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The Current Environmental Strategy Reporting Model: What can be Learned from Corporate Reports?

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Accounting Information Systems for Decision Making

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Information Systems and Organisation ((LNISO,volume 3))

Abstract

This paper explores the information on environmental strategy. Our interest is to understand whether corporate reports are useful to assess a firm’s environmental performance. We developed an empirical investigation of annual reports and social reports of large public firms. Using content analysis, our findings show major differences among companies in sensitive, manufacturing/service and financial sectors in terms of: integration of environmental issues into corporate reporting model; disclosure of environmental information. We offer some relevant insights on the overlooked relation between environmental disclosure and environmental performance and on the predominant use of environmental qualitative and/or non financial measures. The study shows that there is: a lack of consideration paid to the relationship between environmental strategies and environmental performance; high variability and limited standardization in environmental practices. Consequently the comparability of environmental performance is very low. Furthermore, integrating theoretical and empirical findings, we suggest some implications to improve environmental disclosure practices.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Business Studies, University of Naples Parthenope, Naples, Italy

    Stefano Garzella & Raffaele Fiorentino

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  1. Stefano Garzella
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  2. Raffaele Fiorentino
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Correspondence to Stefano Garzella .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Parthenope University of Naples, Via Medina 40, Naples, 80133, Italy

    Daniela Mancini

  2. , School of Economics and Management, Tilburg University, Spoorlaan 293, Tilburg, 5038, Netherlands

    Eddy H. J. Vaassen

  3. Via Vivaldi 2, Genova, 16126, Italy

    Renata Paola Dameri

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Garzella, S., Fiorentino, R. (2013). The Current Environmental Strategy Reporting Model: What can be Learned from Corporate Reports?. In: Mancini, D., Vaassen, E., Dameri, R. (eds) Accounting Information Systems for Decision Making. Lecture Notes in Information Systems and Organisation, vol 3. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-35761-9_6

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