LEGITIMACY AND THE INTERNET: AN EXAMINATION OF CORPORATE WEB PAGE ENVIRONMENTAL DISCLOSURES
- 19 May 2004
- book chapter
- Published by Emerald in Advances in Environmental Accounting & Management
Abstract
Internet usage has exploded over the past decade and the medium is now being suggested as a potentially powerful tool for disclosing environmental information and increasing corporate accountability. This study, grounded in legitimacy theory, argues that such a view may be overly optimistic. Results of an analysis of both annual report and corporate web page environmental disclosures for a sample of 62 U.S. firms do indicate that corporate web pages appear to be adding at least some additional, non-redundant environmental information beyond what is provided in the annual reports. However, the relative lack of negative environmental disclosure on the web pages, in conjunction with the finding that differences in the level of positive/neutral environmental disclosure are associated with legitimacy variables suggests that the focus of Internet disclosure may be more on corporate attempts at legitimation than on moving toward greater corporate accountability.This publication has 25 references indexed in Scilit:
- Corporate Reporting on the InternetAccounting Horizons, 1999
- CORPORATE SOCIAL REPORTING PRACTICES IN WESTERN EUROPE: LEGITIMATING CORPORATE BEHAVIOUR?The British Accounting Review, 1998
- Corporate environmental disclosures: Competitive disclosure hypothesis using 1991 annual report dataThe International Journal of Accounting, 1996
- A Study of the Environmental Disclosure Practices of Australian CorporationsAccounting and Business Research, 1996
- Some determinants of social and environmental disclosures in New Zealand companiesAccounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, 1996
- Corporate social and environmental reportingAccounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, 1995
- Corporate Social Reporting: A Rebuttal of Legitimacy TheoryAccounting and Business Research, 1989
- The political significance of corporate social reporting in the United States of AmericaAccounting, Organizations and Society, 1981
- Environmental Performance and Corporate DisclosureJournal of Accounting Research, 1980
- Organizational Legitimacy: Social Values and Organizational BehaviorThe Pacific Sociological Review, 1975