Corporate Environmental Disclosure under the Stakeholder Pressure: The Role of Directive 2014/95/EU

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to investigate the role of primary (investors, consumers and employee) and secondary (environment, regulator that requires mandatory environmental disclosure under the Directive 2014/95/EU and standard setters) stakeholder groups on company’s environmental disclosure.

Design/methodology/approach: The sample comprised 71 selected listed companies over 6 years. Content analysis was used to measure the extent of environmental disclosure. The econometric model was estimated using panel random effects.

Findings: The extent of the environmental disclosure is significantly affected by stakeholder groups’ demands. Among primary stakeholder groups only customers, exert a strong influence on environmental disclosure. As for secondary stakeholder groups, environment, regulator and standard setters, these all greatly influence environmental disclosure practices.

Originality: Our study contributes to the understanding of the role of secondary stakeholders such as environment, regulator and standard in environmental disclosure.