Research And Literature Review - Contemporary Accounting - Assessment Answer

Research And Literature Review Assignment

Assignment Task

Task 1 requires you to complete a literature review. To get you started on that process I am assigning you 7 journal articles to read and briefly summarise. You will complete the table for each of these journal articles. They are empirical papers and whether directly related to your research question or not they should give you ideas about how previous research into voluntary disclosure has been conducted.

Your assigned journal articles, with hyperlinks to access them, are as follows. If you are unable to access by the hyperlink you should search for the reference. If you are still unable to access the article let me know. You may be able to access them at home, but if not you should try on campus before giving up and contacting me. (Note these references are not completed and need to be correctly formatted for your list of references)

Article 1

Eleftheriadis I. M. & Anagnostopoulou E. G (2014) Relationship between corporate climate change disclosures and firm factors, Business Strategy and the Environment

Article 2

Luo L. & Tang Q.(2014) Carbon tax, corporate carbon profile and financial return:, Pacific Accounting Review

Article 3

Depoers F., Jeanjean T. & Jérôme T.(2014) Voluntary Disclosure of Greenhouse Gas Emissions: Contrasting the Carbon Disclosure Project and Corporate Reports, Journal of Business Ethics

Article 4

Dumay J., Frost G. & Beck C. (2015) Material legitimacy: blending organisational and stakeholder concerns through non-financial information disclosures, Journal of Accounting & Organizational Change

Article 5

Hrasky S. (2012) Carbon Footprints and Legitimation Strategies: Symbolism or Action?, Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal

Article 6

Luo L. & Tang Q. (2014) Does voluntary carbon disclosure reflect underlying carbon performance?, Journal of Contemporary Accounting & Economics

Article 7

Rankin M., Windsor C. & Wahyuni D (2011) An investigation of voluntary corporate greenhouse gas emissions reporting in a market governance system: Australian evidence, Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal

Literature Review and Hypothesis

In the past couple of years, the overall changes in the climate have affected the way businesses operate all over the world. The businesses across the world are now trying to be more sustainable than ever before. It is crucial for the businesses to make sure that the resources they operate for attaining long-term targets are utilized in such a manner that they end up saving something for the future generations. The overall impact of the carbon imprints on the business organizations could not be completely ignored. In this particular literature review, the firm-specific analysis of the carbon imprints shall be considered. The literature review consists of seven different journal articles. Accordingly, each one of them will be assessed to find out the relative firm-level impact of the subject matter.

The first article taken into consideration is Relationship between Corporate Climate Change Disclosures and Firm Factors by Iordanis M. Eleftheriadis and Evgenia G. Anagnostopoulou.

Reference: The paper revolves around the regulatory framework related to carbon imprints.

Research Question (One sentence): The research question taken into consideration in this article is to find out the relationship between environmental information disclosures and additional firm factors.

Underlying Theories: The most important theories taken into consideration in this particular assessment includes analysis of the impact of carbon imprints on the working of the organization and how regulatory framework helps in attaining the long-term sustainability goals.

Independent Variables: Few of the many independent variables analyzed during the course of this analysis are size and profitability of the firm which are not dependent on the external factors.

Dependent Variables: The dependent variables include the corporate disclosures which are directly linked with the company issues.

Hypotheses: There are hardly any sectors left in the corporate world which has not been affected by the impacts of climate changes. However, the business world had not been able to find out something specific which could address the issue of profitability and growth as linked with the carbon imprints. By taking deep analysis of the subject matter, both the aspects have been assessed and a relationship between the size of the firm and profitability has been linked in course of this particular article.

Further research identified by the authors (summarise): No further reading or researches as identified by the authors was available.

The second article is Stakeholder responses to the National Greenhouse and Energy Reporting Act: An agenda setting perspective by Sumit Lodhia and Nigel Martin.

Research Question (One sentence): The paper revolves around the disclosures made by the firms to the regulatory bodies.

Underlying Theories: The major theories undertaken in this particular paper included design mapping and sampling.

Independent Variables: The overall response of the corporations and their attitude towards climate change was considered.

Dependent Variables: How the regulatory framework could help in understanding and changing the perception of the people.

Hypotheses: This paper is one of the cornerstone studies which incorporate the overall outlook of the corporate world towards the serious issue of climate change. The policy makers wanted the inputs by the corporate world on this subject matter, and this is why their submissions were considered. An agenda setting perspective was followed to take account of the NGER submissions.

Further research identified by the authors (summarise): There were no further researches identified by the authors in this regard.

Moving on to the third article considered for the analysis, it was Voluntary Disclosure of Greenhouse Gas Emissions: Contrasting the Carbon Disclosure Project and Corporate Reports by Thomas Jeanjean and Tiphaine Jérôme.

Research Question (One sentence): The research question in this article was to disclose the relevant greenhouse gas information by the corporations.

Underlying Theories: The most important theories considered in this article included stakeholder’s theory and voluntary disclosures theory.

Independent Variables: The independent variables included the compliance reports by the statutory bodies.

Dependent Variables: The voluntary disclosures by the firm made up the dependent variables.

Hypotheses: After the analysis was complete, it was found that there are a few organizations in the corporate world which actually want to show the real figures related to the carbon imprints. This makes the role of the statutory bodies even more important as they have to be more strict in reference to the credibility of reports published by the corporations.

Further research identified by the authors (summarise): There were no further researches specifically underlined or identified by the authors.

The fourth article considered for the literature review was Material legitimacy: Blending organisational and stakeholder concerns through non-financial information disclosures by Dumay, Frost, and Beck.

Research Question (One sentence): The main research question was to find out how the organizations deal with disclosing of non-financial information.

Underlying Theories: The theories involved strategic legitimacy and institutional background researches.

Independent Variables: Stakeholder analysis.

Dependent Variables: The financial and non-financial reporting of the firms.

Hypotheses: This is a more positive research paper which underlines the importance of corporate disclosures of non-financial information. The financial information has always been a part of most important corporate disclosures. However, over a long period of time, the firms have ignored a very important part of the overall research process, i.e. the carbon imprints. They did not consider it wise enough to inculcate such disclosures in the overall reporting process. However, the stakeholders have shown growing interest in this area due to its relevance in the corporate world.

Further research identified by the authors (summarise): Corporate reporting related researches were further identified by the authors.

The next article in the literature review is Carbon footprints and legitimation strategies: symbolism or action? By Hrasky.

Research Question (One sentence): It is one of the most straightforward articles written on the subject matter: whether the companies are actually serious about carbon footprint strategies.

Underlying Theories: Symbolism vs. relative behavior.

Independent Variables: Legitimation and disclosure policies.

Dependent Variables: The relative impact of the reports on the organizational profitability and goodwill.

Hypotheses: The overall research is simple and straightforward. The author has underlined so many instances where the importance of this particular issue has been identified by the corporations. However, the biggest question into consideration is the fact as to how serious are the organizations in actually working over the carbon footprints issue, or this is mere symbolic. Due to the pressure of the statutory organizations, the organizations do not have any other choice but to comply with the law, however, in most general cases, the companies do not seem to care about the environmental issues, and are keener to increase their profits. The author has also underlined the role of symbolic disclosure in this issue.

Further research identified by the authors (summarise): The regulatory and disclosure related research papers were further identified by the author.

The sixth paper considered for the literature review was Does voluntary carbon disclosure reflect underlying carbon performance? By Luo and Tang.

Research Question (One sentence): The research question is already provided in the title of the paper, it asks whether the disclosures actually have any impact on the carbon performance.

Underlying Theories: Signaling theory

Independent Variables: Carbon disclosure and performance management.

Dependent Variables: Disclosure projects.

Hypotheses: Carbon information is mandatorily assessed and provided by the organizations across the globe to various statutory organizations. There are a number of regulators who not only work on national but on international level as well to make sure that the companies are becoming more sustainable and responsible towards the disclosure. However, it is important to know how much these disclosures are really helping the organizations in achieving the carbon footprints targets. There are so many instances when these disclosures could be considered as mere formalities which the corporations have to undertake due to the compliance pressure. Besides this, the overall earth temperature has been rising, irrespective of the disclosure of the companies in this matter.

Further research identified by the authors (summarise): Various studies related to the subject matter were identified by the authors.

The last paper taken into consideration for this literature review was An investigation of voluntary corporate greenhouse gas emissions reporting in a market governance system: Australian evidence by Rankin and Windsor.

Research Question (One sentence): How the emission related compliances impact the working in a market governance system.

Underlying Theories: Environmental management system and compliance management.

Independent Variables: Disclosures related to the carbon imprints.

Dependent Variables: Governance and market regulations.

Hypotheses: It is a deep analysis of various theories including the corporate greenhouse gas (GHG) when the climate change policy is not available. The theory is said to replace the climate change policies whereby the firms are mandatorily asked to disclose various factors related with the carbon footprints related to the organization. The credibility of the reports is analyzed in absence of any regulatory pressure on the organizations. It was observed that the large organizations working in sectors directly linked with the environment like mining etc. were the most diligent in disclosing the relative information in respect of the carbon footprints.

Further research identified by the authors (summarise): There were no further research identified by the authors.