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A study of the sustainability risk disclosure practices of listed companies in Australia

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posted on 2022-03-28, 14:48 authored by Md Amir Hossain
This thesis investigates the extent to which the top 100 ASX-listed companies disclose economic, environmental, and social sustainability risk factors in light of the changes introducing Recommendation 7.4 in the third edition of the Corporate Governance Principles and Recommendations (ASX, 2014) in 2014. Using content analysis, I examine the cross-referenced documents in Appendix 4G statements to measure the extent of economic, environmental, and social sustainability risk disclosures by the top 100 Australian listed companies during the 2014-15 financial year, the first full reporting period after the changes came into effect. Recommendation 7.4 attained a high degree of acceptance among companies. All companies complied with the recommendation, although questions of substance over form were raised for several companies. Annual reports are the main means of disclosing sustainability risk, followed by sustainability reports, web disclosures, annual reviews, and corporate governance statements. Many companies use images to disclose sustainability risks in addition to narratives. Further, economic sustainability risk disclosures are higher in non-sensitive industries, whereas social and environmental sustainability risk disclosures are higher in sensitive industries. Last, company size is positively related to sustainability risk disclosure.

History

Table of Contents

1. Introduction -- 2. Literature review -- 3. ASX corporate governance principles and recommendations -- 4. Research design and methodology -- 5. Results -- 6. Discussion -- 7. Conclusion -- 7. References.

Notes

Bibliography: Pages 63-71 Empirical thesis.

Awarding Institution

Macquarie University

Degree Type

Thesis MRes

Degree

MRes, Macquarie University, Faculty of Business and Economics, Department of Accounting and Corporate Governance

Department, Centre or School

Department of Accounting and Corporate Governance

Year of Award

2016

Principal Supervisor

John Dumay

Additional Supervisor 1

Mauricio Marrone

Rights

Copyright Md Amir Hossain 2016. Copyright disclaimer: http://mq.edu.au/library/copyright

Language

English

Jurisdiction

Australia

Extent

1 online resource (71 pages)

Former Identifiers

mq:68970 http://hdl.handle.net/1959.14/1249234