Social and Environmental Disclosure in the Annual Reports of Jordanian Companies

Abstract

Recently, much attention has been devoted by researchers to study social and environmental disclosure among corporations. Most of the studies were conducted in developed countries, with only a handful being undertaken in developing countries. This study aims to investigate the extent of social and environmental disclosure in the annual reports of Jordanian companies and examine if the level of disclosure is influenced by size of firm, government ownership and industry. In particular, disclosure with regard to environmental issues, community involvement<br />and human resource are examined. Using a sample of 60 companies in the manufacturing and service sectors, content analysis is used to measure the level of disclosure. The findings indicate that 85% of the companies somehow disclose social and environmental information. Human resource is the most disclosed theme while the environmental issue had the lowest<br />disclosure among the companies. In addition, a significant positive association is found between company size and social and environmental<br />disclosure, and companies with high government ownership tend to have a<br />lower level of disclosure compared to companies with low government ownership. On the overall, no significant relationship was found between<br />industry type and the level of social and environmental disclosure. However, when only environmental issues are examined, manufacturing<br />companies tend to disclose more of the items compared to service companies.<br /><br /><br /><br /><br />

The Quantity and Quality of Environmental Disclosure in Annual Report of National Oil and Gas Companies in Middle East and North Africa

“…For example, Ismail and Ibrahim (2012) found that 85% of the Jordanian companies disclose some environmental information where the sample included 60 companies in the manufacturing and service sectors. As well, Bayoud et al (2012) found for annual reports 60% of companies from different sectors disclose four categories "employee disclosure; community involvement disclosure; consumer disclosure; environmental disclosure" of corporate social responsibility (CSR) whereas 5% of companies do not present CSR information in their annual reports.…”

Social and Environmental Disclosure by Parastatals and Companies Listed on the Botswana Stock Exchange

“…Moreover, large entities have adequate resources at their disposal to enable them collect, analyse and present huge data at a lower cost. Studies like those of Alsaeed, (2006), Ismail and Ibrahim (2008) and Dhar and Mitra (2010) have found size of the firm to be a good explaining factor of social and environmental reporting. It is therefore hypothesized that H 1 : There is a positive relationship between entity's size and the social and environmental disclosure.…”

“…These studies suggest that reporting of social and environmental disclosure has improved over the years in developed countries. Araya quoted by Ismail and Ibrahim (2008) reported that multinational companies from developed countries are leading when it comes to producing information on environmental disclosure. The author reported that for the period 1990 to 2003, 58% of all separate reports published around the world came from Europe, 20% came from America (which included US, Canada and Brazil) and 20% from Asia.…”

“…On the back-drop of lack of regulation, shortage of accountants and perceived cost of social disclosures in the developing countries, implementation of social and environmental accounting and related academic investigations are still at infancy stage (Ismail & Ibrahim, 2008). The few available studies that address social and environmental disclosures by companies in developing countries include those of Tsang (1998) in Singapore and Ismail and Ibrahim (2008) and Al-Khadash (2003) in Jordan.…”

“…The few available studies that address social and environmental disclosures by companies in developing countries include those of Tsang (1998) in Singapore and Ismail and Ibrahim (2008) and Al-Khadash (2003) in Jordan. In Botswana just like other developing countries there is still lack of information on social and environmental disclosures by companies.…”