Environmental disclosures of Malaysian property development companies : towards legitimacy or accountability?
Purpose – The objective of the present study is to examine the extent, quality, nature and trends of environmental disclosures of Malaysian property development companies for the years 2004, 2005 and 2006. Design/methodology/approach – A content analysis was undertaken of the annual reports of a...
Saved in:
| Main Authors: | , |
|---|---|
| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Emerald Group Publishing Limited
2013
|
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://irep.iium.edu.my/47828/1/SRJ-10-2011-0090.pdfNNNAnHaraf.pdf http://irep.iium.edu.my/47828/ http://www.emeraldinsight.com/doi/full/10.1108/SRJ-10-2011-0090 |
| Tags: |
Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
|
| Summary: | Purpose – The objective of the present study is to examine the extent, quality, nature and trends of
environmental disclosures of Malaysian property development companies for the years 2004, 2005 and
2006.
Design/methodology/approach – A content analysis was undertaken of the annual reports of a sample
of public listed property development companies in Malaysia for the years 2004, 2005 and 2006. The
content analysis examined extent, nature and quality of disclosures, utilising number of sentences for
extent and the Clarkson et al. disclosure index for nature and quality.
Findings – Malaysian property development companies do not appear to respond to the increased
public concern due to recent landslide incidents by increasing the extent or quality of environmental
disclosures in their annual reports. Both extent and quality of environmental disclosures are very low and
most companies provide mostly ‘‘soft’’ disclosures. They also make very few ‘‘hard’’ disclosures,
comprising objective, verifiable data. Thus, the Malaysian Government needs to seriously consider
making environmental reporting mandatory and to provide more detailed and comprehensive
environmental reporting guidelines. Another major finding is that companies are not consistent in the
extent, nature or quality of environmental disclosures made over time.
Originality/value – The paper provides empirical evidence of the extent, quality and nature of
environmental disclosures in an environmentally-sensitive sector. It is the first study in a developing
country to utilise the Clarkson et al. index, which was developed based on the Global Reporting Initiative
(GRI) guidelines. |
|---|