دانلود رایگان مقاله انگلیسی رابطه ارزیابی بازدید مجدد عملکرد محیطی: نقش تعدیلی از مقررات محیطی - الزویر 2018

Abstract

Abstract This study attempts to broaden our understanding of the value relevance of environmental performance by providing empirical evidence on the moderating role of financial environmental reporting. Previous studies find that firms’ environmental performance can be both positively and negatively associated with market value. Such contradictory findings can be attributed to the fact that environmental performance is associated with future economic benefits and costs. This study suggests that firms with recognized environmental provisions on their balance sheets enable investors to disentangle these opposite effects either by signaling strong future financial performance or by enhancing the reliability of environmental performance information. Regardless of the mechanism by which this moderation effect is invoked, it is hypothesized that capital market participants place a positive and significantly higher value on the environmental performance ratings of firms with recognized environmental provisions than on the ratings of firms without environmental provisions. Utilizing a sample of 692 firm-year observations of French listed firms and employing a linear price-level model that associates the market value of a firm’s equity with its environmental performance, I provide empirical evidence to corroborate this thesis. In addition to contributing to the academic debate on the market valuation implications of environmental performance, this study intends to provide useful insights from a country that can be considered a pioneer of environmental reporting legislation; hence, it provides valuable lessons for other jurisdictions that are in the process of developing their sustainability reporting regulations. Finally, the findings of this study support the calls for more integrated reporting showing that the interaction of financial and non-financial information has market valuation implications.

Discussion and concluding remarks

The purpose of this study is to provide insights on the moderating role of environmental provisions in the market valuation of environmental performance. Utilizing a sample of French listed firms for the ten-year period from 2005 to 2014, I find that although the mean effect of environmental performance ratings on market value is negative, investors positively value the environmental performance of firms with environmental provisions recognized on their balance sheets. My findings hold for a battery of different model specifications and robustness tests. Regarding the first finding, my study provides evidence of a negative relation between environmental performance ratings and market value. This negative relation may be indicative of investors perceiving strong environmental performance as costly and hence having negative effects on future earnings (Hassel et al., 2005) or as an attempt by firm managers to use a firm’s resources for their own interests and hence at the expense of shareholders value (Jensen, 2001).