Corporate environmental reporting through the lens of semiotics

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to understand the motives behind corporate environmental reporting in Malaysia and Australia from an alternative perspective, i.e. through semiotics.

Design/methodology/approach

Reviews are made on the annual reports of the top 50 public companies in both countries, and the uses of business languages in those reports are investigated. The research concentrates on the significations of environmental messages made through paradigmatic and syntagmatic tests.

Findings

Corporate environmental disclosures made by the public companies in Malaysia and Australia signify similar form of motives. The tones, orientations, and patterns of environmental disclosures indicate that environmental information is a strategic mechanism used towards enhancing good corporate reputation.

Research limitations/implications

Environmental reporting plays a significant role in promoting corporate “green” image in conjunction with the aims for better social integration.

Practical implications

Semiotics offers a useful basis that enables a greater understanding of why companies prepare and disclose environmental information. Such an understanding holds the potential to provide ideas and guide policy‐makers, and other stakeholders (and users) of corporate environmental information.

Originality/value

This paper is the first to comparatively investigate the corporate motives and intention of environmental reporting practices via the application of semiotics on a two‐country data, specifically Malaysia and Australia.

Citation

Yusoff, H. and Lehman, G. (2009), "Corporate environmental reporting through the lens of semiotics", Asian Review of Accounting, Vol. 17 No. 3, pp. 226-246. https://doi.org/10.1108/13217340910991938