Disclosure of Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management: Evidence from China

Abstract

ABSTRACTThis paper first evaluates the quality of corporate social responsibility (CSR) information disclosed in each report using content analysis. Results suggest that 41% of the sample firms fail to provide any information of the 42 CSR activities that allow outside stakeholders to understand their CSR actions; 42% offer text descriptions of their general CSR activities, but only 17% provide statistics about their achievements or other quantitative figures. Further, this paper also compares firms' environmental disclosure from the aspect of environmentally sensitive or ownership patterns. Results indicate that environmentally sensitive industries (ESIs) and state‐owned enterprises (SOEs) are significantly more committed to environmental information disclosure, particularly in ‘paying attention to energy saving/carbon reduction and development of circular economy’ and ‘promotion of research, new techniques, and methods of energy saving/carbon reduction’, both of which are under the energy saving/carbon reduction dimension. This paper attempts to provide some evidence related to Chinese firms coping with global warming. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment.