Multinational and domestic agrochemical corporations in India: an analysis of the standardization of corporate environmental disclosures

Multinational corporations operating in developed countries are leaders in corporate environmental disclosure (CED), this often isn’t true for subsidiaries operating in developing countries. The majority of CED research that has been conducted focuses primarily on large multinational corporations, leaving a gap of knowledge regarding the subsidiary operations of multinational corporations. This study provides insight into whether or not multinational corporations are implementing comprehensive disclosure practices throughout the entirety of their operations and if reporting practices are more strongly influenced by country of origin or country of operation. Consolidated narrative interrogation (CONI) is used to quantify CEDs presented in annual and stand-alone sustainability reports published between 2002 and 2016 by companies from three categories of corporations. Results show that the corporation category is a significant factor affecting the diversity, quantity and quality of disclosures, indicating a lack of standardization among the reporting practices of the different categories of corporations.