Do Companies’ Characteristics Play Key Roles in the Level of their Environmental Disclosures?

Abstract

After reviewing the literature, we noticed that the vast majority of studies in the field of environmental accounting and disclosure have focused on developed countries such as Western Europe, America and Australia, while neglected developing countries. This study investigates the relationship between the level of environmental disclosure and company’s characteristics. The researchers identified a number of characteristics that associate with companies’ environmental disclosure, these are: Company’s size, company’s privatization, company’s age and company’s nationality. In the light of empirical results it is noticed that almost 100% of companies disclose some environmental information and they provide three types of environmental information good, neutral and bad news. In addition a significant positive association found between level of environmental disclosure and company’s size, company’s privatization and company’s nationality. Therefore it provide further evidence which emphasize that these characteristics are important elements and have an impact on the level and value of environmental disclosure. On the other hand it was found that age of company is insignificant and negatively related to the level of environmental disclosure.