Made available in DSpace on 2015-03-05T19:15:18Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 Previous issue date: 29 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / Este estudo analisa os fatores diferenciadores do nível de divulgação de informações voluntárias sobre o meio ambiente por companhias brasileiras de capital aberto pertencentes a setores de alto impacto ambiental. A partir da teoria da divulgação foram formuladas sete variáveis: tamanho, rentabilidade, endividamento, governança corporativa, sustentabilidade, controle acionário e internacionalização, as quais visam estabelecer a relação com o nível de divulgação ambiental. Por meio da técnica de análise de conteúdo das Demonstrações Financeiras Padronizadas (DFPs) do exercício findo em 2008, examinaram-se as informações de caráter ambiental divulgadas por 69 empresas com ações listadas na Bolsa de Valores de São Paulo (BOVESPA), pertencentes a setores de alto impacto ambiental, classificadas de acordo com o Anexo VIII da Lei n°. 10.165/2000. Em seguida, identificaram-se os fatores diferenciadores que explicam a divulgação de informações ambientais por meio da técnica estatística de regressão múltipla. Os resul / This study analyzes the differentiation factors of the level of disclosure of volunteer information about the environment by Brazilian joint stock companies belonging to sectors of high environmental impact. Considering the disclosure theory, seven variables were formulated: dimension, profitability, debt, corporate governance, sustainability, stock control and internationalization; they aim to establish the relationship with the level of environmental disclosure. Through content analyze technique of the Financial Demonstrations Patterns (FIPs) ended in 2008 it was examined information of environmental nature published by 69 companies that have shares listed in the Stock Exchange of São Paulo (BOVESPA), classified according Attachment VIII of the Law n°. 10.165/2000. Afterwards, it was identified the differentiation factors that explain the disclosure of environmental information by statistical technique of multiple regression. The results reveal that the information verified in the FIPs figurate, in general,

Submitted by Silvana Teresinha Dornelles Studzinski (sstudzinski) on 2015-06-26T17:36:06Z No. of bitstreams: 1 DaianePiasMachado.pdf: 618795 bytes, checksum: 840ea95531275a994aca53621fb3d09c (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2015-06-26T17:36:06Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 DaianePiasMachado.pdf: 618795 bytes, checksum: 840ea95531275a994aca53621fb3d09c (MD5) Previous issue date: 2014-02-25 / Nenhuma / Esse estudo analisa como as empresas brasileiras de capital aberto utilizam a evidenciação ambiental para gerenciar sua legitimidade social, verificando o objetivo da evidenciação, se é ganhar, manter ou recuperar a legitimidade; a forma como isso ocorre se de maneira pragmática, moral ou cognitiva e as estratégias utilizadas para esse fim. Para isso, são examinadas as informações ambientais divulgadas nos relatórios de sustentabilidade das empresas que compõem a carteira do Índice de Sustentabilidade Empresarial (ISE) da Bolsa de Valores de São Paulo (BM&FBOVESPA), adotando-se como unidade de numeração os parágrafos evidenciados. A amostra é composta por 30 empresas pertencentes a diversos setores da economia. Quanto à natureza, trata-se de uma pesquisa aplicada, com objetivo descritivo, abordagem quantitativa do problema e procedimento técnico documental. Os dados obtidos no estudo permitem concluir que as empresas da amostra utilizam a evidenciação ambiental como instrumento para gerenciar sua legitimidade social, fazendo isso de várias formas e utilizando diversas estratégias. Evidenciam suas informações ambientais com o intuito, preferencialmente, de ganhar legitimidade, empregando equilibradamente a forma pragmática, moral e cognitiva em sua evidenciação, relatando ações que visem popularizar seus modelos, fazer adeptos à sua forma de gestão, cooptar integrantes para desenvolver ações ambientais, mostrar que produzem resultados ambientalmente adequados, entre outras. / This study examines how brazilian companies use environmental disclosure to manage its social legitimacy, verifying the purpose of disclosure, if it’s to gain, maintain or repair legitimacy; how this occurs, if it´s a pragmatic, moral or cognitive mode and the strategies used for this purpose. To do this, we examine environmental disclosures in sustainability reports of the companies listed at the Managerial Sustainability Index (ISE) from São Paulo’s Stock Exchange (BM&FBOVESPA), adopting as unit numbering the highlighted paragraphs. The sample consists of 30 companies belonging to various sectors of the economy. It is an applied research with descriptive objective, quantitative approach to the problem and a documentary research as a technical procedure. The data obtained in this study allow us to conclude that the sample companies use environmental disclosure as a tool to manage their social legitimacy, making it in many ways and using different strategies. Demonstrate their environmental information in order, preferably, to gain legitimacy, employing a balanced pragmatic, moral and cognitive in its disclosure, reporting actions aimed to popularize their models, making adherents to its way of management, co-opt members to develop environmental initiatives, show that produce environmentally adequate results, among others.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-25T18:39:41Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Alexandre Franco de Godoy.pdf: 1608626 bytes, checksum: d368775242196d25aaaacc580c7b23df (MD5) Previous issue date: 2011-10-10 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / Environmental Accounting aims to provide adequate information of the measurement of economic events related to the environment by contributing to the disclosure of the decision making process of internal and external users. The search for greater disclosure and accountability of environmental issues has led companies to promote the dissemination of information in its financial statements, although not complying with any specific regulations. In Brazil, the environmental disclosure is not required by law or regulation, there are only guidelines that encourage their development. This research aims to analyze the characteristics of environmental disclosure in financial statements of a sample of companies of the Corporate Sustainability Index (CSI) Stock Exchange São Paulo (BOVESPA) and belonging to the economic sectors of high environmental impact. To achieve the goal we carried out a descriptive survey, relying on the theoretical foundation for literature and content analysis to analyze the environmental disclosure in the Financial Statements (DFP's) for the fiscal year 2009. The results indicate that because there is no legal requirement in Brazil companies opt to make the voluntary disclosure, with the features for this type of disclosure the predominance of environmental declarative sentences and good information for the image or some kind of credit for the company, are using the Management Report as the primary means for communication, which is not subject to verification by an auditor may be questioned about the credibility of the information it disclosed / A Contabilidade Ambiental tem por objetivo fornecer informações adequadas sobre a mensuração dos eventos econômicos relacionados ao meio ambiente, contribuindo por meio de seu disclosure, para o processo decisório dos usuários internos e externos. A busca por um maior disclosure e accountability das questões ambientais tem levado as empresas a promover a divulgação de informações em suas demonstrações financeiras, muito embora sem estar em conformidade com alguma regulamentação específica. No Brasil o disclosure ambiental não é exigido por leis ou regulamentos, havendo apenas orientações incentivando sua elaboração. Esta pesquisa tem o objetivo de analisar as características do disclosure ambiental nas demonstrações financeiras de uma amostra de empresas integrantes do Índice de Sustentabilidade Empresarial (ISE) da Bolsa de Valores do Estado de São Paulo (BOVESPA) e pertencentes aos setores econômicos de alto impacto ambiental. Para atingir o objetivo foi realizada uma pesquisa descritiva, apoiando-se na pesquisa bibliográfica para fundamentação teórica e na análise de conteúdo para analisar o disclosure ambiental nas Demonstrações Financeiras Padronizadas (DFP s), referentes ao exercício social de 2009. Os resultados indicam que, por não haver exigência legal no Brasil, as empresas optam pela realização do disclosure voluntário, tendo como características para este tipo de disclosure a predominância de sentenças ambientais declarativas e de informações boas para a imagem ou algum tipo de crédito para a empresa, sendo utilizado o Relatório da Administração como o principal meio para sua comunicação, o qual por não ser submetido a uma verificação pela Auditoria Independente pode vir a ser questionado sobre a credibilidade das informações nele divulgadas

Cette thèse comporte quatre essais dont les deux premiers, s’appuyant sur les fondements théoriques de la finance comportementale de l’entreprise, montrent dans quelle mesure les sociétés françaises tirent avantage des erreurs de jugement systématiques des investisseurs. Nous étudions dans le premier essai les conséquences du biais de familiarité sur la structure du capital. En particulier, nous montrons que les entreprises associées à un sentiment de familiarité élevé, notamment parmi les petites capitalisations, ont un actionnariat individuel plus large. Ce résultat souligne l’intérêt économique pour l’entreprise d’augmenter sa visibilité et de consolider sa notoriété dans le temps. Le deuxième essai traite de la politique de dividende sous l’hypothèse des « catering incentives ». Il s’agit de tester si les entreprises sont davantage incitées à distribuer du dividende lorsque les titres payeurs se négocient avec une prime par rapport aux non-payeurs. Nous validons cette hypothèse et mettons en évidence que les dirigeants français font preuve d’un opportunisme court-termiste accru en cas de faible contrôle familial ou de forte participation institutionnelle dans le capital. Les deux derniers essais s’intéressent aux comportements décisionnels des entreprises face aux enjeux du changement climatique. Ils se situent dans un contexte international. Le troisième essai, notamment, teste la pertinence des stratégies d’éco-efficience, via la réduction des émissions de carbone, sur la performance financière à l’occasion d’opérations de fusions-acquisitions. Les résultats tranchent en faveur de la rationalité économique de ces stratégies et affirment la possibilité pour la firme d’envisager une relation gagnant-gagnant avec son environnement. Le quatrième essai, consacré à l’étude de la communication environnementale volontaire, démontre l’intérêt croissant des parties prenantes pour ce type d’information : les entreprises les plus exposées médiatiquement, les plus endettées et celles qui entrent dans le cadre des nouvelles réglementations environnementales sont les plus transparentes en matière de reporting environnemental. De plus, les entreprises les moins éco-efficientes tendent à communiquer davantage sur leur empreinte écologique, traduisant une recherche de légitimité auprès des parties prenantes. / This thesis is composed of four essays. The first two essays draw on behavioral corporate finance and show to what extent French firms can take advantage of investors’ erroneous judgment. We first study the impact of the familiarity bias on ownership. We find that firms with higher notoriety level, mostly small-cap ones, have higher individual ownership. Second, we test the catering hypothesis in dividend policy, in that whether firms are more prone to pay dividend when payers trade at a premium relative to non-payers. The results validate this hypothesis and support short-term opportunistic behavior by French firms, especially when family control is low or institutional ownership is high. The last two essays examine the impact of climate change issues on firms’ decisions, in an international setting. Especially, the third essay demonstrates that eco-efficiency-based strategies significantly matters to the financial outcomes of mergers and acquisitions, which supports the economic rationality underlying carbon reduction investments, and claims for a win-win relationship between corporations and their environment. The fourth essay that deals with the environmental voluntary disclosure, emphasizes the increasing interest of stakeholders toward this kind of information: firms with higher exposure, higher leverage and those that are in the scope of regulators tend to be more transparent in terms of carbon reporting. Moreover, firms that are less eco-efficient show higher probability to report on their environmental performance, suggesting the search for legitimacy.

As empresas têm crescentemente incluído em suas estratégias de negócios a responsabilidade ambiental em resposta às demandas sociais de conservação dos recursos naturais e às exigências dos diversos stakeholders para garantir sua legitimidade e permanecer no mercado. Nesse contexto, este estudo teve como objetivo investigar a inter-relação entre a divulgação ambiental, o desempenho ambiental e o desempenho econômico das empresas brasileiras de capital aberto. A pesquisa fundamentou-se na Teoria da Legitimidade e na Teoria da Divulgação, no que tange a divulgação de informações como uma resposta a pressões sociais e as necessidades dos stakeholders. Foram pesquisadas 87 empresas, que possuem ações negociadas na Bolsa de Valores de São Paulo (Bovespa). O problema foi investigado pela hipótese que a divulgação ambiental, o desempenho ambiental e o desempenho econômico mantêm uma inter-relação positiva e linear entre si, observadas algumas características das empresas, o que culminou com adoção de um modelo de equações simultâneas. Os resultados do modelo sugerem que não há inter-relação significante entre as variáveis, de acordo com as características da amostra e dos indicadores utilizados, pois se observou que a divulgação ambiental é influenciada pelo desempenho ambiental, que o desempenho econômico afeta o desempenho ambiental, mas que a divulgação ambiental não é afetada pelo desempenho econômico. Sugere-se que sejam realizadas outras pesquisas, que observem a inter-relação utilizando outras variáveis e também outras medidas para aquelas que foram utilizadas. / The companies have been including the environmental responsibility in their business strategies, as a response to social demands for natural resources conservancy and to demands of the several stakeholders, in order to maintain their legitimacy and to stay in the market. This study aims to investigate the inter-relation among the environmental disclosure, the environmental performance and the economic performance of Brazilian Public Companies. The research was based on Legitimacy Theory and on Disclosure Theory, in relation to information disclosure as an answer to social pressures and to stakeholders needs. 87 companies, which have shares in Bovespa (São Paulo s Stock Market), had been investigated. The subject was investigated based on hypothesis, which environmental disclosure, environmental performance and economic performance are inter-related in a positive and linear way when related to some of the companies characteristics. It ended in the adoption of a simultaneous equations model. Results of the model suggest that there is no significant interrelation between environmental disclosure and environmental and economic performance, related companies characteristics and according to indicators used, as it was observed that the environmental disclosure is influenced by environmental performance and that the economic performance affects the environmental performance, but that environmental disclosure is no influences economic performance. It is suggested that from this study new research is taken, in order to observe the inter-relation observing other variables and other measures for those used.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-08-18T17:23:42Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 DISSERTACAO_ELISIO CESAR BESSA.pdf: 7679908 bytes, checksum: 2086b86c3e39b9dbfe8570c57a2b124f (MD5) Previous issue date: 2015-08-29 / Sustainability reports are an important means of corporate communication with its stakeholders. However, the disclosure of environmental indicators in these reports is still considered low. The GRI sustainability reporting model was designed to help organizations better report their performance in economic, social and environmental areas, but studies show that many companies declared themselves followers of this standard but in practice the disclosure is still low. This study aims to analyze the sustainability reports for the energy sector companies, listed in the Dow Jones Sustainability Index (DJSI), comparing the disclosure of core environmental indicators with GRI standards. For this, it was made an exploratory and documentary research, in the organizations sustainability reports for three consecutive years. It was developed a criteria to classify the indicators as well as an index to represent the company disclosure level, called Environmental Disclosure Index (IEVA). After that, it was made an analysis of all data and information provided by companies in the sample, comparing what was evidenced with what is required by the GRI model, when was possible to observe that despite belonging to the same sector, with the same difficulties and complexities, companies are at different stages of environmental disclosure, regardless of country or geographic region. No organization fully meets GRI model requirements, even those who declared themselves at the highest level of guidelines application. Companies in Europe, have better environmental disclosure, followed by companies from South America, North America and Asia. There is a tendency to improve environmental disclosure in the three years analyzed in this research. An important contribution of this research was the development a method to classify the indicators as well as the calculation of the Environmental Disclosure Index (IEVA) that can be used in other dimensions of sustainability reports and in the analysis of other industrial sectors. / Os relatórios de sustentabilidade são um importante meio de comunicação das empresas com seus stakeholders. Entretanto, a evidenciação dos indicadores ambientais nesses relatórios ainda é considerada baixa. O modelo de relatórios de sustentabilidade da GRI foi desenvolvido para ajudar as organizações a melhor relatarem seus desempenhos nas áreas econômica, social e ambiental, mas estudos demonstram que muitas empresas se autodeclaram seguidoras do padrão e, entretanto na prática a evidenciação ainda é baixa. Este estudo tem como objetivo analisar os relatórios de sustentabilidade das empresas de energia, listadas no Índice Dow Jones de Sustentabilidade (DJSI), comparando a evidenciação dos indicadores ambientais essenciais com os padrões da GRI. Para isso, foi feita uma pesquisa exploratória, documental nos relatórios de sustentabilidade de três anos consecutivos das organizações que utilizam o modelo GRI. Foi desenvolvido um critério de classificação dos indicadores e um índice representativo da evidenciação da organização, chamado de Índice de Evidenciação Ambiental (IEVA). Posteriormente, fez-se uma análise dos dados e informações disponibilizadas pelas empresas da amostra comparando o que foi evidenciado com o que é requerido pelo modelo GRI. Foi possível verificar que apesar de pertencerem ao mesmo setor, com as mesmas dificuldades e complexidades, as empresas estão em estágios diferentes de evidenciação ambiental, independente de países ou região geográfica. Nenhuma organização atende de forma plena aos requisitos da GRI, mesmo aquelas que se autodeclaram no nível mais alto de aplicação das diretrizes. As empresas da Europa possuem uma melhor evidenciação ambiental, seguidas das empresas da América do Sul, América do Norte e Ásia. Por fim, foi observado que existe uma tendência de melhoria da evidenciação ambiental no período de três anos analisados nessa pesquisa. Uma importante contribuição dessa pesquisa foi o desenvolvimento do método de classificação dos indicadores e cálculo do Índice de Evidenciação Ambiental (IEVA) que podem ser utilizados nas outras dimensões dos relatórios de sustentabilidade assim como na análise de outros setores industriais.

本研究蒐集各國企業所發行之獨立環境報告（Corporate Environmental Reports）共84份，採內容分析的研究方法，針對環境報告的內容進行研究分析。本研究建立一種評量模式，以聯合國環境規劃署（UNEP）所建議之環境報告揭露主題作為觀察評量單元，依揭露內容的完整性與相關主題的系統整合度，將環境報告于各單元的表現分為四個等級，依次給予0-3的權重分數，各單元所得分數加總即為整份環境報告的揭露成果。 本研究同時進行產業別與地區別的分析，依產業分為電力、汽車、能源、消費品、資本設備、化學、服務、森林產品與造紙等八種產業類別，將隸屬同一產業別的企業環境報告歸類分別進行分析比較，以電力與汽車兩種產業為例，摘出其產業中于各揭露主題表現最佳的範例置于本研究報告之中，作為樣本參考。本研究尚進行產業之間的比較，研究發現環境報告因產業特性而產生的揭露選擇與差異；地區別的分析則將環境報告依地區重新分類，分為美加、歐洲、北歐以及日本四個主要地區，觀察分析各地區報告的差異。 最後提出研究結論，歸納現階段環境報告揭露的主要內容，各產業之環境報告揭露選擇的差異，各地區環境報告的表現，以及提出對國內企業製作環境報告的建議。 目 錄 第一章 緒論 ……………………………………………………. 1 第一節 研究動機 ……………………………………………1 第二節 論文結構 …………………………………………... 3 第二章 文獻回顧 ……………………………………………….. 5 第一節 企業環境報告的重要性 ……………………………. 5 第二節 企業環境報告的演進及相關研究 ………………10 第三節 環境報告的指導方針與具體作法 ………………24 第四節 環境報告製作所遭遇的困難與待改進的問題 …31 第三章 研究方法 ………………………………………………35 第一節 研究架構 ………………………………………….35 第二節 研究對象 ………………………………………….39 第三節 研究方法與分析單元 …………………………….41 第四節 研究限制 ………………………………………….42 第四章 產業環境報告分析 ……………………………………..44 第一節 分析評量方法 ……………………………………..44 第二節 產業別分析 ……………………………………..48 一、 電力產業 ………………………………………….48 二、 汽車產業 ………………………………………….78 三、 能源產業 ………………………………………..106 四、 消費品產業 ……………………………………115 五、 資本設備產業 ……………………………………123 六、 化學產業 ………………………………………...131 七、 服務性產業 ……………………………………139 八、 森林產品與造紙產業 …………………………..146 第五章 產業別與地區別分析 ……………………………….155 第一節 產業別分析 ……………………………………155 第二節 地區別分析 ……………………………………172 第六章 結論與建議 ………………………………………...178 第一節 研究發現 ………………………………………...178 第二節 研究建議 ………………………………………...187 環境報告＆參考文獻 ………………………………………...189 / Abstract Out of strict environmental law, intensive market competition, and the trend toward sustainable development, the environmental responsibility has now become one of the essential elements in doing business. Under the pressure of stakeholders, such as employees, shareholders, and environmental groups, there are more and more enterprises trying to have their own presentation of environmental performance. Among the enterprises of Fortune 500, Three hundreds of them have environmental reports. They believe the environmental report is a good instrument for promoting their image of environmental protection as part of marketing strategy. In Taiwan, both the academic and the public have known very little about environmental report. In the meantime, there are only a few enterprises have their own environmental reports. Consequently, it is necessary for us to systemically examine the environmental reports of the leading company in the world to understand the contents and the level of the information they disclosed. The study collected and analyzed eighty-four standalone corporate environmental reports from different industries around world. Four major issues - management systems, input／output inventory, finance, and stakeholder relations, and twenty more detail disclosure subjects of environmental report suggested by the United Nations Environmental Program (UNEP) are used as our research units. Via content analysis, we categorized content of these disclosure subjects into four degrees according to their qualitative, quantitative and systematic levels. The eight industries we studied are electrical & gas utilities, automobiles, energy, consumer goods, capital equipment, chemical, service, forest products and papers. We draw the best practice of each disclosure subject in electrical & gas utilities and automobiles as benchmark. In addition to analyze each industry, we compared the industries, summarized the average and the deviation of the disclosure in these twenty subjects, explored the priority of disclosure choice and discuss the differences cause of the industry's differences. We also analyzed by four regions - America-Canada, Europe, Scandinavia, and Japan, to observe and analyze the differences of the reports by the companies in different regions. The main findings of this research are: (1) Currently, the contents covered by most of the environmental reports are: 1. The "Environmental Policy" which declares the organization's determination to preserve the environment. 2. The operational "Environmental Management System". 3. The "organizational framework" which is responsible for environmental matters. 4. "The data of energy consumption and the effects of energy saving" which response the concerns of the scarcity of energy resource. 5. "The data of air emission and the reducing method " which response the greenhouse gas, global climate changes and local air pollution. 6. "The method of wastes disposal and the result of wastes reduction". 7. "The real effect to environment and consumers" by the operations and the products of business. (2) The disclosure by different industries in four main observed issues are: n Environmental Management Systems 1. Presentation environmental policy is a common consensus, but disclosure of the other three subjects - environmental management system, management responsibility and legal compliance has large variance. 2. The level of disclosure in the management system is not related to the nature of industry's character. 3. Energy industry has the most disclosure on legal compliance subject, and automobiles industry is least one. 4. Chemical and service industries' disclosures in this area are more conservative, and the rest six industries are at same level. n Input╱Output Inventory Unit 1. Wastes disposal, air emission, and energy consumption are the top three subjects most disclosed by all industries. Accidents and emergency response, water consumption, health and safety are the least three. 2. The nature of the industry will effect the disclosure priority. For example, automobiles industry pays much attention on reducing material and disposing with the wastes because it dealing with thousands of components. n Related Financial issues 1. The sequence of industry's disclosure in finance is forest products and papers, energy, consumer goods, chemical, service, electrical & gases utilities, capital equipment and automobiles. 2. Companies' disclosures of environmental spending have wide variance in each industry. n Stakeholder Relations Unit 1. Employees, industry association and local community are the top three stakeholders thought by all industries, so the disclosure information are mostly relevant to them. 2. The industry, which affects the environment badly, like energy and automobiles, will be monitored usually by the government agencies, regulators, or environmental protection group. Therefore, their disclosure performance about the issues is much better than others. (3) The disclosure performance differences of regions are: 1. Companies in Scandinavia region have better environment disclosure in management systems and input／output inventory issues, but the average performance in stakeholder relations unit is not as good in four regions, it appears that they have a large room to improve on that. 2. Companies in America-Canada region have the best disclosure performance in finance issues, but for those high pollution industry like chemical or energy industry still do not disclose their input and output information sufficiently. 3. The Japan companies' disclosure performance is not as good currently, but we found their environmental management system are established in most companies, they also interacted with stakeholders actively. So we think Japanese companies have the potential to perform better in the future and reach the world class. Finally, we make some suggestions about how to encourage companies in Taiwan to prepare their environmental reports. (1) Reasons and motivations for company to disclose its environmental information, such as: 1. The responsibility to the environment. 2. Response to the unavoidable trend. 3. Direct and indirect business benefits. 4. The demands from the stakeholders (2) Making corporate environmental report step by step First, establishes a web site, put the most important environmental information (like air emission or wastes disposal). Second, the company must establish its environmental management system, environmental department, and go a step further to report the more extensive input/output data. Third, connection with the shareholders includes employees, investors, legislators, regulators, industry associations and local communities, and keep well interaction with them. As long as you "say what you do, do what you say", then to publish an standalone environmental report with relevant content will be easy!

Thesis (M. Com. (Accountancy)) -- University of Limpopo, 2017 / This research evaluated the role of external pressure on the sustainability of South African banks. Although much research on corporate sustainability disclosure has been done, this research is important since little of the previous research in South African has given a closer examination to sustainability external pressure implication of external pressure on banking sector sustainability disclosure. In addition, this research separated banks’ sustainability disclosure into social and environmental aspects to know which aspect in the banks are more influenced by external pressure. Therefore, the main objective of this research was to examine the relationship between external pressures on social disclosure and to examine the role of external pressure on environmental disclosure in select South African banks. Although the entire commercial banks in South African made up the population of study, the sample was reduced by the availability of external pressure variables (government pressure, political pressure, social pressure, regulatory pressure, customer pressure, and two control variables – reputation and profit objectives) in the sustainability reports within the six years of study (2010 – 2015). Research data were collected from secondary data which were available from the annual integrated reports of banks. Data were analysed by means of the panel data multiple regression analysis. The analysis of data on research question 1 showed that three independent variables (Government pressure, profit objective and customer pressure) showed a significant positive relationship with social disclosure. Government pressure showed a significant relationship at a value of P=0.006 which is less than the 0.05 alpha level set for this research. This therefore means that within the sample of banks where data were collected, government pressure have a significant positive relationship with social disclosure in these banks. Also, the analysis showed that profit objective and customer pressure are positively and significantly related to social disclosure at a value of P=0.05 which is equal to the alpha of this research. This also means that within the sample of banks where data vi were collected, profit objective and customer pressure have a significant positive relationship with social disclosure in these banks. On the contrary, four out of the seven independent variables (regulatory pressure, political pressure, social pressure and reputation) showed no significant relationship. The second research question in this study was to find whether a relationship exists between external pressure and environmental disclosure. However, all the independent variables showed a non-significant relationship with environmental disclosure. In conclusion, the research made some recommendations which include that future researchers should expand the number of banks by including other financial institutions, the comparison of sustainability disclosure in banks before and after the King III report, more improved teaching and research on banking sector sustainability disclosure in higher institutions, communication of research result such as on banking industry sustainability to practitioners and to government agencies. Other recommendations include the need to conduct a regional study to include other African countries on banking sector sustainability and to conduct a survey study on external pressure on banking sector environmental activity and disclosure

Sammanfattning Examensarbete i redovisning och finansiering för Civilekonomprogrammet Ekonomihögskolan vid Linnéuniversitetet Författare: Freja Schött och Annie Gustavsson Handledare: Natalia Semenova                       Examinator: Anna Stafsudd Titel: TCFD – ett nytt sätt att klimatredovisa. En studie av nordiska bolag Bakgrund: Redovisning av risker och möjligheter som klimatförändringar medför har fått allt större betydelse för intressenter i deras riskbedömning. TCFD har därför publicerat rekommendationer för att göra redovisningen av klimatrelaterade frågor mer standardiserade och jämförbara. Tidigare forskning har visat en låg efterföljandegrad av TCFD rekommendationerna. Det ifrågasätts därför vad det är som påverkar omfattningen av klimatredovisning enligt TCFD och hur omfattningen varierar bland bolag. Syfte: Studiens syfte var att undersöka vilka bolagsspecifika egenskaper som bidrar till nordiska bolags efterföljandegrad av TCFD rekommendationerna. Metod: Studien genomfördes utifrån en deduktiv ansats. En tvärsnittdesign tillämpades och med hjälp av en kvantitativ innehållsanalys undersöktes 77 nordiska bolags års-, klimat- och hållbarhetsredovisningar för år 2020. Utifrån hypoteser som baserats på tidigare forskning och legitimitetsteorin analyserades data med hjälp av statistiska modeller. Slutsatser: Studien visar att de bolagsspecifika egenskaperna bolagsstorlek, miljöprestanda, skuldsatthet, energi- och industrisektorn samt ursprungsland påverkar omfattningen av klimatredovisning enligt TCFD. Det empiriska resultatet tyder på att finansiell prestanda, aktieägarspridning, statligt ägande och fåtal sektorer inte kan förklara efterföljandegraden. / Abstract Master Thesis in Business Administration School of Business and Economics at the Linneaus University Authors: Freja Schött and Annie Gustavsson Supervisor: Natalia Semenova                     Examiner: Anna Stafsudd Title: TCFD – a new way to climate report. A study of Nordic companies. Background: The reporting of risks and opportunities associated to climate change have great importance to investors when executing their risk assessment of a company. Therefore, TCFD published recommendations for climate reporting with the intent of making the reporting more standardized and comparable. Previous research shows low compliance with the TCFD recommendations. This study questions the factors affecting the compliance with TCFD and how the compliance varies between the Nordic companies. Purpose: The purpose of the study was to investigate which company characteristics contribute to Nordic companies’ level of compliance with the TCFD recommendations. Method: This study is taking a deductive approach. Furthermore, a cross- sectional design is applied and with a quantitative content analysis 77 Nordic companies’ annual-, climate- and sustainability reports was examined for the year 2020. The empirical data was analyzed using statistical models to test hypothesis based on previous research and legitimacy theory. Conclusions: Our study finds that size, environmental performance, debt, the energy and industrial sector, and country are company characteristics which affect the compliance of climate reporting according to TCFD. In addition, the empirical result indicates that financial performance, shareholder distribution, state ownership and some sectors cannot explain the compliance.

Corporate reporting has changed from the traditional form of reporting which covered financial information only to the modern form of reporting called integrated reporting which covers, financial, corporate governance and sustainability information. The levels of corporate disclosure among corporate entities within any country and between countries are thus likely to have been affected by this change. Motivated by the IMF/World Bank (2006) that observed that corporate reporting improved in Botswana during the previous five years, without indicating what the actual level was or how it compares with that of other countries; this study sought to determine the actual level of corporate disclosure of two samples of companies: 23 companies listed on the Botswana Stock Exchange (BSE) and the top 40 companies (by market capitalisation) that are listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE). The study also shows how the two levels of corporate disclosure compare. This study is qualitative and descriptive by design; and involves analysing the content of the corporate annual report of each company in a sample using a corporate disclosure checklist; and determining the level of corporate disclosure for each sample of companies. The process ends with a comparative analysis of the levels of corporate disclosure of the companies from the two samples. Consistent with the IMF/World Bank report, the study revealed that the level of corporate disclosure in the BSE sample was low but increasing. However, the increase in the level of corporate disclosure varied from sector to sector and the specific information items. The study also showed that integrated reporting was not practised at all by the companies in the BSE sample. Comparatively, companies in the JSE sample had a higher level of corporate disclosure than that of companies in the BSE sample; and the rate of increase was much higher than that in the BSE sample. The study further found integrated reporting practiced in the entire JSE sample, although at different levels. xi This study also noted that although in principle it is sensible to benchmark from the best, other fundamental factors need to be considered before carrying out the exercise. Furthermore, the study indicated that the prevalent low level of corporate disclosure in the BSE sample was evidence that the corporate reporting environment in which the BSE lies was not conducive for the theories of corporate disclosure to fully explain corporate disclosure. A number of recommendations were made including establishing corporate disclosure indices and creation of a corporate environment in which all the theories discussed in the study can explain corporate disclosure. This study contributes to the literature on cross-country corporate disclosure and cautions companies with low levels of corporate disclosure not to embark on benchmarking without creating an environment conducive for corporate reporting. The study also offers useful insights to policymakers in Botswana and South Africa; and stimulates further research on cross-country corporate disclosure. The academia too will be able to identify areas for further research from this study. / Business Management / M. Com. (Accounting)