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\LRH{M.P. Rodriguez Bolivar and B. Sen\'es Garcia}

\RRH{The corporate environmental disclosures on the internet}

\VOL{x}

\ISSUE{x}

\BottomCatch

\PAGES{xxxx}

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\PUBYEAR{2004}

\subtitle{}

\title{The corporate environmental disclosures on the internet: the case of
IBEX 35 Spanish companies}

\authorA{M. Pedro Rodr\'{\i}guez Bol\'{\i}var* and\newline
Bel\'{e}n Sen\'{e}s Garc\'{\i}a}

\affA{Department of Accounting and Finance,\\ Faculty of Economics
and Business Studies, University of Granada,\\ c/ Campus
Universitario de Cartuja s/n, 18071 Granada, Spain\\ Fax: +34
958246249\qquad E-mail: manuelp@ugr.es\\ E-mail: bsenes@ugr.es
\newline $^{*}$Corresponding author }

\begin{abstract}
This paper seeks to investigate the practices of corporate
environmental disclosures of the IBEX 35 Spanish firms on their websites.
Three areas are studied: (1) the disclosure of non-financial environmental
reporting; (2) the disclosure of financial environmental reporting; and (3)
the analysis of some aspects of the corporate websites that, in our opinion,
could affect the availability of the corporate environmental reporting. The
main findings of this paper are: (a) environmental disclosures made by firms
present a slight concentration of the data; (b) the compliance of the
standards of GRI guide is a key variable for non-financial environmental
disclosures on the internet; (c) financial environmental reporting disclosed
in the financial statements is quite limited, and (d) there is a need to
link non-financial environmental reporting and financial environmental
reporting, so that the user of the information can have a greater detail of
the influence of environmental concerns in the management of the firm.
\end{abstract}

\KEYWORD{environmental disclosures; World Wide Web; IBEX 35 Spanish
firms.}

\REF{to this paper should be made as follows: Rodr\'{\i}guez
Bol\'{\i}var, M.P. and Sen\'{e}s Garc\'{\i}a, B. (xxxx) `The
corporate environmental disclosures on the internet: the case of
IBEX 35 Spanish companies', {\it Int. J. Accounting, Auditing and
Performance Evaluation}, Vol. x, No. x, pp.xxx\textendash xxx.}

\BIO{Manuel Pedro Rodr\'iguez Bol\'ivar received
his PhD in Accounting at the University of Granada. He is a Lecturer at the
Department of Accounting and Finance, University of Granada. His research
interests include issues related to conceptual frameworks of accounting,
diffusion of financial information on Internet, Balanced Scorecard
applications and environmental accounting. He is author of a great deal of
research studies published at national and international journals,
conference proceedings as well as book chapters, one of which has been
edited by Kluwer Academic Publishers.\\[10pt]
Bel\'en Sen\'es Garc\'ia received her PhD in Accounting at the
University of Granada. She is a Lecturer at the Department of Accounting and
Finance, University of Granada. Her research interests are related to
cultural, institutional and historic accounting and in environmental
accounting. She has published research papers at national and international
journals, conference proceedings as well as chapters of books.\\[10pt]
Both authors have published a book about environmental accounting edited by
the Institute of Accounting and Auditing, Ministry of Economic Affairs, in
Spain in October 2003.}

\maketitle

%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
\section{Introduction} %% 1
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%

In the last few years, corporate environmental disclosures are in a
spectacular development process. The requirements of environmental
reporting by stakeholders are increasingly taking into account the
materiality of this type of information to take decisions [1\endash
7]. Many standards bodies have undertaken the issuance of some
guidelines to make a harmonised framework to improve the
presentation and understanding of environmental disclosures.

Many research works have examined the state-of-the-art in the
disclosure of corporate environmental reporting in hard copy format
([8\endash 11] \endash at an international level \endash, and
[12\endash 15] \endash in Spain). Although hard copy format has
always been used by the companies as the most traditional media to
issue and disclose all kind of information, we think that the trend
in business to disclose environmental reporting should be on the
way of its dissemination through more versatile media as internet.
The internet can be particularly valuable for benchmarking the
policies, practices, tools and techniques [16]. Besides, it can be
a useful tool for corporate environmental disclosures because it
would allow a bigger flexibility, ability and availability of this
type of information.

These concerns have made firms to disclose greater environmental and social
disclosures on their corporate websites. It has been demonstrated by the studies
carried out by the Pensions {\&} Investments Research Consultants Limited [17], the
 United Nations Environment Programme ({\&} Sustainability) [18] and the
Environmental Resources Management [19]. These empirical evidences
have been joined to the recommendations of the Global Reporting
Initiative (GRI) \endash one of the main standards bodies to issue
Sustainability Reports \endash which encourages the use of the
internet to disclose environmental disclosures [20, p.17].

In spite of the importance that is based on the previous comments, the
internet could have to disclose corporate environmental reporting, few
empirical studies have been conducted to know the state of the art.
Likewise, studies have not been conducted to analyse the content of
environmental disclosures on the internet and their effect in the annual
reports of the firms. In fact, these studies are almost non-existent in the
current environmental literature.

This state of the art makes us to question if the leading Spanish companies,
besides being aware of the relevance of preservation of the natural
environment, also begin to worry about incorporating on their websites their
Environmental Reports and Sustainability Reports. This is the main reason
that justifies our interest to analyse in what measure and in what way the
information of this type is disclosed.

This paper seeks to contribute, therefore, to the prior literature related
to corporate environmental disclosures in several ways. On one hand, this
paper pursues to know the amount and type of environmental disclosures that
Spanish firms included in the selective market index IBEX 35 are providing
to the different stakeholders on the corporate websites. Second, corporate
annual reports have been examined to observe the financial incidence of
corporate environmental concerns. Finally, some basic elements of corporate
websites in which corporate environmental disclosures take place are
analysed. In short, this paper analyses some aspects related to the
navigability, design and accessibility to environmental reporting on the
corporate websites.

The remainder of this paper is organised as follows. First, the advantages
of the internet to disclose information regarding to paper-based reporting
are highlighted. Second, literature review section provides an overview of
the prior literature related to corporate social disclosures both in
paper-based reporting and on the internet reporting. Later, this paper
describes the methodology of the research work. The empirical results are
shown in the section fifth of our paper. Finally, the main conclusions of
our research work as well as a discussion of their potential implications
are highlighted.

\section{Disclosure on the web: advantages over paper-based reporting}

According to [21], in the future, it will be increasingly important to
strengthen the company's communication abilities not only on environmental
performance and results, but sustainability in broader terms, including
social responsibility. The widespread development of the Technologies of the
Information and Communications, which has taken place in all environments of
the economic and social life in the last years, can help companies to meet
these needs of communication. As corporate reporting is rooted in society,
currently there are pressures on corporate reporting to adapt to a more
knowledge-based society [22]. This view is embraced within legitimacy theory
[23], which is not competing, but complementary, with stakeholder and
political economy theories when applied to corporate social reporting [24].

Consistent with the perspective provided by legitimacy theory,
corporate environmental reporting is disclosed for strategic
reasons, rather than on the basis of any perceived responsibilities
[25]. In fact, to make the internet professionally usable for
reporting represents a managerial challenge implying several
strategic, organisational, personal, legal and technical
consequences [26]. Dowling and Pfeffer [27, p.127] outline the
means that are used by organisations, when faced with legitimacy
threats, to legitimate their activities. Organisations can attempt,
through communication to alter the definition of social legitimacy,
to become identified with symbols, values or institutions, and to
alter expectations of the organisation [28]. In fact, literature on
managing legitimacy both explicit and implicitly states that
controlling and communicating tactical responses is one of the
means of managing legitimacy [27\endash 31]. In this regard, we
think that opportunities offered by the implementation of new
technologies can help companies to meet these needs through the
improvement of the communication of corporate environmental
reporting.

On the other hand, consistent with the perspective provided by stakeholder
theory, the opportunity for companies gaining competitive advantage from
environmental management systems depends on the ability to communicate
attitudes and performance to the stakeholders. Nowadays, the new `threat' to
companies will be that stakeholders' expectations are high in terms of
communication [21]. A WSSD Business Survey seems to demonstrate the latter
concern because in this survey the expectations on companies got a higher
score than governmental regulations and it was the highest scored item in
the section of roles and responsibilities of multinational companies [32].
Stakeholders will come to expect a greater and greater level of transparency
and the internet by way of facilitating this shift will be torch for ethical
and sustainable conduct [33]. Therefore, it is very important to identify
stakeholders and critical systems heuristics can help in resolving this
problem [34]. In particular, political and internal stakeholder groups
as well as customers are the major drivers for European countries in
environmental matters [35,36]. In summary, in future, reporting and
communicating will require that companies

\begin{BL}
\item know what their stakeholders want to know
\item are able to mobilise critical information at the right time and in the right format
for purchases and other stakeholders to obtain the benefit or `value' of the information [37, p.12].
\end{BL}
The form that the connections between organisations and the stakeholders
take can engage stakeholder [38] and, this way, new technologies can aid
companies again to meet these needs in the future. Although there are many
modes of disclosing corporate performance reporting such as press releases,
analyst briefings and conference calls, internet has been heralded as the
information superhighway. In this section, we identify the main
characteristics of internet corporate reporting.

In reference to financial reporting, several papers have shown the
advantages that internet can offer to disclose financial reporting regarding
the paper-based reporting
(see Table 1). In fact, the birth of the World Wide Web (Web) has allowed
the firms to meet, in a more efficient way, the most stakeholders' needs,
offering a higher flexibility in the way and quality of the information
supplied.

%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%Table 1%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%

\begin{table*}[b]
\TABLE{Comparison between the annual report in hard copy format and
the websites}
{\begin{tabular*}{\textwidth}{@{\extracolsep{\fill}}lll} \HLINE \up
&{\it Annual report in hard copy}&\\
 {\it Characteristic}&  {\it format}& {\it Websites} \\
\Hline \up
Time to access to the message &Depends when
stakeholders want &None: The website is\\
by the stakeholders & to read the annual report&
 available whenever\\
 && stakeholder wants \\[5pt]
Availability space of the media& Limited by the size of the page&
Unlimited \\[5pt] Graphic contents& Yes &Yes \\[5pt] Audio
contents& No & Yes \\[3pt] Flexibility to move the site to a &
No&Yes \\ more appropriate localisation\\[5pt] \HLINE
\end{tabular*}}{{\it Source: }[18,39\endash 45].}
\label{tab2}
\end{table*}

The possibility to disseminate information to a wider spectrum of
users has been a key feature that firms have conferred internet
regarding hard copy format. The corporate disclosures on the
website are available, except when it is offered under a certain
cost, to all visitors of the corporate websites. They need not have
specialist knowledge in the information disclosed \endash this
process has been called `{\it democratization of business
information}' [46, p.vii]. As the number of people with a computer
set connected to internet is increasing in the last years, internet
can make corporate reporting globally accessible to all types of
users within and beyond national boundaries.

Only in Spain, a recent study of the Association for the
Investigation of the Media reveals that, in February\endash March
1996, 6,208,000 people with 14 years or over used the computer and
242,000 people were accustomed to connect to internet. In
October\endash November 2002, these figures rose spectacularly
until reaching the 11,527,000 computer users and 7,856,000 users of
internet [47, p.5]. These numbers clearly demonstrate the Net's
greater potential for broad dissemination of information.

\begin{figure*} %%1
\caption{Bar chart for global scores}
\centerline{\epsfxsize=250pt\epsffile[0 0 291 188]{3069DOOP02.eps}}
\end{figure*}

Moreover, in this study it is also revealed that some of the most
visited websites were financial websites such as, for example,
www.invertia.com and www.spanishshare.com [47, pp.59, 60]. In fact,
the use of financial reporting is one of the activities referred by
interviewers when they connected to internet \endash 28{\%} of
interviewers pointed out this activity [47, p.63]. Finally, a
generalisation of internet usage is taking place due to the
accessibility to this media by people. So, people is connecting to
internet at home or at the work place, and the internet is
practically used everyday \endash almost 75{\%} of interviewers
connect to the internet at home [47, p.22].

Perhaps the accessibility to the information is one reason for the web to be
perceived as the best media to meet the needs of stewardship and management
disclosures of
the entities, for financial as well as non-financial reporting [48,49].
Nonetheless, in accordance with [50], the external environment of the firm
is a significant influence on a new and global medium for disclosure such as
internet. The general internet usage and the disclosure environment at
national level are likely to induce or subdue corporate disclosure.

On the other hand, in the European Business Environmental Barometer Survey,
the cost of information was identified as the most important obstacle that
companies face when they implement an environmental policy [51]. Gathering
and disseminating information on `best practice' may overcome information
cost barriers. This is thought to be particularly important for small and
medium-sized enterprises where access to information is often most
restricted [52]. Although the use of internet to disclose corporate
environmental reporting only represents a sound first step to take advantage
of information technology for sustainability purposes, it becomes important
to save large quantities of paper, staff time and money [53]. Therefore, the
possibility to disclose information with a lower cost is another main
advantage of internet. Empirical evidence is shown in research papers and
reports. For instance, [54] examined and analysed the nature of
environmental reporting of large, public, US companies. In their research,
the authors pointed out that some companies indicated that they were no
longer printing as many reports, particularly as other cheaper forms of
distribution, such as internet, become common. Likewise, [55] concluded that
peripheral modules such as printing, scanning or writing a document often
generate a larger burden than the transfer of data itself, via e-mail or
postal service. Finally, in the report prepared by ENVIRON [56], a survey
was sent out to a total of 109 companies, of which 38 were FTSE100
companies, a further 17 were FTSE350 companies and the remaining were
`other' environmental reporters. The survey questionnaire was developed to
allow companies to disclose the costs and benefits associated with
developing an Environmental Report. The results indicate that companies that
wish to limit the costs of environmental reporting could be encouraged to
consider the production of electronic versions of their Environmental Report
as opposed to the publication of hard copy [56, p.9]. Also, the cost of
updating this information is practically non-existent with independence of
the number of users of information. In other words, the marginal cost for
user is zero [57, p.56].

Previous commentaries can make that firms provide the corporate reporting on
corporate websites and send statements to stakeholders through e-mail if the
stakeholder consents to receiving the information in that manner and the
company can prove a stakeholder actually received the information. Some
Regulations all around the world as, for example, SEC release No. 33-7233 in
the USA, allow the delivery of information through an electronic medium. By
this way, the company no longer has to bear any realised costs of printing
and postage that usually suppose a great part of the budget of the firm [18,
pp.15; 44]. In summary, internet-based reporting can be more cost-effective
than paper-based reporting.

Besides, the paper form has become limited in capacity to disclose
all information needed by the users of information. In hard copy
format, the size of the paper and the length of the report are
clearly restricted by problems regarding their cost and
distribution [42]. The new technological advances have helped the
firms to disseminate information without any problems. The capacity
of information storage in computers is increasing and the needs for
hardware to process it have been met fully. It makes firms to be
tempted to provide a higher amount of information to the different
stakeholders on their corporate websites about compulsory as well
as voluntary disclosure [58\endash 60]. Indeed, the growing
accessibility of the Web coupled with greater release of
environmental reporting is raising stakeholder for additional
disclosure [61].

\section{Environmental disclosures in paper-based reporting and internet
reporting: prior research}

\subsection{Environmental disclosures in paper-based reporting: theoretical foundations and prior research}

A number of post-1990 studies have focused on the relationship
between corporate social reporting and the possible motivation
underlying decisions to disclose this type of information [84].
Guthrie and Parker [85] and Patten and Trompeter [86] assure that
firms disclose this type of information as a mechanism used to be
protected and to avoid the attention of regulatory bodies,
particularly when sanctions for non-compliance are invoked [87].
Moreover, corporate environmental initiatives may be used to shape
government regulations attempting to pre-empt future legislation
altogether or failing this, to soften the impact of the new laws by
inducing regulators to set relatively weak standards [88]). Other
incentives include the compliance with industrial codes [89], the
decrease of operating costs [90,91], the creation of shareholder
value [92\endash 95], and the improvement of the image of the firm
and the need to promote the relationship with customers and society
[19,36,96\endash 98].

A study research in charged by the European Commission to [11] seems to
demonstrate the latter concern. In Jones' study research, a debate on
internet was carried out and a questionnaire was designed and sent to some
firms from the UK, the USA, Sweden, Germany, Finland, Netherlands, France,
Belgium, Switzerland, Denmark, Norway, Canada, Japan and Italy, and to
expert and advisory's bodies. In the study, the advertisement, the
fulfilment of investors' needs and the financial incidence of the
environmental concerns of the firm were pointed out as main reasons to
disclose environmental reporting.

Anyway, corporate social disclosure in paper-based reporting has been
analysed in many research papers that have contributed from different
perspectives to its interpretation [30]. Some of them have been focused in
the analysis of environmental management strategies. The European Business
Environmental Barometer Reports (EBEB) are among the most important surveys
in European countries to analyse the state of the art in environmental
management strategies. The questionnaire of these surveys has been applied
to European countries to get some interesting findings about this topic. For
instance, in the EBEB 1997/1998, while the industrial response pattern to
environmental challenges in French firms involve mainly reactive and
corrective actions, although a more receptive response pattern began to
emerge, in Irish firms, the response of companies to the environmental
challenge was mixed. This way, many Irish firms appear to appreciate the
importance of environmental management within the day-to-day management of
the company operations, but too many do not translate their cognitive
awareness into environmental actions [51].

In the last EBEB report applied to Great Britain and Germany (EBEB 2001),
relatively large similarities have been revealed with regard to observable
environmental routines, the major stakeholders influencing adoption of such
routines and obstacles to the adoption of routines. Nonetheless, the way
organisations in both countries address these pressures through initial and
gradually more systematic environmental routines that can be aggregated to
empirically identified environmental strategies is, in contrast, quite
different between the two countries [99].

Other research papers have approached the topic of environmental
disclosures by companies. The majority of these studies appear to
be from North America, Australia, the UK, Canada and, finally,
Nordic countries. Some studies considered the effects of
environmental disasters by companies [100\endash 102]. Another
topic on environmental reporting has been focused in comparisons
across industries of environmental reporting and disclosure
provided by firms [103]. In fact, these studies have driven to the
most environmentally sensitive sectors of the economy such as
electric utility industry [104,105], chemical industry [106],
socially responsible investment sector [107], mining and mineral
industries [108,109] or water industry~[110].

Other studies examined the general quality of environmental
disclosures in 10k and annual reports, finding that many firms did
not provide any discussion of corporate environmental philosophy or
environmental disclosures [8,9]. The relationship with financial
performance and market reaction has been another main feature in
corporate environmental performance [2,3,111\endash 117]. Finally,
several research papers have been conducted to know the state of
the art of corporate environmental disclosures in paper-based
reporting in some countries as well as to emphasise differences on
environmental disclosures between firms in an international
context. In Table 2, an overview of the major findings of these
latter research papers is summarised.

\section*{Acknowledgements}

The authors would like to acknowledge the many helpful suggestions of two anonymous
reviewers and the participants of the 2003 EAA Conference on earlier versions of this
paper. We also thank Professor P.L. Joshi, the Editor.

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