This study examines the corporate environmental disclosures of South African mining organisations from 2009 to 2011 to establish the level and type of these environmental disclosures. An examination is made of mining organisations’ media articles to establish whether their environmental disclosures can be explained by the concept of an implicit social contract. Legitimacy theory posits that an organisation needs to be aware of all their stakeholders’ needs and needs to portray themselves as acting in line with stakeholder values and norms to ensure their continued success. Although environmental reporting has been on the strategic agenda of several organisations disclosures in South Africa, only a minority of research papers have explored how an environmental crisis may impact upon the provision of such disclosures. This paper will help fill this void by performing an examination of management communication strategies, organisational actions and the change in the level of environmental disclosures contained in the mining organisations’ annual report as a result of the acid mine drainage incident that occurred in late 2009. Media articles during and after the mining organisations’ legitimacy had been challenged were examined using Suchman’s (1995) three types of legitimacy: pragmatic, cognitive and moral to identify the type of legitimacy used in the context of a developing country. Regarding the annual report disclosures and media articles’ communication strategies, results were found to be consistent with the legitimacy theory. They indicate that South African mining organisations use mostly the repair strategy in attempting to change the perceptions of the public after an environmental crisis. The strategies utilised by the mining industry in the media disclosures are expected of an organisation in crisis. The mining industry used, primarily, repair strategies in interacting with its relevant stakeholders. The study’s finding that maintenance strategies were the least of the three types of legitimacies is consistent with an industry in crisis. Even though the mining industry primarily used the repair legitimisation tactic, the range of legitimacy techniques has proved to be a finding worth discussing. The mining industry did not completely avoid the event i.e. use disclaimer strategies. Overall, the mining organisations reacted to the heighted institutional pressures by increasing their environmental disclosures and disclosed environmental information that conformed to stakeholders’ values and persuaded society to view acid mine drainage as less problematic than it was reported to be.

Exploration, production and marketing of oil and gas by listed Nigerian oil and gas companies are fraught with lots of negative social and environmental impacts. Corporate social disclosure is a medium employed by corporations to communicate their impacts and commitments to the society and environment. Therefore, the main aim of this study is to describe and explain social and environmental disclosure practices by listed Nigerian oil and gas companies as gauged with disclosure by listed UK oil and gas companies for the period 2004-2013. The objectives are to determine the nature of disclosures by sampled companies, measure and analyse quantity and quality of the disclosures, analyse trends of the disclosures, find out differences in the disclosures and to explore the effects of corporate characteristics on the disclosures. Content analysis of annual reports and accounts and sustainability reports, scoring quality of disclosures based on Global Reporting Initiative disclosure guidelines, two samples t-tests and Panel Corrected Standard Errors (PCSE) regression analysis were employed to achieve the aim and objectives of the study. Legitimacy debate and vulnerability and exploitability analytical framework were espoused to develop a theoretical framework to underpin the study. Results indicate Nigerian companies making disclosure on fewer social and environmental aspects than UK companies. Quantity and quality of disclosure by Nigerian companies are low compared to UK companies. While quantity of disclosure by both showed increasing trends, quality of disclosure depicted decreasing trends. Sampled companies are found complying with mandatory social disclosure. Corporate size, leverage, efficiency and liquidity are found significant in explaining disclosures by sampled companies. Low quantity and quality of disclosure by listed Nigerian oil and gas companies is indicating low social accountability. This result may be useful to policy makers in the industry to dialogue with managers of the companies on the importance of their social accountability to overall national sustainable development efforts. Likewise, policy makers may put in place regulatory and enforcement mechanisms on social disclosures as mandating disclosure is found effective. Disclosure practices by listed Nigerian oil and gas companies portrayed the significance of colonial relationship between Nigeria and the UK. The use of modified words counts content analysis, and the theoretical framework that underpins the study might be of significance in this study in particular and social disclosure studies in general.

Background and Problem: Sustainability reporting is a growing trend in the society. One of the most exposed industries to environmental matters is the oil and gas industry, which commit to sustainability reporting in order to deal with the industry’s destructive operations. The Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) provides voluntary guidelines in sustainability reporting, which increase transparency for the company’s stakeholders. However, it is controversial that the oil and gas industry put a great effort into sustainability reporting even though the industry is environmentally destructive. This gap is interesting to investigate and will contribute to the academic discussion. Therefore, this thesis will focus on the sustainability reporting in the oil and gas industry and to what extent the industry actually discloses material environmental information about their operations. Purpose: The purpose of this thesis is to examine how the sustainability reporting has changed in the oil and gas industry in Europe. This is performed from a stakeholder perspective. Further, it aims to investigate how oil and gas companies have followed the GRI guidelines and how the reporting has changed over time. Method: A quantitative method is used in order to answer the research questions. The data sample is based on oil and gas companies reporting according to the GRI framework during year 2012 to year 2014. The empirical data is gathered from the studied companies’ environmental category in their sustainability reports. Further, a content analysis technique, with a coding scheme, was set up to interpret and analyse the information. To enable an easy overview of the findings, the relevant data is presented in tables and diagrams. Empirical Findings and Conclusion: The majority of the studied companies have increased their level of compliance in the environmental category. Although, the majority of the companies have increased their reporting, the compliance level differs between the companies. The most reported sectors are the; “Water”, “Biodiversity”, “Emissions”, “Effluents and Waste”, “Compliance”, and “Overall”. Further, the empirical findings show that there is an overall increase in the amount of disclosed information per indicator. The conclusion of this thesis is that the environmental disclosures have increased in the oil and gas industry from year 2012 to 2014.

合理性理論認為，公司實際的環境績效必須與攸關公眾的期望一致，否則便出現合理性威脅。有合理性威脅的公司，必須向握有公司存續經營准駁權的攸關公眾揭露環境資訊，以合理化其永續經營的權利。為了探究管理當局公開環境揭露的誘因，本研究即根據合理性理論，以我國上市公司中合理性出現威脅的公司為對象，針對該等公司的年報環境揭露程度進行研究，探討攸關公眾之期望與公司年報環境揭露程度間的關係。 本研究之樣本係為60家過去環境績效表現不佳的上市公司，研究期間為民國89年，同時採用數量評估和品質評估兩種評分方式，在對資料之分配進行常態性檢定後，以Spearman等級相關和Mann-Whitney U test進行檢定。 實證結果顯示：（一）在敘述性統計方面，各公司均以「公開發行公司年報應行記載事項準則」所規定的應行記載事項為揭露架構，且多以表格或分點、逐項的方式進行說明，揭露項目雖然一致但揭露內容卻有各自表述的情形。若將數量和品質評估進行比較，染整業及染顏料業之揭露係以宣揚和美化性質的陳述為多，較少論及具體的環保措施，而石化業、化工業和鋼鐵業所揭露資訊的質和量則均高。（二）在假說檢定方面，年報環境揭露程度與平面媒體報導程度、公司規模、所有權結構成顯著正相關。食品、飼料及肥料業可能因為污染問題以及環保訴求略異於其他產業，故年報環境揭露程度顯著異於他業；石化業和化工業則可能因為長年積累的污染問題，使得攸關公眾關切甚殷，故受到合理性威脅的影響較大，其年報環境揭露程度亦顯著異於其他產業。綜合本研究的實證結果，以揭露品質進行的測試多為顯著正相關，較能支持合理性理論的推論，可見國內管理當局認為，當公司實際的環境績效不符攸關公眾之預期，在年報中採取較高程度的環境揭露品質能有助化解合理性威脅，以爭取公司之永續經營權利。 / Legitimacy itself has been defined by Lindblom（1994）as a condition or status which exists when an entity，s value system is congruent with the value system of the larger social system of which the entity is a part. When a disparity, actual or optional, exists between the two value systems, there is a threat to the entity，s legitimacy. Based on the social contract concepts described above, legitimacy theory posits that environmental disclosures（EDs） are made as reactions to disparities, which threaten the sustaining rights of corporations, between relevant publics， expectations and actual performance. In other words, corporations legitimize its existence through making EDs. This study，s objective was to investigate management，s motivations of publicizing EDs voluntarily based on the legitimacy theory. We sampled 60 listed companies which had unsatisfactory past environmental performance. We studied the relationship between their annual reports， ED levels and relevant publics， expectations. After coding these companies， EDs on their 2000 annual reports by using both quantity assessment and quality assessment, we tested hypotheses with Spearman rank-order correlation and Mann-Whitney U test. The results were summarized below. First, based on descriptive statistics, we found most companies， EDs were in compliance with the required disclosure items regulated by law. However, every company had its own interpretation of what each requirement really meant. Regarding the results of two methods of enumeration, the Dyeing industry，s quantitative disclosure levels were high but its qualitative disclosure levels were lower. Petroleum and chemical industries， disclosure levels were very high in terms of both methods. Second, hypothesis testing showed that annual reports， ED levels were positively correlated with the level of print media coverage, firm size, and ownership structure. In addition to food, feed and fertilizers industries, petroleum and chemical industries， ED levels were also significantly different from other industries. Additionally, the qualitative disclosure evidence presented more persuasive results than the quantitative one in our findings. The hypothesis that corporations facing more print media coverage on their environmental performance would legitimize their sustaining rights by making better quality environmental disclosures was supported.

近年來學者提出，企業若是要保有永續經營的能力，就必須兼顧環境與經濟。企業可透過「資訊揭露」，向社會大眾回應其對環境保護的重視。台灣目前對環境資訊揭露的規範多為消極、被動，而國內每年皆有許多企業違反環境保護法規，本論文將該等具有負面消息之公司的環境污染指標，與其年報環境資訊揭露程度，做一結合，進行環境資訊揭露趨勢及正面、負面資訊揭露情形的研究。 本研究之樣本為曾違反環保法規，遭各級政府處罰卻不服，向環保署提起訴願，經環保署決定訴願駁回的36家公開發行公司。採用內容分析法衡量各公司年報中，關於環境資訊揭露的程度（包含量與質兩種評估方式）；並以迴歸分析、成對樣本t檢定及Wilcoxon符號等級檢定，對假說進行檢定。 經過實證結果，獲致以下的結論： 1.就量的角度，各公司環境資訊揭露句數總和與年報所載受罰金額呈現顯 著正相關；但以質的角度，各公司環境資訊揭露總分數與年報所載受罰 金額之關係則不顯著。此可能為本研究權數設計的不適當所造成。 2.民國89年至民國91年，各公司年報中環境資訊揭露程度並無顯著差異。 研究期間長短、是否受特定事件影響都是造成此結論的可能因素。另從 持續性角度觀察，亦可能近年缺乏環保團體積極推動環境保護活動，及 主管機關的監督。 3.當公司面臨負面消息時，公司愈會揭露正面資訊以導正公司形象。當公 司發生影響環境的污染事件，為縮短利害關係人的期望差距並顧及公司 形象，勢必避談此負面資訊，愈是強調正面環境揭露資訊。 / There are many ways in which a company can communicate to stakeholders its responses to environmental concerns. One of the mode of communication could be in the form of annual reports. This study investigates the content of environmental disclosures in annual reports for 36 companies in Taiwan for the years 2000 through 2002. The objectives of my study are:（1）to determine whether the level of corporate environmental disclosures is associated with the level of environmental pollution.（2）to investigate if there are significant positive differences in disclosure between years.（3）to explore whether the companies tend to present information which is favorable to their corporate image. Results indicate that:（1）there is a positive correlation between the level of environmental pollution and the quantity of environmental disclosures.（2）the 2000-2002 time period didn’t produce a significant increase in environmental disclosures.（3）most of the companies elect to present only that information which is favorable to themselves.

O crescente número de empresas brasileiras que preparam e divulgam voluntariamente relatórios de sustentabilidade, bem como as motivações propostas pela Teoria da Legitimidade para a adoção dessa prática, causam questionamentos a respeito da idoneidade da informação oferecida. Dessa maneira, o presente trabalho investigou se os gráficos apresentados nos relatórios de sustentabilidade publicados por cinquenta empresas brasileiras de capital aberto foram utilizados como ferramentas para o gerenciamento de impressões, sendo manipulados de forma a melhorar a apresentação do desempenho obtido por essas organizações e auxiliar em seus processos de legitimação. A amostra final compreendeu 3.422 informações gráficas e as análises realizadas abrangeram duas formas de gerenciamento de impressões por meio do uso de gráficos abordadas na literatura: a seletividade e a distorção de medidas. Os resultados encontrados, embora explicativos, não forneceram evidências seguras de que os gráficos identificados foram empregados como ferramentas para o gerenciamento de impressão. Apesar da predominância da utilização de gráficos para a representação de notícias positivas e das distorções de medidas físicas identificadas, as evidências conduzem com maior segurança para a interpretação de que tais resultados decorrem de um despreparo e/ou desatenção dos responsáveis pela elaboração dos relatórios de sustentabilidade. / The growing number of Brazilian companies that voluntarily prepare and disclose sustainability reports, and the reasons proposed by the Legitimacy Theory for the adoption of this practice, lead to questions about the trustworthiness of the information offered. Thus, the present study investigated whether the graphs in sustainability reports published by fifty publicly traded Brazilian companies were used as tools for managing impressions, being manipulated in order to improve the presentation of the performance achieved by these organizations and assist in process of legitimation. The final sample consisted of 3,422 raphical information and the analyzes encompassed two forms of impression management through the use of graphs addressed in the literature: selectivity and measures distortion. The results, although explanatory, did not provide good evidence that the identified graphs were used as tools for managing print. Despite the prevalence of the use of graphs to represent positive news and distortions of physical measurement distortions identified, the evidence leads to more safely to the interpretation that such results derive from of a lack of both preparation and/or attention of those responsible for the preparation of sustainability reports.

O crescente número de empresas brasileiras que preparam e divulgam voluntariamente relatórios de sustentabilidade, bem como as motivações propostas pela Teoria da Legitimidade para a adoção dessa prática, causam questionamentos a respeito da idoneidade da informação oferecida. Dessa maneira, o presente trabalho investigou se os gráficos apresentados nos relatórios de sustentabilidade publicados por cinquenta empresas brasileiras de capital aberto foram utilizados como ferramentas para o gerenciamento de impressões, sendo manipulados de forma a melhorar a apresentação do desempenho obtido por essas organizações e auxiliar em seus processos de legitimação. A amostra final compreendeu 3.422 informações gráficas e as análises realizadas abrangeram duas formas de gerenciamento de impressões por meio do uso de gráficos abordadas na literatura: a seletividade e a distorção de medidas. Os resultados encontrados, embora explicativos, não forneceram evidências seguras de que os gráficos identificados foram empregados como ferramentas para o gerenciamento de impressão. Apesar da predominância da utilização de gráficos para a representação de notícias positivas e das distorções de medidas físicas identificadas, as evidências conduzem com maior segurança para a interpretação de que tais resultados decorrem de um despreparo e/ou desatenção dos responsáveis pela elaboração dos relatórios de sustentabilidade. / The growing number of Brazilian companies that voluntarily prepare and disclose sustainability reports, and the reasons proposed by the Legitimacy Theory for the adoption of this practice, lead to questions about the trustworthiness of the information offered. Thus, the present study investigated whether the graphs in sustainability reports published by fifty publicly traded Brazilian companies were used as tools for managing impressions, being manipulated in order to improve the presentation of the performance achieved by these organizations and assist in process of legitimation. The final sample consisted of 3,422 raphical information and the analyzes encompassed two forms of impression management through the use of graphs addressed in the literature: selectivity and measures distortion. The results, although explanatory, did not provide good evidence that the identified graphs were used as tools for managing print. Despite the prevalence of the use of graphs to represent positive news and distortions of physical measurement distortions identified, the evidence leads to more safely to the interpretation that such results derive from of a lack of both preparation and/or attention of those responsible for the preparation of sustainability reports.

Drawing on the notion of faultlines – a hypothetical dividing line that splits a group into two or more subgroups based on the alignment of one or more individual attributes – this thesis proposes a new approach to the measurement and assessment of board diversity to understand how high(er) performing boards can be built i.e., the multi-dimensional diversity index (MDI). The proposed MDI captures the joint effect of differences in director attributes at four diversity levels for 26,743 directors, namely: (i) surface (or baseline); (ii) identity; (iii) demographic; and (iv) meso-level. The current study uses three-stage least squares (3SLS) with a panel of 3,357 FTSE All-Share index non-financial companies from 2005 to 2018. To this end, a key implication of this study – and by extension, the proposed MDI – is that it challenges the conventional notion that boards are improved ‘enough’ by focusing on the micro-dimension and increasing stand-alone diversity attributes, such as gender. Collectively, this study’s results suggest that a well-diversified board incentivises managers to disclose more information on social and environmental activities in contrast to firms with an extreme faultline score. The results show that highly effective boards with a moderate faultline score at meso-level diversity (e.g., identity, information, and non-demographic attributes) lead to better accounting profitability, corporate value, and market-based performance. Remarkably, the present study finds that nationality diversity per se positively impacts corporate performance; in contrast, the dominance of male directors hinders firm performance significantly.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-12-23T13:42:11Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Patricia Krauss Serrano.pdf: 1564474 bytes, checksum: 60351ac85983d55077adee196bddc250 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2012-08-15 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / The Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) stands out worldwide in order to minimize perceived quality problems in Sustainability Reports. One of GRI s initiatives is the development of environmental indicators. In the context of growing concern about environmental impacts of human activity, and considering environmental disclosure tool relevance for users depends on their relevance perception on the information it contains, the purpose of this study is: to analyze the perceived relevance by environmentalists non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in Espírito Santo (Brazilian state) on the essential environmental indicators in GRI s third version. Questionnaires were sent to 52 NGOs, resulting in 24 responses. Indicators and respondents were analyzed according to their responses profiles. It was found that all the environmental indicators considered essential by GRI were mostly indicated as being of significant importance, by respondents, what means GRI has the ability to meet this segment of Brazilian society s expectations. The results signalize the GRI essential environmental indicators importance on sustainability reports, and that disclosure standards internationalization for basic global issues related to the environment does not diminish its importance to users, in specific locations / A iniciativa da ONG internacional Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) se destaca mundialmente, no intuito de minimizar problemas percebidos na qualidade das informações divulgadas em Relatórios de Sustentabilidade. Dentre as iniciativas da GRI, tem-se a elaboração de indicadores relacionados a aspectos ambientais. No contexto de crescente preocupação em relação aos impactos da atividade humana no meio ambiente, e considerando que a relevância dessa ferramenta de evidenciação ambiental depende da percepção por parte dos usuários da relevância das informações nela contidas, o objetivo deste trabalho é: analisar a percepção de organizações não governamentais (ONGs) ambientalistas atuantes no Espírito Santo acerca da relevância dos indicadores ambientais essenciais na terceira versão do modelo GRI. Para tanto, um questionário foi encaminhado a 52 ONGs, obtendo-se 24 respostas. Indicadores e respondentes foram analisados de acordo com os perfis de respostas atribuídas. Verificou-se que todos os indicadores ambientais considerados essenciais pela GRI foram julgados, majoritariamente, como de significativa relevância, pelas ONGs respondentes, ou seja, o modelo GRI tem capacidade de atender a anseios desse segmento da sociedade, atuante no Espírito Santo. Os resultados sinalizam a importância dos indicadores ambientais essenciais da GRI nos relatórios de sustentabilidade, e que a crescente internacionalização de padrões para evidenciação de aspectos relacionados a problemáticas globais relativas ao meio ambiente não diminui, necessariamente, a sua relevância para usuários em localidades específicas