Legitimacy Motives for World Wide Web (WWW) Environmental Reporting: An Exploratory Study into Present Practices in the Australian Minerals Industry

This exploratory study expands current literature on corporate environmental reporting by developing legitimacy theory further through its application to WWW environmental reporting. The various motives for legitimacy; maintaining, gaining and repairing legitimacy are applied to web based environmental reporting and it is suggested that in comparison to print media, the WWW provides greater benefits to companies when they seek to gain or repair legitimacy. A study into the use of the WWW by companies in the Australian Minerals Industry for environmental disclosure is then undertaken. This enables insights into the use of the WWW in an industry, which is environmentally sensitive and where environmental disclosure is essential in order for companies to appear legitimate to various stakeholders. The findings of this research indicate that while companies use the WWW to maintain their legitimacy, there is limited use of the WWW for gaining or repairing legitimacy. This indicates that the WWW is not “fully” utilized by companies for seeking legitimacy from stakeholders through environmental disclosure. It is suggested that mandatory and voluntary initiatives are needed to provide an impetus for web based environmental reporting. Moreover, future academic research in this area requires specific methods to be developed to capture the dynamic nature of information dissemination through the WWW.