Multinational and domestic agrochemical corporations in India: an analysis of the standardization of corporate environmental disclosures

Anna Jessop

doi:10.32920/ryerson.14658228

Abstract

Multinational corporations operating in developed countries are leaders in corporate environmental disclosure (CED), this often isn’t true for subsidiaries operating in developing countries. The majority of CED research that has been conducted focuses primarily on large multinational corporations, leaving a gap of knowledge regarding the subsidiary operations of multinational corporations. This study provides insight into whether or not multinational corporations are implementing comprehensive disclosure practices throughout the entirety of their operations and if reporting practices are more strongly influenced by country of origin or country of operation. Consolidated narrative interrogation (CONI) is used to quantify CEDs presented in annual and stand-alone sustainability reports published between 2002 and 2016 by companies from three categories of corporations. Results show that the corporation category is a significant factor affecting the diversity, quantity and quality of disclosures, indicating a lack of standardization among the reporting practices of the different categories of corporations.

Highlights

1.1 OverviewCorporate environmental disclosures (CEDs) are publications made by corporations that contain environmental information
Results showed that the corporation category was a significant factor affecting the diversity, quantity, and quality of disclosures, indicating that there is a lack of standardization across the reporting practices of the different categories of corporations
Multinational corporations operating in developed countries are leaders in corporate environmental disclosure (CED), this often is not true for subsidiaries operating in developing countries

Summary

Introduction

1.1 OverviewCorporate environmental disclosures (CEDs) are publications made by corporations that contain environmental information. The purpose of this study is to analyze the CEDs from three different corporate categories: (1) parent multinationals, (2) Indian subsidiaries of those multinationals, and (3) Indian domestic corporations, over a fifteen-year timeframe. This will address a recognized gap in the literature (Ali et al, 2017) and enhance understanding of how corporations in these three categories report. Multinational corporations are leaders in producing corporate environmental disclosures, this is often not true for multinational subsidiaries operating in developing countries (KPMG, 2011). Benefits of a standardized approach to environmental disclosures within multinational corporations can include better performance targets for subsidiaries, improved policy and auditing for subsidiaries, as well as more comparable information for stakeholders (Christmann, 2004). Studies examining corporate environmental disclosure of multinationals rarely include subsidiary corporations and studies focused on domestic corporations rarely make a distinction between domestic corporations and foreign-operated multinational subsidiaries (Wilson, 2013)

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