Environmental Accounting Disclosure Practices by Companies: A Systematic Review of Literature
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Abstract
The numerous attentions being given to the issue of environmental concern has generated opportunities for important researches and standard reforms in environmental accounting disclosure practices by the companies.
Purpose – The purpose of this paper was to systematically review how environmental accounting disclosure practices of companies impacted the sustainability objectives of the firm with a view to identifying gaps and advance recommendations for policy-makers and future studies.
Design/methodology/approach The Systematic Quantitative Assessment Technique (SQAT), was adopted to search for data used in the critical analysis of 78 peer-reviewed articles obtained from 7 high impact scholarly databanks. Majority of the articles reviewed were empirical studies
Findings – There were external and internal pressures exerted on the company to adopt sustainability practices. However, the coercive pressures did not necessarily bring about a real change in the organization. The forces of change were mainly the foreign partners, audit pressure and the allegations by stakeholders, with serious attention given to these as a result of the reputational significance which is a strength to the company. The discussion therefore provides researchers with a critical view of the subject exposing researchable gaps that will assist policymakers globally on how to put in place necessary legal framework and disclosure requirements to tackle environmental challenges.
Practical implications – Clear regulatory frameworks, more direct engagement with companies and meeting the expectations of the local communities were considered as crucial factors to ensure there is a pathway for sustainability in the activities of concerned firms.
Originality/value – The paper develops a systematic review framework from the relevant studies in firms’ environmental accountability disclosure.
Keywords
Environmental accounting, disclosure, environmental sustainability, Climate change, SQAT,
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