The influence of stakeholder identification on the quality of corporate environmental reporting in Kenya

Abstract

This study aimed at establishing the stakeholders that managers consider in the CER practices as well as the association between the quality of CER and stakeholder identification. The purpose is to find out if there is a difference in the attention that managers give to different stakeholders with respect to CER reporting decision and whether such difference may explain the variation in the quality of CER. A questionnaire was used to establish the stakeholder power, legitimacy urgency and salience in stakeholder identification. An assessment, using regression, was carried out to establish the association between the stakeholder identification attributes and the quality of CER. It is found that there are different stakeholders considered in the practice of CER but in varying measures. While Government, Shareholders, Customers and Environmental lobby groups are identified as the most significant stakeholder groups in CER reporting, only government is associated with relatively higher quality. There is thus a need for the government to use its special position in society to influence the production of CER that can achieve high quality. But there is also a need for other stakeholder groups to recognise their special place in demanding high quality CER through direct influence in terms of controlling flow of resources and markets to corporation but also petitioning government to continue playing its social role of guiding production of high quality CER. This research contributes to knowledge by establishing the significant stakeholders, the association of stakeholder identification to the quality of CER and by testing applicability of stakeholder theory in CER practices.