Frendy, Tomoki Oshika and Masayuki Koike
Greenwashing is defined as the overstatement of companies’ environmental disclosures relative to their performance. This paper aims to develop a greenwashing measure, examines its…
Abstract
Purpose
Greenwashing is defined as the overstatement of companies’ environmental disclosures relative to their performance. This paper aims to develop a greenwashing measure, examines its relationship with environmental performance and investigates the mitigating effects of Japanese firm-level corporate governance characteristics (corporate structure, board leadership, foreign share ownership, ratio of independent directors and ratio of directors’ variable compensation) and third-party assurance of environmental information on the extent of greenwashing.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper analyzes a sample of 420 firm-year observations from the period between 2018 and 2019 from Japanese listed companies that responded to the CDP Climate Change survey via probit/logit and multivariate panel data regression models.
Findings
This paper finds that the probability of engaging in greenwashing is negatively associated with environmental performance, which supports the reliability of the study’s greenwashing measure. Japanese firm-level corporate governance characteristics are ineffective at mitigating greenwashing. This paper also finds that assurance carries a significant risk of being exploited by companies involved in greenwashing to increase the degree of their overstatement.
Practical implications
The findings have significant implications for investors, who should increase scrutiny and skepticism of environmental disclosures, particularly from companies with poor environmental track records. Japanese companies should consider strengthening their corporate governance to ensure the effective oversight of environmental disclosure and performance. Regulators and standard setters should implement stricter guidelines for and oversight of environmental information assurance.
Originality/value
No empirical study has examined the effectiveness of Japanese corporate governance characteristics and environmental disclosure assurance on the mitigation of greenwashing.
Details
Keywords
This study examines the association between emotional intelligence (EI) and the tendency of future accountants to rationalize and engage in occupational fraud.
Abstract
Purpose
This study examines the association between emotional intelligence (EI) and the tendency of future accountants to rationalize and engage in occupational fraud.
Design/methodology/approach
The study adopts a survey methodology and uses a questionnaire containing a fraud scenario and EI construct to gather data from 225 participants. It performed a Cronbach alpha to assess the measurement parameters consistency of EI and fraud tendency and employed Pearson correlation and regression analysis to test its hypothesis.
Findings
The study found that future accountants in Nigeria are emotionally intelligent and have a high fraud tendency. Also, it found a significant and positive association between EI and fraud tendency, suggesting that future accountants that are emotionally intelligent have a higher tendency to rationalize and engage in occupational fraud. In addition, the study found that academic intelligence, a control variable, positively associates with fraud tendency.
Practical implications
The study offers rare insights into the fraud tendency of future accountants, which would benefit the counter fraud community in Nigeria and other developing countries. Recruiters and employers will find the study beneficial in decision-making on job recruitment, placements and moral orientation for prospective accountant employees.
Originality/value
The study is the first to directly associate EI with the fraud tendency of future accountants from a developing country with high fraud profile and underdeveloped counter fraud strategy. Thus, it provides a benchmark for future studies in other developing countries.