We investigate how the Global 500 companies respond to the challenge of climate change with regard to their carbon disclosure strategies. This paper is motivated by a growing body of research that examines the role of large companies in carbon disclosure responsibility and practices. We consider the impact of social, financial market, economic, regulatory, and institutional factors on the motivation to voluntarily participate in the 2009 Carbon Disclosure Project. We find that economic pressure is significantly associated with the decision. That is, companies facing direct economic consequence are more likely to disclose. Companies in greenhouse gas (GHG) intensive sectors show the same tendency. In addition, big companies have a higher propensity for disclosing, suggesting that social pressure plays an important role. We also provide possible explanations as to why a large proportion of our sample firms refuse to disclose. Furthermore, our results suggest that the proxies for information needs of investors are not associated with a higher propensity to disclose the amount of their emission footprints. In sum, it appears that the major driving force for climate change disclosure comes from the general public and government rather than from the other major stakeholders such as shareholders and debtholders. Our results are robust after controlling for other influences.

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to investigate differences in voluntary carbon disclosure between developing and developed countries and the role of resource availability in explaining these differences.Design/methodology/approachThe authors used a sample consisting of 2,045 large firms from 15 countries and representing divergent industries that released Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) company reports in 2009. Profitability, leverage and growth were used as proxies for the degree of resource availability and the firm's participation in the CDP was used as a proxy for carbon disclosure propensity.FindingsConsistent with the authors' predictions, the empirical results show that the carbon disclosure propensity is correlated in the right direction with resource availability proxies; this relationship is stronger in developing nations, suggesting that the shortage of resources is one reason for the lack of commitment to carbon mitigation and disclosure in these countries. The results are robust when disclosure motivation proxies are controlled for. In addition, it is shown that firms tend to disclose carbon information if their shares are owned by CDP signatories, because it allows them to be viewed as more powerful stakeholders. This finding, which enhances the validity of stakeholder theory, previously has not been documented in the literature.Research limitations/implicationsThe findings are relevant to the world's largest organisations, as determined by their market capitalisation. Thus, caution should be exercised to generalise the paper's inferences to small or medium‐sized organisations.Practical implicationsThe evidence suggests that resource shortages may constrain a firm management's carbon decisions. As the regulatory environment becomes more stringent, firms, particularly those in developing countries need to take a more proactive strategy to tackle global warming challenges and balance the need to achieve financial goals and prevent carbon pollution with their limited resources.Originality/valueAlthough prior studies typically considered external pressures that motivated voluntary environmental disclosure, the paper's results offer extra insight and suggest that resource restriction provides a complementary explanation – largely ignored in the existing literature – for variation in the carbon‐disclosure propensity of firms.

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Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explore the association between corporate governance (CG) mechanisms and the extensiveness of carbon disclosure. Design/methodology/approach This paper uses Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) regression model with data from 2009 to 2012 for largest Australian companies that voluntarily disclose their information to the carbon disclosure project. Findings The authors find that board independence, board diversity and managerial ownership are significantly correlated with the degree of carbon transparency, while the existence of environmental committee is not. Practical implications The findings of this paper should be useful for government and capital market regulators who concern the quality of CG and carbon actions. First, the evidence in this paper suggests that current CG practice that emphasize board diversity and independence seems encouraging an environment friendly decision and adopt carbon reduction initiatives. Second, however, the current version of CG codes need more stress on none financial goals that should help corporate executives to balance value enhancement vis-à-vis ecosystem protection. Finally, another implication for policy-makers is CG should be re-structured so as to motivate firms to pursue long-term sustainable development instead of taking short-sight view of firm performance. Originality/value This paper contributes in the increasing body of literature indicating that CG encourages a proactive corporate strategy in general and carbon disclosure in particular. The authors add new empirical evidence which has policy implication that CG should be improved so as to encourage executives to engage in more sustainable development and stakeholder long-term value protection.

With the impetus of information communication technology (ICT), emerging eHealth has attracted increasing number of doctors' participation in online health platforms, which provide various potential benefits to doctors. However, previous studies on eHealth have seldom distinguished different service modes provided by doctors. In addition, the bulk of the literature has considered doctors' motivations based solely on online environments. To fill this gap, this study combines expectancy theory and the Bagozzi, Dholakia, and Basuroy (BDB) model to examine the relationships between anticipated outcomes, performance expectations, and effort intentions from online and offline perspectives. Doctors' behavioral intentions are further divided into two categories: the willingness to offer free services and paid services. Using SmartPLS, this study conducts structural equation modeling (SEM) to analyze 311 sample data. The results show that extrinsic motivations (i.e., extrinsic rewards, expected relationships, and image) and intrinsic motivation (i.e., a sense of self-worth) significantly influence the desire to serve patients well, which in turn positively affects the willingness to offer free services and the willingness to offer paid services. Moreover, counseling time is confirmed as the main cost, which negatively moderates the relationships between desire and behavioral intentions. The findings provide theoretical insights for eHealth and provide practical suggestions to develop marketing strategies for online health platform providers.