Corporate tax behaviour and environmental disclosure: strategic trade-offs across elements of CSR?

This study explores strategic trade-offs between corporate tax behaviour and environmental performance disclosure, both important elements of corporate social responsibility (CSR). Tax finances public goods and reduces investor wealth. Corporate strategies may balance such incompatible stakeholder interests through trade-offs across CSR elements. In this empirical study of Norwegian companies, there are no indications of trade-offs between corporate tax aggressiveness (TAG) and mandatory disclosure, in line with stick-to-the-rules/compliant behaviour for both. However, the positive relationship between TAG and voluntary disclosure indicates that strategic trade-offs exist and ensure an acceptable level of legitimacy from different stakeholders overall. Hence, corporate strategies differ for mandatory and voluntary actions, in line with a multidimensional legitimacy risk and legitimation strategy framework.publishedVersio

Environmental Reporting Regulations and Reporting Practices

This study explores how four different types of environmental reporting regulations affect reporting practices. Accounting Act requirements, accounting standard requirements, accounting standard recommendations, and no regulation/voluntary disclosure are associated with different levels of reporting obligations. Disclosures made by enterprises subject to regulations are compared with those of enterprises that are not. There are separate regression models for each type of regulation. The sample consists of 235 enterprises from the private and public sectors. Content analysis is used to measure environmental disclosure. Enterprises subject to regulations report significantly more types of the information content required by law than other enterprises, which is in line with the higher regulatory legitimacy risk. There is no such difference in disclosure between the two groups of enterprises for the information required and recommended by the accounting standard. This may suggest that pragmatic, cognitive, and moral legitimacy issues outweigh the regulatory legitimacy risk for these types of information, or that legitimacy risks are generally low. Enforcement of regulations will increase the regulatory risk. For information that is voluntary for all enterprises to disclose, enterprises that are not subject to any regulations report significantly more types of information than those that are. This result is not in line with predictions made from any of the four types of legitimacy. Some alternative explanations are discussed. Since regulatory regimes may include several types of means, the main contribution is the comparison of four types of regulations within the same regime, as opposed to analysing only one type of regulation at a time such as in the extant literature. The study also explores different types of legitimacy, and addresses the lack of research on environmental reporting in the public sector.This work has benefitted from the support of the foundations Stiftelsen Den Nordenfjeldske Handelshøyskole and Adolf Øiens Fond

Abolition of Statutory Audit Obligation of Small Limited Liability Companies in Norway. Should Tax Evasion Inclined Industries be Excepted?

publishedVersio

Miljørapportering i oppdrettsforetak: Fast i fisken?

Dette er en studie av miljørapporteringspraksis for en stor andel av norske lakseoppdrettsforetak. Data om miljørapportering i årsberetningen for 2019 og annen informasjon som årsberetningen henviser til, er studert ved innholdsanalyse, og resultatene er analysert i lys av adopsjonsteori. Den gjennomsnittlige rapporteringskvaliteten blant ikke-børsnoterte foretak i studiens populasjon er så lav at den anses verdiløs for ressursallokerings- og kontrollformål. Det kan ikke skyldes tekniske eller ressursmessige utfordringer ved rapporteringen, siden prøvbarheten er høy og kompleksiteten lav. Trolig er rapporteringspraksisen konsekvensen av oppfattet lav legitimitetsrisiko ved lavkvalitets­rapportering (og brudd på regnskapsloven) og lav synlighet og relativ fordel ved høykvalitets­rapportering. Myndigheter, revisorer, kunder, finansinstitusjoner, miljøorganisasjoner mv. kan dermed endre disse forutsetningene og tvinge selskapene til å ta miljørapportering på alvor. Børsnoterte oppdrettsforetak har gjennomsnittlig høyere rapporteringskvalitet. Et par selskaper er i norgestoppen, uavhengig av bransje. Men selv disse har klart forbedringspotensial. Blant annet medfører manglende redegjørelse for rapporteringsprinsipper (à la årsregnskapets prinsippnote) og det at ikke hele rapporteringen er attestert med høy grad av sikkerhet, at regnskapsbrukeren ikke kan vite om informasjonen er komplett, nøytral, feilfri, sammenlignbar, verifiserbar/verifisert osv. Dette gir lavere verdi for ressursallokerings- og kontrollformål. Samtidig er miljørapporteringskvaliteten i Norge generelt lav, ikke kun i oppdrettsnæringen. Lakseoppdrett har imidlertid stor økonomisk betydning og vesentlige miljøvirkninger. Miljørapportering av høy kvalitet er derfor relevant både som beslutningsgrunnlag for interessenter og incentiv for foretaket til å bedre miljøprestasjonene. Det må forventes høyere rapporteringskvalitet i oppdrettsnæringen framoverpublishedVersio

Corporate tax behaviour and environmental disclosure: strategic trade-offs across elements of CSR?

This study explores strategic trade-offs between corporate tax behaviour and environmental performance disclosure, both important elements of corporate social responsibility (CSR). Tax finances public goods and reduces investor wealth. Corporate strategies may balance such incompatible stakeholder interests through trade-offs across CSR elements. In this empirical study of Norwegian companies, there are no indications of trade-offs between corporate tax aggressiveness (TAG) and mandatory disclosure, in line with stick-to-the-rules/compliant behaviour for both. However, the positive relationship between TAG and voluntary disclosure indicates that strategic trade-offs exist and ensure an acceptable level of legitimacy from different stakeholders overall. Hence, corporate strategies differ for mandatory and voluntary actions, in line with a multidimensional legitimacy risk and legitimation strategy framework

Corporate tax behaviour and environmental disclosure: Strategic trade-offs across elements of CSR?

This study explores strategic trade-offs between corporate tax behaviour and environmental performance disclosure, both important elements of corporate social responsibility (CSR). Tax finances public goods and reduces investor wealth. Corporate strategies may balance such incompatible stakeholder interests through trade-offs across CSR elements. In this empirical study of Norwegian companies, there are no indications of trade-offs between corporate tax aggressiveness (TAG) and mandatory disclosure, in line with stick-to-the-rules/compliant behaviour for both. However, the positive relationship between TAG and voluntary disclosure indicates that strategic trade-offs exist and ensure an acceptable level of legitimacy from different stakeholders overall. Hence, corporate strategies differ for mandatory and voluntary actions, in line with a multidimensional legitimacy risk and legitimation strategy framework

Environmental Reporting Regulations and Reporting Practices

This study explores how four different types of environmental reporting regulations affect reporting practices. Accounting Act requirements, accounting standard requirements, accounting standard recommendations, and no regulation/voluntary disclosure are associated with different levels of reporting obligations. Disclosures made by enterprises subject to regulations are compared with those of enterprises that are not. There are separate regression models for each type of regulation. The sample consists of 235 enterprises from the private and public sectors. Content analysis is used to measure environmental disclosure. Enterprises subject to regulations report significantly more types of the information content required by law than other enterprises, which is in line with the higher regulatory legitimacy risk. There is no such difference in disclosure between the two groups of enterprises for the information required and recommended by the accounting standard. This may suggest that pragmatic, cognitive, and moral legitimacy issues outweigh the regulatory legitimacy risk for these types of information, or that legitimacy risks are generally low. Enforcement of regulations will increase the regulatory risk. For information that is voluntary for all enterprises to disclose, enterprises that are not subject to any regulations report significantly more types of information than those that are. This result is not in line with predictions made from any of the four types of legitimacy. Some alternative explanations are discussed. Since regulatory regimes may include several types of means, the main contribution is the comparison of four types of regulations within the same regime, as opposed to analysing only one type of regulation at a time such as in the extant literature. The study also explores different types of legitimacy, and addresses the lack of research on environmental reporting in the public sector