Directors culture and environmental disclosure practice of companies in Malaysia

Abstract

This study sets out to investigate the effect of director’s culture on the level of environmental disclosures among companies quoted on the main stream of the Bursa Malaysia. The study uses the ethnic background of the directors to categorize the culture of the board. The dependent variable environmental disclosure in the annual report of the selected companies is measured by an index score based on the content. The study employed the multiple regression technique to estimate the data. Our result indicate a significant relationship between environmental disclosure and boards dominated by Bumiputra directors, board dominated by foreign directors, firm size and leverage. The study has public policy implications for Malaysia as well as a number of developing countries