Relationship between Stakeholder Power and Corporate Environmental Disclosures: Evidence from Listed Firms in Sri Lanka.

Abstract

In Sri Lanka, reporting on the environmental practices is lagging behind in meeting the stakeholders’ demand for corporate environmental disclosures. Thus, this study was conducted with the aim of studying whether there is a relationship between stakeholder power and the corporate environmental disclosures in Sri Lankan listed companies. Analyzing the relationship between stakeholder power and corporate environmental disclosure is very rational because, within the existing empirical evidences in Sri Lanka, no comprehensive study has been conducted to date. Therefore, materialization of this research phenomenon will fill the research gap as well as provided crucial information to the listed companies in understanding how their stakeholders impose power over their corporate environmental disclosures. This study was undertaken as a cross sectional secondary research study focusing on 99 Sri Lankan listed companies based on the market capitalization. As per the study, it was found that creditor power has a significant relationship with the corporate environmental disclosures while shareholder power and the government power do not significantly associate with the corporate environmental disclosures. Besides, control variable, firm size and the corporate environmental disclosures are also significantly related. The findings of the study contribute to the existing literature and will promote environmental disclosures being made by companies.