Investigating the Level of Environmental Financial Reporting Development in the Companies Listed on the Tehran Stock Exchange

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

1 Ph. D. Student, Department of Accounting, Tehran Science and Research Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran.

2 Associate Professor, Department of Accounting, Tehran Science and Research Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran.

3 Associate Professor, Department of Accounting, Gorgan Branch, Islamic Azad University, Gorgan, Iran.

4 Associate Professor, Department of Accounting, Karaj Branch, Islamic Azad University, Karaj, Iran.

Abstract

Introduction: Regarding the principles of Stakeholders Theory, environmental reporting has been considered as a source of competitive advantage in recent years. The purpose of this research is to measure the level of environmental financial reporting in the companies listed on the Tehran Stock Exchange.
Method: This research is conducted in the field of positive and semi-empirical research, and according to the results, it is an applied research which aims to describe the existed situation. The data of the research for measuring the level of disclosure based on environmental reporting have been extracted through the content analysis of performance reporting of board of directors from 158 companies listed on the Tehran Stock Exchange during 2008 to 2014 by using Deloitte's environmental reporting scorecard, and T-student test was used to test the research hypothesis.
Results: The findings of the research indicate that in the companies listed on the Tehran Stock Exchange, the posed disclosure in the Stakeholders Theory has not been observed through environmental reporting. Nevertheless, during the discussed period, the level of environmental reporting has been slightly improved, but it is still far from the desired level.
Conclusion: At the present time, companies do not pay enough attention to disclose information on environment and they do not consider the interests of different groups of stakeholders in the operational level. Therefore, modification of Iran's Financial Accounting Standards is recommended in order to observe environmental reporting requirements.

Keywords

References

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