Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10321/4771
Title: The impact of environmental reporting on the value of listed manufacturing firms in South Africa
Authors: Mgilane, Nolwando L. 
Keywords: Environmental reporting;Listed;Manufacturing firms
Issue Date: 7-Mar-2023
Abstract: 
Environmental reporting is a recent novelty in both corporate and academic fields around the
globe. As a result, an increase in environmental pollution and degradation has raised many
concerns from the stakeholders. Equally, the firms addressed these concerns through a proper
disclosure in a form of annual integrated reporting which addressed how firm’s day-to-day
operations and production activities affect the environment, especially the environment of the
location where firms operate, this reporting included the measurements implemented to
mitigate the impact. On the 1st of March 2010, the JSE has passed a listing requirement which
compelled all the listed firms and companies to also report on non-compliance and compliance
of environmental and social aspects. This JSE listing requirement was prompted by the
assumption that the annual financial statements, also referred to as traditional reporting, only
served the interest of investors with financial interest. However, the question of whether the
disclosure of environmental reporting impacts firm value remains unanswered. Therefore, this
study aims to investigate the impact of environmental reporting on the value of South African
manufacturing firms listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE). A content analysis was
utilized to attain the environmental reporting information from the integrated annual reports of
listed manufacturing firms from 2016 to 2020. These reports were retrieved from the
companies' websites. Both descriptive and Wilcoxon-signed ranked test was used to test the
extent and the movement of environmental reporting practices of South African listed
manufacturing. Furthermore, this study adopts regression techniques to test the association
between environmental reporting and firms’ profitability. The findings of this study further
indicated that the environmental reporting practices implemented by manufacturing firms
increased gradually over time. The evidence further showed a significant negative relationship
between environmental reporting and return on equity (ROE) and a positive but insignificant
relationship with ROA. Lastly, this study documents that environmental reporting negatively
affects firm value. The study further demonstrated that environmental reporting is mainly
adopted to conform with JSE listing requirements and not for accountability purposes. As a
result, it is recommended that South African listed manufacturing firms must develop a
technique that will assist in knowing and understanding the desires of primary and prominent
stakeholders to disclose relevant environmental reporting information to the relevant
stakeholders, as this can increase the trust between stakeholders and manufacturing firms.
Description: 
A Thesis submitted in fulfilment of the requirements of the degree of Master of Accounting: Financial Accounting
in the Faculty of Accounting and Informatics at Durban University of Technology, 2023.
URI: https://hdl.handle.net/10321/4771
DOI: https://doi.org/10.51415/10321/4771
Appears in Collections:Theses and dissertations (Accounting and Informatics)

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