Purpose

This study investigates whether carbon media legitimacy is influenced by carbon performance and/or carbon disclosure using a direct measure of carbon media legitimacy in UK context.

Design/methodology/approach

To test this study's hypotheses, the authors employ Tobit regression analysis of 95 UK companies listed in FTSE350. The authors use balanced panel data (475 observations in total) to reduces the noise introduced by unit heterogeneity.

Findings

The authors find that while corporate carbon performance is not reflected in carbon media legitimacy, carbon media legitimacy is positively and significantly affected by voluntary carbon disclosure (irrespective of its quality). Thus, voluntary carbon disclosure is shown to be an effective tool in legitimising corporate activities.

Research limitations/implications

The results show a certain degree of naivety on the part of the media in assessing corporate carbon behaviour, since it values carbon disclosure (irrespective of its quality) more than carbon performance. Such media behaviour may hinder future improvement in carbon performance of firms.

Practical implications

This study's results indicate that the existing UK carbon disclosure policy does not address the heart of climate change and global warming. Thus, tougher regulations should be considered by policy-makers in relation to voluntary carbon disclosure in the UK.

Originality/value

To the best of the authors' knowledge, this is the first study to examine whether carbon media legitimacy is associated with both carbon performance and carbon disclosure using a direct measure of carbon media legitimacy, and to use the UK context when addressing this association. It also examines the effectiveness of quality of carbon disclosure as legitimation tool.

中文翻译：

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英国公司的碳媒体合法性：行动还是言语？

目的

本研究使用英国背景下碳媒体合法性的直接衡量标准来调查碳媒体合法性是否受到碳绩效和/或碳披露的影响。

设计/方法论/途径

为了检验本研究的假设，作者对 FTSE350 中列出的 95 家英国公司进行了 Tobit 回归分析。作者使用平衡面板数据（总共 475 个观察值）来减少单位异质性引入的噪音。

发现

作者发现，虽然企业的碳绩效并未反映在碳媒体的合法性中，但碳媒体的合法性受到自愿碳披露（无论其质量如何）的积极而显着的影响。因此，自愿碳披露被证明是使企业活动合法化的有效工具。

研究局限性/影响

结果表明，媒体在评估企业碳行为时存在一定程度的天真，因为媒体更看重碳披露（无论其质量如何），而不是碳绩效。这种媒体行为可能会阻碍企业未来碳绩效的改善。

实际影响

这项研究的结果表明，英国现有的碳披露政策并未解决气候变化和全球变暖的核心问题。因此，政策制定者应考虑对英国自愿碳披露采取更严格的监管。

原创性/价值

据作者所知，这是第一项通过直接衡量碳媒体合法性来检验碳媒体合法性是否与碳绩效和碳披露相关的研究，并在解决这种关联时使用英国背景。它还检查了碳披露质量作为合法化工具的有效性。