氣候變遷問題對全球經濟發展與人類生存均造成極大威脅,促使人們高度關注環境保護議題,並期望消耗地球資源最多的企業充分揭露環境資訊。面對這股無法抵擋的環境保護需求與壓力下,現階段國內企業的環境資訊揭露是公司治理機制的具體實踐?抑或可能僅是經理人用以管理組織生存合法性地位的一種手段?此為本文所關切的課題。本研究以2008年台灣1000大製造業為研究樣本,探討環境揭露與財務績效間之關聯性,並檢測盈餘管理對兩者間關係之調節效果。利用層級式廻歸進行假說驗證,實證結果發現環境揭露與財務績效間存在顯著負向關係;此外,經理人可以同時動用盈餘管理手段以美化財務績效表現,因此盈餘管理對兩者間之關係具有正向調節效果。此一研究發現,本文推論現階段國內環境資訊揭露實務傾向支持合法性理論之論點。
Dramatic changes in global climate bring great disasters for the people and facilitate the increasing attention to the requirement for environmental protection consequently. Companies with the most consumption of the natural resources are expected to disclose their environmental performance. An interesting issue is whether the environmental performance disclosure is a reflection of a company's governance mechanism or a means to obtain its legitimacy. This study is trying to investigate a linkage between environmental disclosure and corporate financial performance in Taiwanese manufacturing industry. All manufacturing firms examined in this study are listed in Taiwan stock exchange market in 2008. We use hierarchical regression model to test the proposed hypotheses. The empirical results show a significantly negative relationship between environmental disclosure and corporate financial performance. Furthermore, firms with more earnings management could positively moderate the negative relationship between environmental disclosure and corporate financial performance. These findings imply that managers can do the financial statement window dressing through earnings management. This study provides several implications and suggestions for future research.