical industry of China's listed companies, then author analyzed the situation of environmental information disclosure. The study found that the content of environmental information disclosure of listed companies is not comprehensive,only focus on environmental policy,environmental protection,environmental responsibility and other content, and it is lack of comparability of environmental information, so the situation of disclosure is not optimistic.Chapter five:Empirical Research of Motivation of Environmental Information DisclosureAt present, the empirical analysis of motivation of environmental information mainly starts from the variables such as size of company, capital structure, profitability, industry type, but few scholars study the corporate governance variables which can affect environmental information disclosure. So this chapter researched the motivation of environmental information disclosure from the perspective of corporate governance, and then draws a conclusion.Chapter six:Conclusion and SuggestionAuthor proposed relevant recommendations according to the existing problems of environmental information disclosure. On the one hand, the relevant departments should design the framework of environmental information disclosure as soon as possible, this also can make stakeholders feel convenient; on the other hand, government should draw up the laws and regulations of environmental information disclosure, this can compel companies disclose environmental information. In addition, the research found that a lot of variables can affect the disclosure of environmental information, so we can improve the level of disclosure of environmental information by improve the ownership's structure and strengthen the management of the board of directors.The contribution of this paper is:designed the environmental information disclosure framework, so the level of environmental information disclosure can be quantified, therefore the analysis can be more accurate; In addition, researched motives of environmental information disclosure from the perspective of corporate governance, this is a new perspective and it has theoretical and practical significance.Weakness of this article is:environmental information disclosure framework was designed with a certain amount of subjectivity; this essay only considered two channels:annual report and prospectus, it neglected other disclosure channels; because this study is limited to one industry, empirical results can not be extended to all listed companies; it neglected variables which can not be quantified such as laws.