International Journal of Sustainability Management and Information Technologies

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Effect of Corporate Environmental Disclosure on Financial Performance of Firms Listed at Nairobi Securities Exchange, Kenya

Received: 13 May 2016    Accepted: 24 June 2016    Published: 1 August 2016
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Abstract

Corporate environmental disclosure entails reporting on the impact of company activities on the natural environment such as waste management, recycling, carbon management, emission, pollution, wetland and wildlife conservation. Conventional accounting systems are limiting since they fail to directly address sustainability concerns. They have failed to address economic growth against social and environmental needs in order to balance the different needs of various stakeholders. Sustainability has become a major pillar of today’s business activities. This study consequently aimed at assessing the effect of corporate environmental disclosure on financial performance of listed firms at the Nairobi Securities Exchange, Kenya. This study made use of longitudinal secondary data from the annual reports and financial statements of listed companies at the Nairobi Securities Exchange. Content analysis of sampled listed companies’ annual reports was undertaken to examine environmental disclosure practices. A checklist of environmental disclosure items and categories was developed and environmental disclosure indices computed. Casual research design was employed to determine the cause-effect relationship between corporate environmental Disclosure and financial performance. Target population of the study was 61 listed companies. Purposive sampling was employed in selecting firms that have been listed for entire period of study and whose annual reports are available at the Nairobi Securities Exchange. This resulted into a sample size of 32 listed companies. Coefficient of Skewness was used to test the normality of data. Homoscedasticity and auto-correlation assumptions of the regression model were tested using scatter plots and Durbin Watson test. Linear regression model was used to determine the casual relationship between environmental disclosure and financial performance. The overall model was found to be significant with F=8.514, P-value <0.05. The predictor variable explained 47.7% of changes in financial performance. Firm size and leverage have no effect on environmental disclosure. Findings reveal that environmental disclosure with P-value <0.05 has a positive significant effect in the mean financial performance. The study recommends that firms should engage in environmental disclosure because it leads to increased financial performance. The study would be useful to the government and also managers to ensure policies are put in place to ensure present generations meet their needs without compromising the ability of future generations to meet theirs. The study also forms basis for further research and adds knowledge to existing body.

DOI 10.11648/j.ijsmit.20160201.11
Published in International Journal of Sustainability Management and Information Technologies (Volume 2, Issue 1, February 2016)
Page(s) 1-6
Creative Commons

This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, provided the original work is properly cited.

Copyright

Copyright © The Author(s), 2024. Published by Science Publishing Group

Keywords

Corporate Environmental Disclosure, Financial Performance, NSE, Kenya

References
[1] Cooper, D., & Schindler, P. S. (2011). Business Research methods. New Dehli: Mc Graw Hill.
[2] Eltaib, E. E. (2012). Environmental accounting Disclosures of Australian Oil and gas companies. Unpublished masters thesis: University of Wollongong.
[3] Gitman, j. (2007). Principles of Managerial Finance. New Dehli, India: Pearson Education.
[4] Hossain, M., Islam, K., & Andrew, J. (2006). Corporate social and environmental disclosure in developing coutries: evidence from Bangladesh. Asian Pacific Conference. University of Wollongong.
[5] KPMG. (2012). Sustainability reporting-What you should know. KPMG.
[6] Mitchell, A., & Sikka, P. (2005). Taming The Corporation. Essex,UK: Association for Accountancy and Business Affairs.ISBN 1-902384-09-1.
[7] Neu, D., Warsame, H., & Pedwell, K. (1998). Managing Public ImpressionsEnvironmental Disclosures In Annual Reports",. Accounting, Organizations and Society, 23(3): 265-282.
[8] Pandey, I. (2005). Financial Management. New Delhi: Vikas Publishing House.
[9] Ponnu, C. H., & Okoth, M. O. (October, 2009). Corporate Social Responsibility disclosure in Kenya: The Nairobi Securites Exchange. African Journal of Business Management, Vol.3 (10), pp. 601-608.
[10] Samy, G., Odemilin, M., & Bampton, R. (2010). Corporate social responsibility: a strategy for sustainable business success. An analysis of 20 selected British companies", Corporate Governance: The international journal of business in society, Vol. 10 Iss 2 pp. 203-217.
[11] Sidorova, I., & Gurvitsh, N. (2012). Survey of sustainability reporting integrated into annual reports of Estonian companies for the years 2007-2010: based on companies listed on Tallinn Stock Exchange as of October 2011. 2nd Annual International Conference on Accounting and Finance (AF 2012) (pp. 26-34). Tallinn, Estonia: Tallinn University of Technology.
[12] Stavropoulos, A., Efthymios, G., & Despina, G. (2011). The Relation Between Firm Size and Environmental Disclosure. International Conference On Applied Economics – ICOAE. Thessaloniki, Greece: University of Macedonia, Egnatias 156.
[13] United States Environmental Protection Agency US EPA. (1995). An Introduction to Environmental Accounting as a Business Management Tool: Key Concepts and Terms. EPA 742-R-95 001 June.
[14] Uwaloma, U. (2011). Corporate environmental reporting practices. A comparative study of Nigeria and South African firms. Covenant University, Ota, Ogun state: Unpublished phd thesis.
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    Karambu Kiende Gatimbu, Joseph Masinde Wabwire. (2016). Effect of Corporate Environmental Disclosure on Financial Performance of Firms Listed at Nairobi Securities Exchange, Kenya. International Journal of Sustainability Management and Information Technologies, 2(1), 1-6. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijsmit.20160201.11

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    ACS Style

    Karambu Kiende Gatimbu; Joseph Masinde Wabwire. Effect of Corporate Environmental Disclosure on Financial Performance of Firms Listed at Nairobi Securities Exchange, Kenya. Int. J. Sustain. Manag. Inf. Technol. 2016, 2(1), 1-6. doi: 10.11648/j.ijsmit.20160201.11

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    AMA Style

    Karambu Kiende Gatimbu, Joseph Masinde Wabwire. Effect of Corporate Environmental Disclosure on Financial Performance of Firms Listed at Nairobi Securities Exchange, Kenya. Int J Sustain Manag Inf Technol. 2016;2(1):1-6. doi: 10.11648/j.ijsmit.20160201.11

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  • @article{10.11648/j.ijsmit.20160201.11,
      author = {Karambu Kiende Gatimbu and Joseph Masinde Wabwire},
      title = {Effect of Corporate Environmental Disclosure on Financial Performance of Firms Listed at Nairobi Securities Exchange, Kenya},
      journal = {International Journal of Sustainability Management and Information Technologies},
      volume = {2},
      number = {1},
      pages = {1-6},
      doi = {10.11648/j.ijsmit.20160201.11},
      url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijsmit.20160201.11},
      eprint = {https://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/pdf/10.11648.j.ijsmit.20160201.11},
      abstract = {Corporate environmental disclosure entails reporting on the impact of company activities on the natural environment such as waste management, recycling, carbon management, emission, pollution, wetland and wildlife conservation. Conventional accounting systems are limiting since they fail to directly address sustainability concerns. They have failed to address economic growth against social and environmental needs in order to balance the different needs of various stakeholders. Sustainability has become a major pillar of today’s business activities. This study consequently aimed at assessing the effect of corporate environmental disclosure on financial performance of listed firms at the Nairobi Securities Exchange, Kenya. This study made use of longitudinal secondary data from the annual reports and financial statements of listed companies at the Nairobi Securities Exchange. Content analysis of sampled listed companies’ annual reports was undertaken to examine environmental disclosure practices. A checklist of environmental disclosure items and categories was developed and environmental disclosure indices computed. Casual research design was employed to determine the cause-effect relationship between corporate environmental Disclosure and financial performance. Target population of the study was 61 listed companies. Purposive sampling was employed in selecting firms that have been listed for entire period of study and whose annual reports are available at the Nairobi Securities Exchange. This resulted into a sample size of 32 listed companies. Coefficient of Skewness was used to test the normality of data. Homoscedasticity and auto-correlation assumptions of the regression model were tested using scatter plots and Durbin Watson test. Linear regression model was used to determine the casual relationship between environmental disclosure and financial performance. The overall model was found to be significant with F=8.514, P-value <0.05. The predictor variable explained 47.7% of changes in financial performance. Firm size and leverage have no effect on environmental disclosure. Findings reveal that environmental disclosure with P-value <0.05 has a positive significant effect in the mean financial performance. The study recommends that firms should engage in environmental disclosure because it leads to increased financial performance. The study would be useful to the government and also managers to ensure policies are put in place to ensure present generations meet their needs without compromising the ability of future generations to meet theirs. The study also forms basis for further research and adds knowledge to existing body.},
     year = {2016}
    }
    

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  • TY  - JOUR
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    JF  - International Journal of Sustainability Management and Information Technologies
    JO  - International Journal of Sustainability Management and Information Technologies
    SP  - 1
    EP  - 6
    PB  - Science Publishing Group
    SN  - 2575-5110
    UR  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijsmit.20160201.11
    AB  - Corporate environmental disclosure entails reporting on the impact of company activities on the natural environment such as waste management, recycling, carbon management, emission, pollution, wetland and wildlife conservation. Conventional accounting systems are limiting since they fail to directly address sustainability concerns. They have failed to address economic growth against social and environmental needs in order to balance the different needs of various stakeholders. Sustainability has become a major pillar of today’s business activities. This study consequently aimed at assessing the effect of corporate environmental disclosure on financial performance of listed firms at the Nairobi Securities Exchange, Kenya. This study made use of longitudinal secondary data from the annual reports and financial statements of listed companies at the Nairobi Securities Exchange. Content analysis of sampled listed companies’ annual reports was undertaken to examine environmental disclosure practices. A checklist of environmental disclosure items and categories was developed and environmental disclosure indices computed. Casual research design was employed to determine the cause-effect relationship between corporate environmental Disclosure and financial performance. Target population of the study was 61 listed companies. Purposive sampling was employed in selecting firms that have been listed for entire period of study and whose annual reports are available at the Nairobi Securities Exchange. This resulted into a sample size of 32 listed companies. Coefficient of Skewness was used to test the normality of data. Homoscedasticity and auto-correlation assumptions of the regression model were tested using scatter plots and Durbin Watson test. Linear regression model was used to determine the casual relationship between environmental disclosure and financial performance. The overall model was found to be significant with F=8.514, P-value <0.05. The predictor variable explained 47.7% of changes in financial performance. Firm size and leverage have no effect on environmental disclosure. Findings reveal that environmental disclosure with P-value <0.05 has a positive significant effect in the mean financial performance. The study recommends that firms should engage in environmental disclosure because it leads to increased financial performance. The study would be useful to the government and also managers to ensure policies are put in place to ensure present generations meet their needs without compromising the ability of future generations to meet theirs. The study also forms basis for further research and adds knowledge to existing body.
    VL  - 2
    IS  - 1
    ER  - 

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Author Information
  • Embu University College, Department of Business and Economics, Embu, Nairobi

  • Chuka University, Department of Business Adminstration Chuka, Nairobi, Kenya

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