Examining the Role of Environmental Performance, Profitability, and Independent Boards in Environmental Disclosure: The Moderating Effect of Media Exposure

Abstract

Purposes: This paper asks whether environmental performance, profitability, and the proportion of independent commissioners shape the breadth of environmental information that Indonesian firms report, and whether media exposure conditions those relationships.

Methods: Non-financial issuers on the Indonesia Stock Exchange between 2020 and 2023 constitute the study population. Purposive screening produced 36 firms observed across four consecutive years, giving a balanced panel of 144 firm-year observations. Hypotheses were tested through moderated regression analysis (MRA) estimated in EViews 12.

Findings: Environmental performance emerges as the only variable that meaningfully explains disclosure breadth. Neither profitability nor the proportion of independent commissioners shows a significant association with environmental disclosure, and media exposure fails to condition any of the three relationships examined.

Novelty: The study treats media exposure as a boundary condition rather than a direct determinant of disclosure. Its results indicate that, in the Indonesian setting, external media pressure does not amplify the disclosure incentives generated by firm-level environmental performance, financial capacity, or board independence.