Time-series cross-sectional environmental performance and disclosure relationship: specific evidence from a less-developed country

Abstract

This paper relies on 'vulnerability and exploitability' framework to submit new insights into legitimacy theory and voluntary disclosure theory using specific empirical evidence from the Nigerian oil and gas industry. The study connects the voluntary and legitimizing disclosure behaviors, regarding carbon emission due to gas flaring, of dominant companies in the Nigerian upstream petroleum sector to the vulnerability and exploitability of Nigeria as a less developed country. The hypothesized relations between gas flaring-related environmental performance and two forms of its disclosure (volume and substance) are estimated and tested using Prais-Winsten regression with Panel Corrected Standard Errors (PCSE). While the paper uses Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) to measure gas flaring-related carbon performance, the two forms of gas flaring-related disclosures are measured using content analysis. We document significant positive and negative association between gas flaring-related carbon emission performance, on one hand, and the volumetric disclosure and disclosure substance on the other hand. These results imply that while the positive relation confirms the vulnerable nature of Nigeria as a less developed country, the negative relation is linked to the country's exploitability. It is also empirically established that environmental performance is one of the key factors responsible for the undulating trend in the volume of environmental disclosures by large corporations operating in less-developed countries

Corporate Carbon Emissions and Financial Performance: Does Carbon Disclosure Mediate the Relationship in the UK?

“…The results are in support of H1, H2 and H3 and are also consistent with prior studies (Cho & Patten, 2007;Clarkson et al, 2011;Hassan & Kouhy, 2014;E.-H. Kim & T. Lyon, 2011;Matsumura et al, 2013;Patten, 2002;Saka & Oshika, 2014). Overall, the simultaneous association among the three variables indicates a mechanism of the underling relationship between corporate carbon emission and financial performance -carbon emission has a direct negative effect on corporate financial performance and an indirect or mediated effect through carbon disclosures.…”

The effect of transitioning to renewable energy consumption on the Nigerian oil and gas exports

“…Due to Nigeria's weak financial and technical expertise in the petroleum sector, it relies on external financing for the extraction of its oil and gas resources for exports to the homes of NEICs (Agbaeze et al, 2015;Aliyu, 2005;Yergin, 2006;Waziri, 2016). In this relationship, NEICs exercise significant influence within the economy of Nigeria because of the country's abundant mineral resources (Santos, 1971;Sunkel, 1969;Waziri, 2016) and its vulnerable and exploitable nature as a less developed country (Belal et al, 2013;Hassan and Kouhy, 2014 This may affect the volume of Nigeria's oil and gas exports to NEICs thereby affecting oil and gas exports revenue and budget financing. Consistent with dependency theory, this paper argues that hydrocarbon exports from Nigeria, as a NEEC, may be adversely affected.…”

“…Due to Nigeria's weak financial and technical expertise in the petroleum sector, it relies on external financing for the extraction of its oil and gas resources for exports to the homes of NEICs (Agbaeze et al, 2015;Aliyu, 2005;Yergin, 2006Yergin, , 2008Waziri, 2016). In Transitioning to renewable energy consumption this relationship, NEICs exercise significant influence within the economy of Nigeria because of the country's abundant mineral resources (Santos, 1971;Sunkel, 1969;Waziri, 2016) and its vulnerable and exploitable nature as a less developed country (Belal et al, 2013;Hassan and Kouhy, 2014). In addition, the economic relationship between Nigeria and the NEICs has been dynamic over the years.…”

Dealing with vulnerability to carbon emission from gas flaring: the roles of transparency and utilisation policies in Nigeria

“…Various descriptions of vulnerability attribute the term to risks of adverse impacts on the well‐being of people living in a particular place (Sharrocks, 2008; Montalbano, 2011; Belal et al ., 2013; Hassan and Kouhy, 2014b). More generally, however, the concept is defined as the exposure of ‘systems’ such as households, regions or countries to negative impacts (Turvey, 2007; Naudé et al ., 2009).…”