Identifying and evaluating environmental reporting quality indicators

Subject Areas : Sustainable Development

Raheleh Nazarian ¹ , Akram Taftiyan ² , Forough Heyrani ³

1 - Ph.D. student in Accounting, Yazd branch, Islamic Azad University, Yazd, Iran
2 - Associate Professor of Accounting, Yazd branch, Islamic Azad University, Yazd, Iran.*(Corresponding Author)
3 - Assistant Professor of Accounting, Yazd branch, Islamic Azad University, Yazd, Iran.

Received: 2022-12-06 Accepted : 2023-07-12 Published : 2024-11-21

Keywords: Disclosure of hard information, Disclosure of soft information, Thematic analysis, Structural equations ,

Abstract :

Background and Objective: Considering the increasing trend of environmental damage by companies, disclosing information about their environmental performance has an undeniable role in achieving sustainable development. Environmental reporting has become one of the basic issues in the process of sustainable development to ensure environmental protection; the purpose of the current research is to identify and evaluate the quality indicators of environmental reporting to respond to the needs of stakeholders in line with the goals of sustainable development.

Material and Methodology: This research is descriptive-correlative in nature and practical in terms of purpose. The research was conducted with a mixed approach in two parts, quantitative and qualitative, where qualitative data was collected through semi-structured interviews with academic and executive experts in environmental, reporting fields and literature review of the research field. In order to collect quantitative data, a researcher-made questionnaire was given to faculty members, capital market analysts, financial managers and auditors.

Findings: The findings from the qualitative part using the Attride-Stirling theme analysis method include 2 global themes, 7 organizing themes and 39 basic themes. Overarching themes include environmental hard disclosure and soft disclosure. In the quantitative part, the algorithm of data analysis using the partial least squares (PLS) method, which includes the examination of measurement models and structural model fitting; In order to evaluate 7 components, "future perspective and strategic plans, history and specifications, initiatives, disclosure of governance structure and management systems, credibility, financial indicators, performance factors" were used as a tool for measuring environmental reporting in Iran.

Discussion and Conclusion: According to the results of the confirmatory factor analysis and data fitting algorithm, it is possible to understand the acceptability and desirability of the existing structure at the level of themes. Based on this, it can be said that the indicators for measuring the quality of environmental reporting have adequate construct validity and reliability, so they can be used to evaluate the quality of environmental reporting in terms of its reliability.

 

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