Measuring environmental management disclosure in industries in Brazil with Item Response Theory

The growing challenge of environmental preservation has forced companies to change their operational structure and to improve the disclosure of their environmental policies and actions. The goal of this article is to measure Environmental Management Disclosure using Item Response Theory. The main methodological approach is quantitative. First, a set of items related to Environmental Management Disclosure was created and applied to 638 Brazilian companies in 10 sectors of the Brazilian economy. A set of 26 items approved by environmental specialists was created, and data was obtained from the companies' websites. Item Response Theory was then used to create a scale for measuring Environmental Management Disclosure. The items were arranged in the scale to enable their understanding. This approach allowed for the assessment of the quality and the propriety of each item and facilitated the placement of the items and the respondents on the same analysis scale. The results indicated that companies in the agricultural production sector had the worst Environmental Management Disclosure and companies in the mining and paper sectors had the best performance.