Information disclosure in an environmental emergency

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the demands of the core stakeholders and how these stakeholders drive the information disclosure behaviors of the enterprise and local government.

Design/methodology/approach

Content analysis was conducted. The authors collected and analyzed information disclosure laws and regulations regarding environmental emergencies in China, as well as related media reports and official accident investigation report about the oil pipeline leakage and explosion accident in City Q. The authors divided the whole process of the accident into four stages, i.e., the prodromal stage, acute stage, chronic stage, and resolution stage, and then analyzed the different demands of stakeholders and the different information disclosure behaviors of the enterprise and local government during these four stages.

Findings

During the environmental emergency, the enterprise and local government exhibited information disclosure behaviors for their own benefits. There was severe information asymmetry between the enterprise and local government. Local government acted more positively in terms of information disclosure than the enterprise due to the demands of stakeholders. There were significant differences between the driving effects of different stakeholders. The effects of central government and local communities were the strongest, followed by news media and environmental organizations, whereas general public had the weakest impact. In addition, the effects of stakeholders on the information disclosure varied throughout different stages.

Originality/value

This paper considered a Chinese typical case study, thereby providing details of information disclosure behaviors of the enterprise and local government during an environmental emergency, and making comparative analysis on the driving effects on information disclosure by different stakeholders.

Citation

Li, Q., Ruan, W., Shao, W. and Huang, G. (2017), "Information disclosure in an environmental emergency", Disaster Prevention and Management, Vol. 26 No. 2, pp. 134-147. https://doi.org/10.1108/DPM-06-2016-0125