Empirical Research On The Influence Of Social Responsibility On Environmental Accounting Information Closure By Listed Companies

Recent years have seen a series of environmental pollution incidents in China, such as the arsenide pollution in Yueyang, Hunan in 2006, the blue-green algae outbreak in Tai Lake, Wuxi, in 2007, and the sewage leakage at the Zijinshan Gold and Copper Mine in 2010. As a signal of improper environmental accounting, these incidents undoubtedly posed a threat to the sustainable development of Chinese businesses and society in the medium and long term. In particular, the sewage leakage at the Zijinshan Gold and Copper Mine directly pointed to listed companies’ inefficient mechanism for disclosing environmental information. The system of environmental accounting information disclosure can only play an effective role in a sound social responsibility system.The issuing of A Guide to Disclosure of Environmental Accounting Information for Listed Companies marked a new high in the establishment of a standardized system of environmental accounting information disclosure in China. In this context, this study was conducted to investigate the effect of corporate social responsibility on the disclosure of environmental accounting information through both theoretical and empirical analyses. The theoretical analysis provides explanations of corporate social responsibility, disclosure of environmental accounting information, and their relationship based on a literature review, as well as the relevant theoretical basis. The empirical analysis focuses on the 180 companies that were listed on SSE Corporate Governance board between 2012 and 2014. It was conducted using multiple linear regression with 7 independent variables, 1 control variable, and 1 dependent variable.The results of the research indicate that the companies with higher rates of social contribution, shareholder income contribution, creditor income contribution, employee income contribution, and government income contribution per share tended to disclose more complete and detailed environmental accounting information, which has a bearing on the protection of consumer rights. Therefore, it was proposed that corporations can better perform their social responsibility and conduct higher-quality closure of environmental accounting information by improving the quality of social responsibility report, promoting the development of green corporate culture, and establishing a comprehensive system of supervision on environmental information disclosure.