SOCIAL DETERMINANTS OF VOLUNTARY CARBON INFORMATION DISCLOSURE IN THE REAL ESTATE SECTOR OF MALAYSIA

Abstract

The knowledge is power is a quote effective in the public space, where the level of information and awareness people have determines the level of power they exercise. The aim of this study is to investigate the influence social factors has on corporate voluntary carbon disclosure in the property sector of a developing country. The data was collected from 2013 annual reports of 126 listed companies, comprising sixteen (16) property investment companies, seventy six (76) property companies and thirty four (34) construction companies in Malaysia. The analysis was conducted with Partial Least Square-Structural Equation Modeling, with the bootstrap used for significance testing. The result shows that social factor has a significant influence in determining voluntary carbon disclosure. It was observed in the result that company visibility has a greater influence in motiving disclosure. The implication of the outcome is that, improvement in the level of knowledge and awareness of the public, on the need for corporate participation in climate change mitigation and carbon reduction. The more awareness, the more demand by stakeholders on companies; the more companies will be motivated to disclose carbon information in their annual report.

Keywords

• social factor, legitimacy, carbon disclosure, real estate, Malaysia.