Access the full text.
Sign up today, get DeepDyve free for 14 days.
Loading next page...
/lp/emerald-publishing/textual-characteristics-of-corporate-sustainability-disclosure-and-Zks4UpINK3
References (103)
-
Tanusree Jain, D. Jamali (2016)
Looking Inside the Black Box: The Effect of Corporate Governance on Corporate Social ResponsibilityInternational Corporate Finance eJournal
-
David Deephouse (1996)
Does Isomorphism Legitimate?ERN: Other Organizations & Markets: Policies & Processes (Topic)
-
C. Deegan, Michaela Rankin (1996)
Do Australian companies report environmental news objectively?: An analysis of environmental disclosures by firms prosecuted successfully by the Environmental Protection AuthorityAccounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, 9
-
Jennifer Fellow, Tom Finance, Yushu Finance (2015)
Endogeneity in Accounting and Finance Research: Natural Experiments as a State-of-the-Art SolutionAbacus, 51
-
(2018)
Corporate sustainability reporting in Australia: an analysis of ASX200 disclosure -
Feng Li (2008)
Annual Report Readability, Current Earnings, and Earnings PersistenceJournal of Accounting and Economics, 45
-
G. Stone, L. Parker (2013)
Developing the Flesch reading ease formula for the contemporary accounting communications landscapeQualitative Research in Accounting & Management, 10
-
Investigating causal relations by econometric models and cross-spectral methods
Econometrica, 37
-
C. Kearney, Shan Liu (2013)
Textual Sentiment in Finance: A Survey of Methods and ModelsERN: Behavioral Finance (Microeconomics) (Topic)
-
Jason Mitchell, Majella Percy, Bridget McKinlay (2004)
Voluntary Environmental Reporting Practices: A Further Study of 'Poor' Environmental PerformersEnvironmental Economics
-
P. Biswas, Mansi Mansi, R. Pandey (2018)
Board composition, sustainability committee and corporate social and environmental performance in AustraliaPacific Accounting Review
-
John Dowling, J. Pfeffer (1975)
Organizational LegitimacySociological Perspectives, 18
-
D. Dienes, Remmer Sassen, J. Fischer (2016)
What are the drivers of sustainability reporting? A systematic reviewSustainability Accounting, Management and Policy Journal, 7
-
C. Deegan, Michaela Rankin, J. Tobin (2002)
An examination of the corporate social and environmental disclosures of BHP from 1983‐1997: A test of legitimacy theoryAccounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, 15
-
J. Nazari, Karel Hrazdil, Fereshteh Mahmoudian (2017)
Assessing social and environmental performance through narrative complexity in CSR reportsJournal of Contemporary Accounting & Economics, 13
-
(2017)
The KPMG Survey of Corporate Responsibility Reporting 2017 -
Peter Clarkson, Jordan Ponn, G. Richardson, Frank Rudzicz, Albert Tsang, Jingjing Wang (2017)
A Textual Analysis of US Corporate Social Responsibility ReportsAbacus, 56
-
M. Wintoki, James Linck, Jeffry Netter (2011)
Endogeneity and the Dynamics of Internal Corporate GovernanceCorporate Governance II
-
Mozaffar Khan, G. Serafeim, Aaron Yoon (2016)
Corporate Sustainability: First Evidence on MaterialityThe Accounting Review, 91
-
Michaela Rankin, C. Windsor, D. Wahyuni (2011)
An Investigation of Voluntary Corporate Greenhouse Gas Emissions Reporting in a Market Governance System: Australian EvidenceAccounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, 24
-
Claudia Arena, Saverio Bozzolan, Giovanna Michelon (2015)
Environmental reporting: transparency to stakeholders or stakeholders’ manipulation? An analysis of disclosure tone and the role of board of directorsCorporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, 22
-
Textual sentiment in finance: a survey of methods and models
International Review of Financial Analysis, 33
-
V. Nguyen, F. Agbola, Bobae Choi (2018)
Does corporate social responsibility reduce information asymmetry? Empirical evidence from AustraliaAustralian Journal of Management, 44
-
(2019)
Corporate governance principles and recommendations -
Katrin Hummel, Christian Schlick (2016)
The Relationship between Sustainability Performance and Sustainability Disclosure – Reconciling Voluntary Disclosure Theory and Legitimacy TheorySRPN: Triple Bottom Line (Topic)
-
Jean-Marie Dufour, A. Taamouti (2008)
Short and long run causality measures: Theory and inferenceJournal of Econometrics, 154
-
M. Overell (2007)
An examination of environmental reporting and its relation to corporate environmental performance -
C. Granger (1969)
Investigating causal relations by econometric models and cross-spectral methods -
Lorenzo Simoni, L. Bini, M. Bellucci (2020)
Effects of social, environmental, and institutional factors on sustainability report assurance: evidence from European countries -
G. Dorfleitner, Sebastian Utz, M. Wimmer (2018)
Patience pays off – corporate social responsibility and long-term stock returnsJournal of Sustainable Finance & Investment, 8
-
Revisiting the relation between environmental performance and environmental disclosure: an empirical analysis
Accounting, Organizations and Society, 33
-
Catherine Resche (2015)
Hedging in the discourse of central banksStudies in communication sciences, 15
-
D. Merkl-Davies, N. Brennan (2008)
Discretionary Disclosure Strategies in Corporate Narratives: Incremental Information or Impression Management?Financial Accounting
-
Helen Tregidga, M. Milne, K. Kearins (2014)
(Re)presenting ‘sustainable organizations’Accounting Organizations and Society, 39
-
J. Short, Timothy Palmer (2008)
The Application of DICTION to Content Analysis Research in Strategic ManagementOrganizational Research Methods, 11
-
Thomas Lys, J. Naughton, Clare Wang (2015)
Signaling Through Corporate Accountability ReportingSRPN: Other CSR & Management Practice (Topic)
-
Mine Ertugrul, Jin Lei, Jiaping Qiu, Chi Wan (2015)
Annual Report Readability, Tone Ambiguity, and the Cost of BorrowingJournal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, 52
-
(2013)
Sustainability Reporting Guidelines -
B. Rutherford (2003)
Obfuscation, Textual Complexity and the Role of Regulated Narrative Accounting Disclosure in Corporate GovernanceJournal of Management and Governance, 7
-
(2014)
Tone management -
Voluntary environmental reporting practices: a further study of ‘poor’ environmental performers
Australian Journal of Corporate Law, 19
-
R. Eccles, I. Ioannou, George Serafeim (2012)
The Impact of Corporate Sustainability on Organizational Processes and PerformanceSRPN: Green Investment (Topic)
-
Emma Schultz, David Tan, Kathleen Walsh (2010)
Endogeneity and the corporate governance - performance relationAustralian Journal of Management, 35
-
Hao Liang, L. Renneboog (2013)
On the Foundations of Corporate Social ResponsibilityCorporate Law: Corporate & Financial Law: Interdisciplinary Approaches eJournal
-
Zhongtian Li, S. Haque, Ellie Chapple (2018)
Legitimising corporate reputation in times of employee distress through disclosure: Media exposure in the electronic manufacturing services industry in ChinaAccounting Research Journal, 31
-
Guiding through the fog: financial statement complexity and voluntary disclosure
Journal of Accounting and Economics, 62
-
Feng Li (2011)
Textual Analysis of Corporate Disclosures: A Survey of the Literature -
C. Krishnamurti, Syed Shams, Eswaran Velayutham (2018)
Corporate social responsibility and corruption risk: a global perspectiveJournal of Contemporary Accounting & Economics, 14
-
Beiting Cheng, I. Ioannou, George Serafeim (2011)
Corporate Social Responsibility and Access to FinanceHarvard Business School Working Papers
-
(1983)
Discretionary disclosure -
E. Henry, A. Leone (2016)
Measuring Qualitative Information in Capital Markets Research: Comparison of Alternative Methodologies to Measure Disclosure ToneThe Accounting Review, 91
-
(2016)
Progress in disclosure of sustainability risks among the S&P/ASX 200 companies -
Yue Li, Peter Clarkson, G. Richardson, Florin Vasvari (2006)
Revisiting the Relation between Environmental Performance and Environmental Disclosure: An Empirical AnalysisEconometrics eJournal
-
L. Luo (2019)
The Influence of Institutional Contexts on the Relationship between Voluntary Carbon Disclosure and Carbon Emission PerformanceWiley-Blackwell: Accounting & Finance
-
B. Pérez-Gladish, K. Benson, R. Faff (2012)
Profiling socially responsible investors: Australian evidenceAustralian Journal of Management, 37
-
E. Henry (2006)
Are Investors Influenced By How Earnings Press Releases Are Written?Journal of Business Communication, 45
-
Catherine Resche (2004)
Investigating ‘Greenspanese’: From Hedging to ‘Fuzzy Transparency’Discourse & Society, 15
-
Philipp Schreck (2013)
Nonfinancial Disclosure and Analyst Forecast Accuracy: International Evidence on Corporate Social Responsibility DisclosureSocial and Environmental Accountability Journal, 33
-
M. Freedman, B. Jaggi (2004)
CARBON DIOXIDE EMISSIONS AND DISCLOSURES BY ELECTRIC UTILITIES, 10
-
Environmental reporting and its relation to corporate environmental performance
Abacus, 47
-
Dennis Patten (2002)
The relation between environmental performance and environmental disclosure: a research noteAccounting Organizations and Society, 27
-
K. Herbohn, Julie Walker, Huay Loo (2014)
Corporate Social Responsibility: The Link between Sustainability Disclosure and Sustainability PerformanceAccounting
-
C. Higgins, M. Milne, B. Gramberg (2015)
The Uptake of Sustainability Reporting in AustraliaJournal of Business Ethics, 129
-
The relations among environmental disclosure, environmental performance and economic performance: a simultaneous equations approach
Accounting, Organizations and Society, 29
-
Signaling through corporate accountability reporting
Journal of Accounting and Economics, 60
-
Tim Loughran, B. Mcdonald (2013)
Regulation and financial disclosure: The impact of plain EnglishJournal of Regulatory Economics, 45
-
C. Granger, P. Newbold (1974)
Spurious regressions in econometricsJournal of Econometrics, 2
-
The relationship between sustainability performance and sustainability disclosure–reconciling voluntary disclosure theory and legitimacy theory
Journal of Accounting and Public Policy, 35
-
J. Antonakis, S. Bendahan, Philippe Jacquart, R. Lalive (2010)
On making causal claims: A review and recommendationsLeadership Quarterly, 21
-
M. Klerk, C. Villiers (2012)
The value relevance of corporate responsibility reporting: South African evidenceMeditari Accountancy Research, 20
-
Discretionary disclosure strategies in corporate narratives: incremental information or impression management
Journal of Accounting Literature, 26
-
Cornelia Beck, Geoffrey Frost, Stewart Jones (2018)
CSR disclosure and financial performance revisited: A cross-country analysisAustralian Journal of Management, 43
-
Adam Greiner, L. Patelli, Matteo Pedrini (2020)
Characteristics of Managerial Tone Priced by Auditors: Evidence Based on Annual Letters to Shareholders of Large U.S. FirmsAUDITING: A Journal of Practice & Theory
-
Mark Suchman (1995)
Managing Legitimacy: Strategic and Institutional ApproachesAcademy of Management Review, 20
-
On the foundations of corporate social responsibility
The Journal of Finance, 72
-
M. Foo (2017)
A review of socially responsible investing in Australia -
(2017)
An analysis of ASX200 disclosure featuring climate-related risk -
Charles Cho, R. Roberts, Dennis Patten (2010)
The language of US corporate environmental disclosureAccounting Organizations and Society, 35
-
(2015)
Disclosure of sustainability risks among the S&P/ASX 200 companies -
Jing Jia, Zhongtian Li (2020)
Does external uncertainty matter in corporate sustainability performance?Journal of Corporate Finance, 65
-
Zhihong Wang, Tien‐Shih Hsieh, J. Sarkis (2018)
CSR Performance and the Readability of CSR Reports: Too Good to be True?Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, 25
-
Alexander Dahlsrud (2008)
How corporate social responsibility is defined: an analysis of 37 definitionsCorporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, 15
-
Corporate social responsibility and access to finance
Strategic Management Journal, 35
-
M. Farooq, C. Villiers (2017)
The market for sustainability assurance services: A comprehensive literature review and future avenues for researchPacific Accounting Review, 29
-
P. Gallo, L. Christensen (2011)
Firm Size Matters: An Empirical Investigation of Organizational Size and Ownership on Sustainability-Related BehaviorsBusiness & Society, 50
-
Punit Arora, Ravi Dharwadkar (2011)
Corporate Governance and Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR): The Moderating Roles of Attainment Discrepancy and Organization SlackOrganizations & Markets: Formal & Informal Structures eJournal
-
Sulaiman Al-Tuwaijri, Theodore Christensen, K. Hughes (2003)
The Relations Among Environmental Disclosure, Environmental Performance, and Economic Performance: A Simultaneous Equations ApproachFinancial Accounting
-
The impact of corporate sustainability on organizational processes and performance
Management Science, 60
-
D. Dhaliwal, Oliver Li, Albert Tsang, Yong Yang (2011)
Voluntary Nonfinancial Disclosure and the Cost of Equity Capital: The Initiation of Corporate Social Responsibility ReportingThe Accounting Review, 86
-
Dane Christensen (2016)
Corporate Accountability Reporting and High-Profile MisconductThe Accounting Review, 91
-
R. Eccles, Mirtha Kastrapeli, S. Potter (2017)
How to Integrate ESG into Investment Decision‐Making: Results of a Global Survey of Institutional InvestorsCorporate Finance: Governance
-
Judith Walls, P. Berrone, Phillip Phan (2012)
Corporate governance and environmental performance: is there really a link?Southern Medical Journal, 33
-
Nonfinancial disclosure and analyst forecast accuracy: international evidence on corporate social responsibility disclosure
The Accounting Review, 87
-
W. Guay, Delphine Samuels, Daniel Taylor (2016)
Guiding Through the Fog: Financial Statement Complexity and Voluntary DisclosureResearch Methods & Methodology in Accounting eJournal
-
C. Deegan (2002)
Introduction: The legitimising effect of social and environmental disclosures – a theoretical foundationAccounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, 15
-
In Choi (2001)
Unit root tests for panel dataJournal of International Money and Finance, 20
-
(2014)
Sustainability reporting practices of the S&P/ASX 200 -
M. Malik (2013)
Value-Enhancing Capabilities of CSR: A Brief Review of Contemporary LiteratureJournal of Business Ethics, 127
-
R. Gray, I. Herremans (2011)
Sustainability and Social Responsibility Reporting and the Emergence of the External Social Audits: The Struggle for Accountability? -
Brian Bushee, Ian Gow, Daniel Taylor (2017)
Linguistic Complexity in Firm Disclosures: Obfuscation or Information?: LINGUISTIC COMPLEXITY IN FIRM DISCLOSURESJournal of Accounting Research, 56
-
Zhongtian Li, S. Haque (2019)
Corporate social responsibility employment narratives: a linguistic analysisAccounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal
-
L. Luo, Qingliang Tang (2014)
Does voluntary carbon disclosure reflect underlying carbon performanceJournal of Contemporary Accounting & Economics, 10
-
Lois Mahoney, L. Thorne, Lianna Cecil, William LaGore (2013)
A research note on standalone corporate social responsibility reports: Signaling or greenwashing?Critical Perspectives on Accounting, 24
- Publisher
- Emerald Publishing
- Copyright
- © Emerald Publishing Limited
- ISSN
- 2049-372X
- eISSN
- 2049-372X
- DOI
- 10.1108/medar-03-2021-1250
- Publisher site
- See Article on Publisher Site
Abstract
This study aims to analyze whether various textual characteristics in corporate sustainability disclosure associate with corporate sustainability performance in Australia, pertaining to tones of language and readability. The voluntary disclosure theory and legitimacy theory are used to formulate the study hypothesis.Design/methodology/approachUsing data from Australian listed firms (2002–2016), four textual characteristics are examined: tone of optimism, tone of certainty, tone of clarity and readability. Corporate sustainability performance is measured by Thomson Reuters Asset4 ratings. Different strategies are adopted to mitigate endogeneity concerns.FindingsThe authors found that there is a positive relationship between the textual characteristics of sustainability disclosure and sustainability performance. Specifically, firms with better performance communicate in an optimistic, certain, clear and more readable manner.Practical implicationsThe results suggest that Australia’s voluntary reporting status does not induce a combination of poor performance and positive disclosure. This paper should be of interest to investors and other stakeholders and also informs regulatory policy on sustainability disclosure in Australia.Originality/valueThe authors contribute to the sustainability disclosure literature using computer-based textual analysis to explore whether firms reveal their sustainability performance by “how things are said” (i.e. textual characteristics) in sustainability disclosure. As far as the authors could ascertain, they are the first to investigate textual characteristics of sustainability disclosure in Australia.
Journal
Meditari Accountancy Research – Emerald Publishing
Published: May 8, 2023
Keywords: Asset4; Corporate sustainability; Corporate social responsibility; Diction 7; Linguistic analysis; Readability; Sustainability disclosure; Sustainability performance; Tone of language