A study of the provision of environmental information in financial analysts' research reports

• Published in: Sustainable development (Bradford, West Yorkshire, England) Vol. 16; no. 3; pp. 180 - 194
• Main Authors: Nilsson, Henrik, Cunningham, Gary M., Hassel, Lars G.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Chichester, UK John Wiley & Sons, Ltd 01.05.2008; Wiley Periodicals Inc
• Series: Sustainable Development
• Subjects: Chemical industry; content analysis; Empirical research; Environment; Environmental information; Equity; equity valuation; Europe; Financial analysis; financial analysts' reports; Financial reporting; Information; Information dissemination; Investment advisors; North America; Oil and gas industry; Petroleum industry; Studies; Valuation; North America; Europe
• ISSN: 0968-0802; 1099-1719; 1099-1719
• DOI: 10.1002/sd.363

Reporting of environmental information along with financial information has become an important research topic. Research to date has focused on the nature of the information reported by companies. This study extends prior research by examining the inclusion of environmental information by financial analysts in their research reports on companies in the chemical and in the oil and gas industries. Both companies and financial analysts are divided into subsets by geographic region, Europe and North America. Results show that only 35 per cent of financial analysts' reports have environmental information. Those reports that do have such information have more environmental information for North American companies than for European companies and analysts tend to report more information for companies in their regions. The chemical industry receives more attention, especially for downside information. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment.