The impact of corporate characteristics on environmental information disclosure: an empirical study on the listed firms in Egypt

Companies with good Reputations not only depend on financial results but also on their contribution in environment and social responsibility and sustained growth.This is what the researchers are trying to prove over the past 30 years but still there is no consensus on the validity of this statement, therefore it became one of the debatable areas whether the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) can affect the organization financially or economically.Environmental information disclosure (EID) has become an important part in the process of the annual report, the social responsibility report and other information disclosure.This paper aims to assess the impact of several Corporate Characteristics on environmental information disclosure of the listed firms in a developing country.It selects the 50 most active firms in the Egyptian stock exchange and the analysis is done using the financial statements from the disclosure book for the period 2007-2011, prior the revolution, along with the firms' annual reports.The final count for the firms is 45, after excluding banks and insurance companies, for having different disclosure requirements and different corporate governance code.The tests for this research are done using the multiple regression model applied using the SPSS.Findings found that there is an insignificant relationship between two factors of firms' characteristics (Firm Size and Firm Financial Leverage) and EID, while Firm's age showed a negative significant relationship with EID and finally Firm's Profitability showed a positive significant relationship with EID.