Determinants of corporate social and environmental disclosure of socially responsible Chinese listed firms

This paper investigates the determinants of social and environmental disclosure practices of the 100 socially responsible Chinese listed firms identified by the Social Responsibility ranking list. This study developed a quality-adjusted social and environmental disclosure index based on the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) Sustainability Reporting Guidelines to assess the level of social and environmental disclosures in the 2008 annual reports and corporate social responsibility reports. Findings reveal that corporate social and environmental disclosure have significant, positive associations with size, profitability and industry classification. Chinese government's recommendations to guide disclosure of listed firms with government ownership had no significant effect on disclosure. The roles of various stakeholders in influencing corporate social and environmental disclosure are found to be generally weak, except that shareholders have influenced disclosure relating to economic performance and creditors have influenced disclosure relating to environmental performance.