A Study On The Institutional Performance And Influencing Factors Of Corporate Environmental Responsibility Information Disclosure

After the thorough investigation into the current situation and relevant research on environmental information disclosure, this dissertation argues that the existing research on corporate environmental information disclosure mainly focuses on the correlation between information disclosure and economic performance as well as the influencing factors, ignoring the institutional aspect. To this end, this dissertation, from an institution innovation perspective, centers on the construction and perfection of environmental responsibility information disclosure system for Chinese enterprises to meet the requirements of economic and social development.Basing on institutional economics, public economics and relevant theories of corporate environmental information disclosure, this dissertation first constructs the theory framework of the information disclosure system by explicitly defining the research scope and analysis basis, the concepts and objectives of corporate environmental information disclosure system. After the research enlightenment through referring to international experience, this dissertation, taking the samples of environmental information data disclosed by listed companies in China’s heavy pollution industry from 2006 to 2013, uses historical analysis and econometric inspection methods to verify the operational performance level and features of information disclosure system, reveal the existing problems and analyze the influencing factors of the institutional performance. Finally, this dissertation puts forth some operable policy advice for the institutional innovation of corporate environmental responsibility information disclosure in China.一、The main contents of this dissertation( 一) Theoretical analysis for corporate environmental responsibility information disclosure system1. Theory framework of corporate environmental responsibility information disclosure systemDefining the corporate environmental responsibility information disclosure system, this dissertation completes the exploratory construction of the theory framework:(1)puts forward the overall objective of the system---to inform the users of useful corporate environmental information;(2)determines the interest subject of the system and the information requirements; defines the four elements of environmental information and the basic connotation of each element;(3)puts forth the basic and improving qualitative features of corporate environmental information;(4)illustrates the confirmation and measurement of environmental accounting elements as well as the technique of quantifying the enterprise’s information of resource consumption and pollutant discharge;(5)advises enterprises to use environmental statements to disclose environmental information;(6)suggests combining the external pressure(formed by legal compulsion, government regulation, media public opinion and public supervision) with internal impetus(coming from the expect of getting long-term interests and controlling the environmental risks) to enforce the operation of the disclosure system.2. Functional mechanism of environmental public policy on corporate environmental information disclosure systemOn the theory of environmental public policy, in consideration of the executive strength and supervision cost of environmental public policy, enterprise’s enforcement costs or violation costs of public policy under different degrees of regulation, the setting of the emission charge rate, the transaction of permission permits and the possibility of increasing enforcement costs or violation costs under public engagement, the functional mechanism of environmental public policy on information disclosure is analyzed from the perspectives of command-control and economic-incentive policy instruments.3. Formation, evolution and current institutional arrangement of corporate environmental responsibility information disclosure system(1) Referring to the classification criteria of the institutional evolution of developed countries, this dissertation analyzes the initial forming condition and the evolving process of China, dividing it into four stages: less-disclosing stage, authority-disclosing stage, government-encouraging voluntary disclosing stage, voluntary and compulsory disclosing stage. The first three stages are of weak legal binding while the last one’s legal binding is strong.(2) The formal institutional arrangements for corporate environmental responsibility information disclosure in China includes:① the series of environmental protection regulations issued by Standing Committee of National People’s Congress and dominated by ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION LAW OF THE PEOPLE’S REPUBLIC OF CHINA, involving less clauses of corporate environmental information disclosure;② the regulations of Ministry of Environmental Protection, including MEASURES FOR THE DISCLOSURE OF ENVIRONMENTAL INFORMATION of 2007 and GUIDE OPINIONS ON STRENGTHENING THE SUPERVISION OF ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION OF LISTED COMPANY of 2008;③ the regulations of China Securities Regulatory Commission concerning the environmental information disclosure and supervision, including GUIDELINGES ON ENVIRONMENTAL INFORMATION DISCLOSURE OF LISTED COMPANY IN SHANGHAI STOCK EXCHANGE of 2008.The two regulations of 2008 are very important for the establishment of corporate environmental information disclosure system. Therefore, the year of 2008 is regarded as the first year of the formal establishment of the system.(二)Empirical study of the operation of corporate environmental responsibility information disclosure system1. Current situation of corporate environmental responsibility information disclosure in ChinaThe 2013’s statistics of 988 listed companies of heavy pollution industry in Shanghai and Shenzhen A-share stock markets show that over 80% of the companies disclosed environmental information in Directors’ Report or Notes of Accounting Reports; disclosed information focused on environmental management, ignoring environmental costs and liability; there are great qualitative and quantitative differences among industries.The environmental information of 6378 listed companies of heavy pollution industry in Shanghai and Shenzhen A-share stock markets from 2006 to 2013 is evaluated by “content analysis” method. The results show that the population mean of environmental information disclosing level for heavy pollution industries is always keeping up an upward tendency, which illustrates the annual increase of the quality of information disclosure.2. Performance evaluation on corporate environmental responsibility information disclosure system in China(1) This dissertation uses “objective analysis” method to construct the institutional performance indicator system for corporate environmental information disclosure. There are 25 indicators in the system, including qualitative features, environmental costs, etc. Following the basic steps of AHP method, a judgment matrix is set up to calculate the index weight and carry out consistency test. The results show, the average comprehensive performance of environmental information disclosure of listed companies in heavy pollution industry from 2006 to 2013 remains an upward tendency.(2) Four groups of two-paired samples and Wilcoxon signed ranks test are chosen to make an empirical test and the results show: after carrying out the disclosure system, there are significant differences in infor mation quality, disclosure of negative infor mation, improving environmental performance, government supervision and social evaluation, comprehensive perfor mance; among the above aspects, there is a one year lag phase of effect only in promoting infor mation quality level.3. Empirical analysis on the performance influencing factors of corporate environmental responsibility information disclosure systemTaking 3464 listed companies in heavy pollution industry from 2006 to 2013 as samples, using panel data, this dissertation empirically analyzes the influencing trend and degree of the internal and external factors on the institutional performance of corporate environmental information disclosure.Internal factors: the level of information disclosure will be significantly improved with the increase of company scale and profitability; the listing location of company will greatly influence the institutional performance while the financial leverage of company won’t. As for corporate governance, the proportion of independent directors in Board of Directors, as well as the scale of Board of Supervisors can improve the institutional performance. The proportion of senior executives with high academic qualifications and the average age of senior executives are helpful in improving the institutional performance. For other aspects, the duty separation of President and General Manager has no significant influence on institutional performance, while the social responsibility performance has significant positive correlation with it. And the nature of equity has no sound influence on institutional performance.External factors: since 2008, the change of institutional environment and the marketization index can promote the institutional performance; the impact of corporate governance on institutional performance can be greatly influenced by external environment—the higher the level of economic development is, the greater the impact is.( 三) Construction of corporate environmental responsibility information disclosure system in China1. To formulate laws and accounting standards for corporate environmental information disclosure in ChinaThis dissertation believes that the disclosure system lacks core law and accounting standards. Therefore, it suggests government to use the experience of other developed countries and international organizations for reference, formulate core laws of environmental information disclosure to regulate disclosing contents, define the disclosing subject and set the subject of disclosing liability. It also suggests referring to the documents of international organizations to formulate environmental accounting standards--putting forward objective and quality standard for information; regulating elements, recognition and measurement of environmental information; confirming the Quantization Technique for physical quantity of resource and pollution; taking environment statements as it carrier to disclose corporate environmental information.2. To enact the detailed rules for the implementation of the regulations of corporate environmental information disclosureAccording to the conclusions of empirical research, this dissertation proposes THE STANDARD DETAILED RULES FOR THE IMPLEMENTATION OF CORPORATE ENVIRONMENTAL IMFORMATION REPORT jointly enacted by Ministry of Environmental Protection, China Securities Regulatory Commission, State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission, Treasury Department and Auditing Department. Basing on China’s current situation, it puts forward the elements and connotation of corporate environmental responsibility reports, designs the information statements. It also suggests using quantified disclosure to improve the reliability, comparability and usefulness of information, preparing the statement instruction according to the report items to enhance the operability of statement preparation.3. To strengthen the supervisory mechanism of the operation of corporate environmental information disclosure systemThis dissertation divides the enforcing mechanism of disclosure system into external government supervision and inner control. The supervision is jointly carried out by Ministry of Environmental Protection, China Securities Regulatory Commission, National Audit Office, State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission and Treasury Department. They will exert the supervising advantages to punish the listed companies who refuse to disclose or disclose inferior environmental information. The inner control mechanism is jointly performed by the inner control norm, environmental administrative organization and inner environment report audit.二、Research feature or possible innovation( 一) Exploringly constructing the theory framework of corporate environmental responsibility information disclosure systemDefining the corporate environmental responsibility information disclosure system, this dissertation puts forward the overall objective of the system, determines the interest subject of the system, the information requirements, the qualitative features, the technique of quantifying the enterprises’ information of resource consumption and pollutant discharge, the confirmation and measurement of environmental accounting elements. It also designs the corporate environmental statements and suggests combining the external pressure with internal impetus to enforce the operation of the disclosure system. By this way does this dissertation complete the exploratory construction of the theory framework.( 二) Systematically constructing the institutional performance indicator system for corporate environmental information disclosureAt present, there is no direct, systematical and high-operability institutional performance indicator system for corporate environmental information disclosure. The related studies at home and abroad mainly belong to performance evaluation index system for corporate environment or disclosure performance index system for corporate environmental information. On the summary of domestic and overseas literatures and following the principles of systematicness and operability, this dissertation uses “objective analysis” method to construct the institutional performance indicator system for corporate environmental information disclosure, which lays a solid foundation for the evaluation of the institutional performance.(三)Introducing the nonparametric test methods into the evaluation of disclosing system, which enriches the theory of environmental management accountingThe present comprehensive evaluation on institutional effects mostly belongs to the cross-section evaluation of small sample, which uses descriptive statistic method rather than empirical method to compare the effects before and after the implementation of system. This dissertation takes A-share listed companies as example, uses Wilcoxon signed ranks test to evaluate the institutional effects of information disclosure. This method is superior to the descriptive statistic method because it eliminates the influence of non-institutional factors.(四)New findings of empirical research(1)The empirical research taking marketization index as explaining variable shows that the marketization index has significant positive correlation with the institutional performance of environmental responsibility information disclosure.( 2) The two regulations of Ministry of Environmental Protection and China Securities Regulatory Commission in 2008 are taken as the sign of establishing corporate environmental information disclosure system. And the year of 2008 is regarded as the first year of the formal establishment of the system. The research shows, since 2008, the change of institutional environment can significantly promote the institutional performance.(3)the impact of corporate governance on institutional performance can be greatly influenced by external environment—the higher the level of economic development is, the greater the impact is.三、Academic and application value of the research results(一)Academic valueChina’s corporate environmental responsibility information disclosure system is on the initial stage. Basing on China’s current situation, this dissertation thoroughly analyzes the functional mechanism of environmental public policy on corporate environmental information disclosure system, sets the objective of the system, determines the information elements useful to decision makers and puts forward quantifying the enterprises’ information. It will enrich the theory connotation of the disclosing system and contribute to constructing and perfecting corporate environmental responsibility information disclosure system.(二)Application valueThis dissertation explores the operable and comprehensive indicator system for corporate environmental responsibility information disclosure system, forms the institutional system for operable environmental responsibility reports by designing the information statements and preparing the statement instruction. The conclusion of empirical research manifest that the increase of the scale and profitability of company, the place of IPO, as well as the promotion of company governance have significant influence on the institutional performance. The research results will provide experimental evidence to perfect the policy design of environmental information disclosure.