Web-based Environmental Reporting: Evidence from Listed Manufacturing Companies in Bangladesh

Abstract

Research aim: Businesses worldwide are attempting to exhibit accountability and efficacy
in addressing the threat of severe environmental imbalances. Understanding the underlying
issues responsible for environmental disclosures in digital media is essential to improve its
status. This research investigates the environmental performance of manufacturing firms
and evaluates the corporate governance factors that affect these disclosure practices.
Design/ Methodology/ Approach: This research applies multinomial logistic regression to
deduce the nature of the connection between environmental disclosures made public on the
web on 71 disclosure aspects or issues and corporate governance by collecting information
from the websites of 193 listed manufacturing companies.
Research finding: The findings imply that board size, CEO duality, and foreign ownership
have a major impact on web-based environmental reporting.
Theoretical contribution/Originality: This study integrates legitimacy theory and agency
theory to understand the importance of efficient corporate governance in disclosing
environmental information, thereby mitigating information asymmetry and voluntarily
meeting stakeholder expectations.
Practitioner/Policy implication: Corporate governance may develop best practices to
guarantee that the online platform of voluntary environmental reporting creates a credible
environment for exposing information to end users, resulting in a more comprehensive
evaluation of company prospects.
Research limitation: This study focuses on specific corporate governance characteristics.
Other predictors can be considered to ensure better practices, such as the number of board
meetings, educational quality of board members, stakeholder activism, political intervention,
industry-specific environmental policy, etc. Moreover, longitudinal studies could offer
further insights into the relationship between governance and environmental reporting.