Corporate Reputation and the Socio-environmental Disclosure of Brazilian Firms

Recent changes taking place in the market have resulted, among other things, in a tendency for management models to be directed toward the improvement of the corporate image held by stakeholders. Consequently, corporative reputation has emerged as a topic discussed in conjunction with economic performance. In this paper, using the Theory of Discretionary Disclosure, corporate reputation and the disclosure of social and environmental information are analyzed from the socio-environmental perspective. We examine the socio-environmental disclosure practiced by Brazilian listed companies enjoying the best corporate reputation. The sample consisted of twenty-nine (29) companies listed on the Sustainable Business Index (ISE) and on the Carbon Efficient Index (ICO2) of the BM&FBovespa stock exchange, which released its report for the Global Report Initiative (GRI), in 2010. It was found that the companies with the best corporate reputation disclosed a greater amount of social and environmental information, including data with respect to negative externalities. This permits the inference that corporate reputation may be an incentive for voluntary disclosure of such information.