Abstract
The existing corporate environmental disclosure (CED) research focuses primarily on large companies operating in a single jurisdiction, leaving a gap of knowledge regarding the subsidiary operations of multinational corporations. In this study, consolidated narrative interrogation (CONI) is used to quantify CEDs presented in annual and stand-alone sustainability reports published over a 15-year span between 2002 and 2016 by agrochemical companies operating in India. Results show that the diversity, the quantity, and the quality of CED vary significantly, but generally each of them has been improving over time—most notably following the revisions to the Companies Act in 2013. The study finds that the subsidiaries of multinational agrochemical corporations implemented CED practices more strongly associated with those of domestic companies than those found in the reports produced by their parent companies. The CED of both subsidiary and domestic companies appears to reflect concerns of local legitimacy.
Highlights
Corporate environmental disclosure is generally thought of as “those disclosures that relate to the impact company activities have on the physical or natural environment in which they operate” [1] (p. 16)
The purpose of this research is to examine the extent to which the environmental reporting practices of parent multinational corporations (P-MNCs), their subsidiaries operating in India (I-MNCs), and domestic Indian companies in the same industry resemble one another, with particular focus given to the extent of standardization within multinational corporations
The Indian subsidiary corporations were selected corresponding to the parent multinational corporations; these corporations operate under the names Bayer CropScience (India), Syngenta India Ltd., BASF India Ltd., and Monsanto India Ltd., respectively
Summary
Corporate environmental disclosure is generally thought of as “those disclosures that relate to the impact company activities have on the physical or natural environment in which they operate” [1] (p. 16). Corporations have the opportunity to improve their reputation, which in turn can improve competitive advantage, increase profit margins, attract investors, and increase the potential sales market [3]. These corporations can benefit from cost-savings due to more efficient use of resources and reduced risk of legal actions or public slandering [3]. Innovation in the agrochemical industry remains high as corporations continue to develop new products to meet increasingly stringent environmental standards and predict agricultural resistance to applied substances [31,32]. Concerns over environmental and health issues related to the industry have been of concern and closely monitored by pollution control boards [41]
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