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The Chinese government has implemented the circular economy-related legislation for guiding firms’ responsible production in 2009. In the 12th-five (2011–2015) and 13th-five (2016–2020) Economic and Sustainable Plans, circular economy is also deemed the core part of green development in China. However, a significant research gap remains that which types of firms actively disclosed circular economy information (i.e., reducing, reusing and recycling) following the national policy to establish legitimacy and create a green advantage in China. Based on this perspective, this research focuses on the period of 2011–2017. The sample consists of 3,768 firms and is analyzed using regression analysis. The coding technique of content analysis is applied to measure disclosure of circular economy information. Content analysis is an analytic technique that converts text descriptions into quantitative data in a systematic and objective manner. The empirical evidence of this study shows that firms in environmentally-sensitive industries and larger firms tended to disclose significantly more circular economy information to meet the information needs of stakeholders. It also shows that state-owned enterprises played the role of a leader in implementing circular economy during 2013–2017. Besides, firms which disclosed more circular economy information were associated with significantly higher sustainable growth rate and return on equity. The findings of this paper suggest that corporate managers redesign production processes towards zero waste and resource effectiveness. The contribution of this paper is that it clarifies the affecting factors and financial impacts of circular economy information for Chinese firms. The findings can fill the literature gap related to the new highlights of environmental disclosure-related circular economy actions in developing countries.

Under national climate change countermeasures, some Japanese firms have set science-based targets (SBT) for carbon emission to achieve the goal of keeping global warming below 2°C. Some scholars proposed that by implementing an internal carbon pricing (ICP) strategy, firms can prepare themselves for the uncertainties of external carbon pricing in advance. Can Japanese firms effectively utilize these practical carbon management tools (strategies) (i.e., SBT and ICP) to enhance their carbon management reputation (CMR)? CMR can be regarded as an important indicator of low-carbon competitiveness in future international trade. So far, this topic has never been explored. Based on this perspective, this study focuses on the period of 2016–2019 after the Paris Agreement went into effect. The full samples consist of 1,994 Japanese firms using ordinal logistic regression. The empirical results indicate that, overall, Japanese sample firms which set SBT or implemented ICP strategy have better CMR, but the odds ratio (OR) of setting SBT is higher than that of ICP on enhancing CMR. Besides, implementation of both SBT and ICP approaches can create a significant complementary or additional effect on the improvement of CMR for only firms in high carbon emission industries (HCEI). The practical implication of this study is that HCEI’s managers are advised to adopt both SBT and ICP mitigating climate change risk in an ever-evolving regulatory. Further, it is not cost-effective for non-high carbon emission industries (NHCEI) to implement both SBT and ICP simultaneously. Instead, priority setting SBT will be more appropriate for NHCEI in improving CMR. How should firms’ managers of different carbon emission attributes effectively utilize SBT and/or ICP to enhance their CMR in Japan? The aim of this study is to fill related evidences.

This paper adopts the legitimacy theory and stakeholder theory perspectives to explore the drivers of voluntary carbon disclosure among Chinese firms under the 11th and 12th Five-Year Plans. We use...

This paper investigates the charitable giving of Chinese firms from the perspectives of four sustainable development goals (SDGs), including Economy, Operation, Harmony, and Management. By converting corporate financial data into four independent variables, namely Economy, Operation, Harmony, and Management, this study explores philanthropic giving for SDGs. The empirical evidence shows that corporate philanthropy has a significant and positive effect on Economy,&nbsp, Operation and Harmony, and it is negatively related to Management. This study finds that the sample firms would undertake some social responsibilities for the economic and political benefits of legitimization or corporate philanthropy.

This study examined the impact of mandatory corporate social responsibility (CSR) disclosure, CSR assurance and the reputation of assurance providers (accounting firms) on the cost of debt capital. Our difference-in-difference research design in conjunction with univariate and multiple regression analysis was assessed using a large sample of firms listed on the Taiwan Stock Exchange and the Taipei Exchange. Our empirical results revealed that mandatory CSR assurance on CSR disclosure provided by accounting firms tended to reduce the cost of debt capital. However, contrary to expectations, the reputation of the accounting firm (Big 4 accounting firms vs. non-Big 4 accounting firms) tasked with providing CSR assurance did not have a significant effect on the cost of debt capital. These results have implications for firms seeking an assurance provider as well as for Big 4 accounting firms. These results also provide specific evidence relevant to government agencies seeking to update policies and extend the scope of mandatory CSR assurance to other environmentally sensitive industries.

This study illustrates how to calculate accurate costs, including the operating costs for individual airplanes and flights, as well as the costs per available seat kilometers, and per available ton kilometers using activity based costing. It also identifies the main activity items and drivers of each airplane and flight. Additionally, it uses a case study to illustrate the calculation of production variance, marketing variance and expected idle passenger capacity in the airline industry. This is useful information when the purchase or lease an airplane under the conditions of idle capacity.

This paper explores drivers of corporate water disclosure (CWD) from an aspect of accountability. Based on legitimacy theory and stakeholder theory, we propose six potential drivers of CWD. First, this paper uses an independent sample t-test to analyze differences in CWD among US firms. Later, potential drivers on CWD were identified using ordinal logit regression. These hypotheses posit that debt ratio, blockholders&rsquo, ownership ratio, inclusion in a capital market index (i.e., S&amp, P500), and the status of belonging to a water-sensitive industry (WSensi) all have a positive effect on CWD. However, the relations of firm size and profitability on CWD are insignificant. This suggests that the supervision of blockholders and creditors can effectively improve the transparency of CWD.

Diffusion of green utilization is a big challenge. A growing body of literature has suggested that governments play a core role in promotion of green utilization. The extant research of green utilization behavior is focused primarily on consumer preferences. So far, in-depth quantitative research of the government’s role in the connection between green utilization and production is absent. Unlike previous research of green utilization behavior, this study established a dynamic adjustment mechanism for the government's subsidy policy for electric vehicles through the case study of Taiwan's electric motorcycle, so that the government's finite budget can be effectively allocated. Results indicate that emerging energy technologies reach the market competition conditions of economies of scale through government subsidy, subsidy policies should gradually phase out the market and transfer finite budgets to other emerging energy technologies that need to break through economies of scale. Therefore, the incentives phase-out mechanism of the electric motorcycle in this study will be helpful in the decision-making thinking of government and quantitative evaluation for the promotion of emerging energy technologies in the future.

Purpose This study aims to apply signaling theory to examine whether corporate social responsibility (CSR) disclosure can deliver effective signals to stakeholders to increase a firm’s competitive advantage in China. Whether ownership patterns or environmental sensitivity causes a significant difference in the relationship between a firm’s CSR disclosure and competitive advantage is also examined. Design/methodology/approach Data analysis is based on a regression model. Content analysis is performed to convert qualitative CSR information of Chinese firms into quantitative data, while intellectual capital (IC) is used as a proxy variable for competitive advantage. Findings The difference in competitive advantage impairment between environmentally sensitive industries (ESIs) and non-environmentally sensitive industries (NESIs) is significant. Further comparisons on the relationship between overall CSR disclosure and competitive advantage among state-owned enterprises, privately owned enterprises, ESIs and NESIs suggest that the relationship is negative. Research limitations/implications The study extends research of strategic CSR to signaling theory and competitive advantage. In particular, a research using IC as a proxy for competitive advantage is rare. It also contributes to the literature on competitive advantage and strategic CSR by examining the effects of both CSR disclosure and IC. Originality/value This paper provides evidence related to stakeholders’ reaction to managers’ various CSR strategies in China. The contribution of this study is that it confirms that different CSR initiatives have different effects on the competitiveness of enterprises in China.

Purpose Taking on a corporate political activity (CPA) perspective, the purpose of this paper is to investigate how CPA affects environmental sustainability disclosure among firms in China and whether the disclosure level varies across ownership structures and environmental sensitivity statuses. Design/methodology/approach The sample comprises 652 corporate social responsibility reports released by firms in China during 2008-2010. Data are coded through a content analysis procedure before being analyzed using regression analysis. Findings The authors find a significant and positive association between CPA and environmental sustainability disclosure. However, the effect of CPA on environmental sustainability disclosure is significantly negative among firms in the environmentally sensitive industries (ESIs) and privately owned enterprises (POEs). More specifically, a firm’s environmental disclosure level is lower when the proportion of board members with a significant status, such as party chief of the Communist Party, is higher among firms in ESIs and POEs. This implies that firms with guanxi (i.e. Chinese-specific CPA) are more likely to be free from trouble. Originality/value This empirical study offers important evidence on the fulfillment of environmental sustainability policies and the effectiveness of regulatory controls that China has used in the development toward a low-carbon economy.

Purpose This study aims to examine how gender diversity within the CPA partnership team impacts the firm’s profit performance. Design/methodology/approach The authors use the two-stage least squares method in analyzing the gender–diversity–performance relationship using the pooled sample obtained from the National Survey Reports on Taiwan CPA firms between 1992 and 2008. Findings The authors observe a non-linear relationship between gender diversity at the partner level and profit performance. The relationship curves vary according to firm size. After identifying the point of inflexion for these curves, the findings indicate that the average gender diversity is below the inflexion point for large CPA firms, but exceeds the inflexion point for medium size firms. Practical implications According to the critical mass theory, increasing gender diversity within the partnership team can have a positive influence on the value of the firm. Hence, the authors argue that for large CPA firms in Taiwan, the proportion of female partners leaves room for improvement. If the average number of female partners could be increased by 0.95 persons, the critical mass would be attained. Originality/value The study provides the empirical evidence that increasing a CPA firm’s proportion of female partners positively impacts the firm’s profit performance. The findings serve a practical value as reference source for any further studies.

The Marginal Abatement Cost (MAC) methodology is widely used in climate change policies. Policy-makers rely on MAC to assess feasible strategies and related costs to achieve emission reduction goals. This paper introduces a variety of MAC methodologies, aiming at solving diverse problems, which utilizes various calculable-logic, thus producing different results and implications. This study applies a mind-mapping method to capture differentiation of MAC methods, and systematically classify MAC methodologies. The applicability path analysis was proposed, based on principles such as stakeholder type, decision-making objectives, cost concept, strategy mode and information scope. Our goal is to assess the applicability of different methodologies, to reduce misuse by policy-makers, and to serve as a guide for subsequent research, which might prompt and lead to the derivation of more consequential results in future studies. The results of this study suggest that the complex method is not always better than the simplified method because policy-makers are required to select the appropriate method according to the type of information needed. It may even be suggested that MAC could be reliable by ranking relative-value of options compared with baseline, rather than focusing on the absolute value of individual measures.

Purpose – This paper aims to examines whether Chinese firms’ signals of green governance, including environmental management, green innovation, and greenhouse gas (GHG) and pollution emission, vary significantly with their ownership structure and aim of being environmentally sensitive. Design/methodology/approach – From corporate social responsibility (CSR)-China website and CNINFO, a total of 781 CSR reports released during 2008-2010 were collected. The collected data were coded and analyzed using content analysis. Findings – In overall disclosure of environmental protection information (TotalEP), no significant difference existed between state-owned enterprises (SOEs) and privately owned enterprises (POEs). Chinese environmentally sensitive industries (ESIs) have a tendency to disclose significantly more information about their actions of environmental protection than their counterparts. Moreover, SOEs and ESIs scored higher than their counterparts on energy saving and carbon reduction and development of circular economy. A steady increase was also observed in the disclosure ratio for CO2 emission. During 2008-2010, SOEs and ESIs were relatively more committed to the disclosure of SO2 emission as compared to other emission items. Practical implications – Managers should disclose signals of green governance actively to avoid adverse selection caused by information asymmetry which further lower their financing cost. Originality/value – There is still a lack of evidence as to whether Chinese firms are implementing actions to slow down climate change. This paper endeavours to provide an insight into Chinese firms’ compliance with the green governance requirements of the Eleventh Five-Year Plan. The study hopes to fill the current gap in understanding the environmental behaviours of Chinese firms under pressure to alleviate climate change.

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationship between level of environmental disclosure and establishment of a legitimacy image of operation among Japanese firms after implementation of the Kyoto Protocol. Design/methodology/approach – This study uses a sample consisting of 208 firms listed in the Japan Nikkei Stock Index 500 and adopts three-stage least-squares (3SLS) to explore the relationship between environmental news exposure, environmental disclosure in corporate social responsibility (CSR) reports, and environmental legitimacy. Findings – Results indicate that firms from environmentally-sensitive industries can significantly improve their perceived legitimacy by releasing CSR reports; firms with better prior environmental legitimacy will be more active in environmental disclosure and establish better environmental legitimacy in the next period; firms with better carbon reduction performance tend to have higher levels of environmental disclosure. In terms of carbon reduction performance, Japanese firms in the sample may reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 49.636 tons by allocating one million yens (approximately 9,670.3 euros or 12,328 US dollars) to environmental expenditure. Practical implications – The top three items of environmental disclosure in most Japanese firms ' CSR reports are environmental management, development of alternative energies, and ecological information. These results reveal environmental behavior of sample firms in Japan to mitigate global warming. The managers should understand that the impact of substantive actions for environmental management on legitimacy is greater. Originality/value – Environmental management has become an important component of business management beliefs for most firms, and Japanese firms that belong to environmentally-sensitive industries are even more active in using CSR reports as an effective tool to establish their legitimacy image.

Environmental protection has been an issue of serious concern for many years. It is not a trend, but the responsibility of corporations. This responsibility for environmental protection should be internalized into business operations — prior to production — in order to reflect the true cost of the final product. Due to the use of traditional cost accounting, many organizations have not estimated their environmental costs precisely. Therefore environmental accounting systems such as carbon management accounting, environmental management accounting and greenhouse-gas accounting have attracted worldwide attention. In this paper, we propose an integrated concept — the Activity-Based Costing approach — to solve the problem of environmental and cost evaluation. We include a case study of an existing pulp and paper company in Taiwan to show that the activity-based costing method estimates emissions of waste and the environmental costs of a final product more accurately than traditional approaches do. The method can, therefore, provide information for use in existing environmental accounting systems and help managers incorporate environmental costs into their decision-making processes.

Government plays an important role in promoting green consumption. However, insofar, most studies are qualitative based. The novelty of this research is to provide quantitative evidence to support the existing literature. We try to examine the connection between government policy initiatives and green consumption in Taiwan. We choose motorcycle industry as the basis of our analysis. Motorcycle is a major green-house gas emission contributor in Taiwan. Consequently, we explore factors associated with the diffusion of electric motorcycle and attempt to forecast the diffusion in Taiwan. The results show that small electric motorcycles are likely to gain a competitive advantage in Taiwan?s market after 2018. Government should gradually reduce its subsidy as the market become mature.

This paper examines the effect of context disclosure of corporate social responsibility (CSR) on firm's market value (MV) in China. This examination bases on the sample comprises 466 CSR reports collected from the China Corporate Responsibility Website. Through content analysis and integration, it first identified six dimensions of CSR. Based on these dimensions, this paper proposed hypotheses and validated them by regression analysis. It finds that disclosure levels of CSR can enhance firm's MV in China and the sample firms' CSR engagement is mainly driven by impact from government policies or significant social events in current period.

This paper first evaluates the quality of corporate social responsibility (CSR) information disclosed in each report using content analysis. Results suggest that 41% of the sample firms fail to provide any information of the 42 CSR activities that allow outside stakeholders to understand their CSR actions; 42% offer text descriptions of their general CSR activities, but only 17% provide statistics about their achievements or other quantitative figures. Further, this paper also compares firms' environmental disclosure from the aspect of environmentally sensitive or ownership patterns. Results indicate that environmentally sensitive industries (ESIs) and state-owned enterprises (SOEs) are significantly more committed to environmental information disclosure, particularly in ‘paying attention to energy saving/carbon reduction and development of circular economy’ and ‘promotion of research, new techniques, and methods of energy saving/carbon reduction’, both of which are under the energy saving/carbon reduction dimension. This paper attempts to provide some evidence related to Chinese firms coping with global warming. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment.

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to explore whether a connection exists between business operational efficiency and environmental responsibility.Design/methodology/approachThis research adopts the DEA method through a four‐step analysis to examine inter‐industry differences in terms of operational efficiency with environmental consideration. The sample comprises 32 Japanese firms from three different industries listed in the Tokyo Stock Exchange between 2001 and 2006.FindingsThe results indicate a positive correlation with statistical significance in terms of a firm's environmental conservation cost, net income and economic benefit of environmental conservation for the three Japanese industries. In addition, the relationship among a firm's environmental conservation cost, CO2 emission reduction and total CO2 emission are positively correlated but without significance. In particular, business operational efficiency integrating social responsibility for anti‐global warming initiatives ( = total CO2 emission level) could be applied to distinguish differences in terms of operational efficiency among industries.Research limitations/implicationsJapanese firms adopt a voluntary environmental disclosure; therefore this study is constrained by the availability of long‐term data.Social implicationsThis study enables environmentally conscious investors and fund managers to distinguish the operationally efficient industries when taking environmental performance into account.Originality/valueThe study is a novel attempt to analyze inter‐industry differences in terms of operational efficiency when considering environmental conservation through the DEA method using a four‐step analysis.

A web-based content analysis of the management education for sustainability-related curricula of 642 business schools from the European Quality Improvement System (EQUIS) and Association to Advance...

In recent years, activity-based costing (ABC) has become a popular cost and operations management technique to improve the accuracy of firms’ product or service costs in order to help the firms stay competitive. Since the product-mix decision is an important ABC application, most studies in the ABC literature were generally focused on the effect of ABC analysis on the product-mix decision or product cost calculation. However, these studies usually ignored some important factors, such as: capacity expansions, management’s degree of control over resources, purchase discount, and change of product’s price. Hence, in this paper, we consider these factors to propose a more general model. This model can help managers to make a product-mix decision and identify excess resources so that managers can redeploy them to optimise resource usage. Furthermore, since previous studies did not consider the impact of price changes on productmix decisions, this paper also examines the impact of reducing product price with

This study investigated the tenure of CEOs in a sample of 304 listed companies in Taiwan; 63 firms were family controlled, 241 were not. The results show that CEO turnover is significantly lower in family firms and its relationship to corporate performance is negative. CEO ownership and board ownership are not significant in explaining the length of family CEO tenure. These findings imply that family boards can still effectively replace the CEO despite relatively low ownership. From the ownership structure perspective, this study suggested that the agency theory is applicable for nonfamily firms in Taiwan, but unsuitable for family firms.

This study aims to investigate whether the significant difference of the firm’s profit performance exits between the male-owned and female-owned small accounting firms. Using data from 1992-2008 small public accounting practice in Taiwan, this study uses a panel data model to estimate the coefficients and to examine the association between gender variable and the firm’s profit performance. The findings reveal that the significant difference in profit performance exists between male-owned and female-owned firms in sample. The study can clarify the effects of owner’s gender on financial performance of businesses with the explanations that female owners adopt the different management strategies from the male owners. The study also implies that female-owned small businesses are easier to acquire external funds because of their lower risk preference, since the female owners can ensure stable collection of principal and interest. Our study contributes to our understanding of the differences in the profit performance between male-owned and female-owned CPA firms. Not merely can the results of this empirical study provide valuable research implications for women entrepreneurs in the professional accounting practice, but they also provide supplementary in existing accounting literature.

Many companies regard Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system implementation as a project management (PM). ERP project implementation is usually costly and time-consuming. To save time and lower the cost, many companies seek for the help from consultants to implement ERP project. Therefore, the selection of ERP consultant turns out to be a key success factor to attain the goal. The ignorance of the various factors of ERP consultant selection will lead to a failure in ERP project implementation. In this study, we will examine the impact of ERP consultant selection factors on ERP project management and the impact of ERP project management on the performance improvement on ERP systems. In the study, ANOVA and Regression analysis were applied to examine the impact of the ERP consultant selection on the ERP project management, and the impact of the ERP project management in the DeLone and McLean's IS success model.