Disclosure of environmental compliance management on corporate websites: literature review and future research foundation

Environmental disclosure in business has been researched. However, only a few projects have addressed disclosures in connection to the companies' obligations to follow environmental laws, standards, and regulations which is the main objective of the field of corporate environmental compliance management (CECM). This article describes the basis of a systematic literature review and the current state of knowledge about CECM website disclosure. Furthermore, major conceptual and methodological aspects for future disclosure studies are presented. The authors also propose a global CECM data collection and further research directions in order to close today's knowledge gap concerning determining factors and major characteristics of CECM disclosure. The research directions are exemplified by a set of novel questions. Future investigations of these questions through corresponding data analysis on the basis of the proposed CECM data collection will yield new insights that are relevant for researchers, practitioners, and governmental agencies.