Information disclosure in an environmental emergency

Abstract

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to analyze the demands of the core stakeholders and how these stakeholders drive the information disclosure behaviors of the enterprise and local government. Design/methodology/approach Content analysis was conducted. The authors collected and analyzed information disclosure laws and regulations regarding environmental emergencies in China, as well as related media reports and official accident investigation report about the oil pipeline leakage and explosion accident in City Q. The authors divided the whole process of the accident into four stages, i.e., the prodromal stage, acute stage, chronic stage, and resolution stage, and then analyzed the different demands of stakeholders and the different information disclosure behaviors of the enterprise and local government during these four stages. Findings During the environmental emergency, the enterprise and local government exhibited information disclosure behaviors for their own benefits. There was severe information asymmetry between the enterprise and local government. Local government acted more positively in terms of information disclosure than the enterprise due to the demands of stakeholders. There were significant differences between the driving effects of different stakeholders. The effects of central government and local communities were the strongest, followed by news media and environmental organizations, whereas general public had the weakest impact. In addition, the effects of stakeholders on the information disclosure varied throughout different stages. Originality/value This paper considered a Chinese typical case study, thereby providing details of information disclosure behaviors of the enterprise and local government during an environmental emergency, and making comparative analysis on the driving effects on information disclosure by different stakeholders.

Executives' excess compensation, legitimacy, and environmental information disclosure in Chinese heavily polluting companies: The moderating role of media pressure

“…According to Baidu News' official description, its news sources include more than 500 news agencies, covering a variety of Internet news sites and channels. Following Li, Ruan, Shao, and Huang (), a keyword search is performed using the Baidu News search engine. As this study examines whether the disclosure of environmental information has been used as a self‐serving tool, the keywords pertain to environmental information and include “environment,” “environmental protection,” “afforest,” “low carbon,” “pollution,” and “environmental destruction.” The specific methods are as follows.…”

The Impact of Environmental Administrative Penalties on the Disclosure of Environmental Information

“…Media coverage is measured by the number of articles on news websites concerning environmental issues. Following the researcher, a keyword search is performed using the Baidu News search engine [65]. The keywords pertain to environmental information and include "environment", "environmental protection", "low carbon", "pollution", and "environmental destruction".…”

The Role of Social Media in Promoting Information Disclosure on Environmental Incidents: An Evolutionary Game Theory Perspective

“…Both theories mainly emphasize that practices related to the government's full disclosure are influenced by the characteristics of the environment and the particular structure of each organization, mainly including technological development, political commitment among voters, corruption levels, and the demand for legal information [5], and ignore the roles of stakeholders at the micro level. Accordingly, stakeholder theory is often used as a mainstream theory to explore the internal mechanisms of information disclosure by the government [16,17]. For example, Li et al showed that the level of information disclosure is significantly affected by stakeholders' demands, including governments, social media, and environmental organizations [17].…”

“…Accordingly, stakeholder theory is often used as a mainstream theory to explore the internal mechanisms of information disclosure by the government [16,17]. For example, Li et al showed that the level of information disclosure is significantly affected by stakeholders' demands, including governments, social media, and environmental organizations [17]. However, during environmental incidents, especially in China, it is usually up to local governments to decide whether or not to disclose the information, which means that stakeholder theory may fail to serve as a cornerstone to explain the phenomena [6].…”

“…Some deficiencies still exist in current studies on information disclosure by governments. Information disclosure is an interactive process among stakeholders, such as enterprises, governments, social media, environmental organizations, and individuals [17,21,45]. Therefore, we can model the interactions among these stakeholders as a dynamic game of information disclosure using game theory.…”