Do Environmental Disasters Impact on the Volume of Socio-Environmental Investment and Disclosure of Brazilian Companies?

Abstract

This research investigated the impact that environmental disasters have on the volume of socio-environmental disclosure and investments of Brazilian companies from 1997 to 2012. News on environmental disasters was collected through a search engine, the companies responsible for the disasters were identified, and the research technique of content analysis was used to analyze the research data, which included the sustainability reports, annual reports, and management reports of the companies responsible, and also of other enterprises belonging to the same economic sector, dating from two years before and two years after the accident. The sentences were categorized according to the methodology used by Deegan, Rankin, and Voght (2000). The Mann–Whitney test was used in order to set the level of socio-environmental disclosure and investment before the occurrence of the accident and then compare it to the level of disclosure and investment after the accident. As a result, it was shown that the companies reported a higher volume of socio-environmental disclosure in the two years after the occurrence of the accidents – with statistical significance of 2.9%. Statistically significant variations of 8.2% and 0.7% were found in the totals of contributions to society and in environmental investments, respectively. On the other hand, there was no statistically significant variation in the internal social indicators. The relevance of this research is the study of events to understand how environmental disasters can influence voluntary disclosure practices of Brazilian companies, through the lens of the legitimacy theory.

Citation

Ferreira Neto, J.V., da Silva Gomes, S.M., Bruni, A.L. and Dias Filho, J.M. (2017), "Do Environmental Disasters Impact on the Volume of Socio-Environmental Investment and Disclosure of Brazilian Companies?", Advances in Environmental Accounting & Management: Social and Environmental Accounting in Brazil (Advances in Environmental Accounting & Management, Vol. 6), Emerald Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 159-187. https://doi.org/10.1108/S1479-359820160000006006