The Influence of Financial Performance on Environmental Accounting Disclosure Practices in India : Empirical Evidence from BSE

The study attempts to examine whether financial performance really boosts up the environmental disclosure practices in India by taking a sample of 30 companies from BSE. For measuring the environmental accounting disclosure practices, the data was collected for the period of five years from 2011 to 2015 from company annual reports. An Environmental Accounting Disclosure Index (EADI) was calculated for each company for each year and then the five-year average was considered. The financial performance was measured by taking variable proxies such as Net Profit Margin (NPM), Return on Capital Employed (ROCE), Earning Per Share (EPS), Dividend Per Share (DPS), Return on Assets (ROA), Return on Equity (ROE), Price-Earnings (P/E) ratio, Dividend Payout Ratio (DPR), Return on Shareholders (ROS), and Market Price per Share (MPS), for each year as well as a five-year average. The average values of financial performance variables and environmental accounting disclosure practices were considered to test the relationship between them, and the relationship was tested using multiple regression technique. The study found a positive relationship between average EADI and average values of ROCE, EPS, DPS, ROA, ROE, P/E and MPS. It also found a negative relationship between average EADI and average values of NPM, DPR and ROS. It was concluded that financial performance influences environmental accounting disclosure practices in India