Determinants of environmental disclosure in annual reports of Sri Lankan listed manufacturing companies

Abstract

The aim of this study is to investigate the level of corporate environmental information disclosure practices of listed manufacturing companies in Sri Lanka. The study also examined the influence of firm size, profitability and listing age on the level of corporate environmental information disclosure. To achieve the aims of this study, content analysis and statistical analysis were used. Content analysis by word count is used to determine the level of social and environmental disclosures on annual reports of Sri Lankan listed manufacturing companies. To determine the factors that explain the level of social and environmental information disclosures, descriptive statistics, correlation analysis and multiple regressions analysis were used. The finding indicates that 50.63% of the companies provided corporate environmental information in their 2012/2013 annual reports. Multiple regression analysis revealed that size of the firm had significant positive relationship with the level of corporate environmental information disclosure. However, corporate environmental disclosure has not been influenced by the profitability and listing age.