Environmental accounting practices of government-linked companies (GLCs) and non-goverment-linked companies (non-GLCs) : a comparative study

Abstract

This study empirically examined the quantity and quality of environmental disclosure of the Malaysian government-linked companies (GLCs) in environmentally sensitive and less sensitive industries, as well as non-government-linked companies (nonGLCs) in environmentally sensitive industries. The quantity of disclosure was measured using the ‘sentence count’ measurement. Meanwhile, a disclosure index developed using ACCA’s MESRA scoresheet was used to evaluate the disclosure quality. Accordingly, a total of 66 annual reports were analyzed. The independent variables assessed in this study were environmental sensitivity of industry, ownership status and company size. The study also investigated the association between Environmental Management Accounting (EMA) and Environmental Reporting (ER). Additionally, the perceptions of management on the importance of EMA and the significance of environmental sensitivity in considering the development of EMA and ER were examined. Essentially, questionnaires (mail surveys) were sent to 154 companies. For the first analysis, the results show that there is no statistically difference in the level of environmental disclosure of GLCs in environmentally sensitive and less sensitive industries, as well as between GLCs and non-GLCs in environmentally sensitive industries (i.e. matched-pair analysis). Additionally, the quantity of disclosure was found to be associated with the size of company. The study also found that the quality of environmental disclosure of these 66 companies, as far as the ACCA’s MESRA is concerned, was relatively low. With regards to the association between EMA and ER practices, the study was not able to test the hypothesis. Lastly, a majority of the respondents perceived EMA as importance in enhancing the environmental reporting practices of companies. However, the implementation of EMA is not significant to all companies as it depends on the sensitivity of industry.