RIEB Discussion Paper Series No.2014-13
Title
Corporate Environmental Initiatives and Shareholder Value: Focusing on the Role of Environmental Information and Its Credibility
Abstract
The goal of this paper is to perform an empirical analysis on the impact on shareholder value of corporate environmental initiatives, focusing on the environmental disclosure and its credibility. The authors verified their hypothesis regarding this, which states, "corporations' environmental initiatives improve shareholder value via release of environmental reports. This trend grows stronger when the credibility of the disclosed information is enhanced." The results of the empirical analysis supported this hypothesis. Specifically, it was revealed that corporations that conduct more environmental initiatives release more environmental reports, and corporations that release more environmental reports have higher shareholder value, and the increased credibility gained via the disclosure of information that includes third-party reviews strengthens this trend even further.
Keywords
Environmental reports, Third-party comments, Third-party assurances, Environmental initiatives, Tobin's q
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M.B. HAIDER
Graduate School of Business Administration, Kobe University
Katsuhiko KOKUBU
Graduate School of Business Administration, Kobe University