Customer-related performance and the relevance of environmental reporting

Based on the fact that shareholders respond to environmental initiatives according to their perception of the potential related benefits, this study investigates whether customer-related performance affects the value relevance of voluntary environmental reporting. This paper provides a better understanding of the circumstances under which shareholders react positively to voluntary environmental information disclosed by firms operating in environmentally sensitive industries. Using a sample of French listed firms belonging to the SBF 120 stock index over an eleven-year period (2001-2011), our results show that a higher level of environmental disclosure is valued negatively by shareholders for firms operating in environmentally sensitive industries. In line with cost-benefit analysis, shareholders are found to rely more on profitability-based performance (i.e., return on sales and return on assets) than on revenue-based performance (i.e., sales growth) when assessing the relevance of environmental reporting for firms operating in environmentally sensitive industries.