Reputational risk disclosure in the firms of Pacific Alliance

Abstract

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to determine the predominant features of the corporations in four Latin American that are countries associated with the disclosure of reputational risk in the frame of explanations proposed by the organizational institutionalism theory about the isomorphism due to environmental pressures like the organisation for economic cooperation and development (OECD) membership and the belonging of Pacific Alliance (PA).Design/methodology/approachUsing an exploratory structural equation model (SEM) with 26 variables from the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) of a sample of 205 large companies from Mexico, Peru, Chile and Colombia that belong to the PA, during 2016, the research evaluates the association of firms features with the disclosure of reputational risk.FindingsThis research founds that country, industry, working conditions, financial performance and status in terms of firms listed in the stock market and in rankings of corporate reputation use to talk about reputational risk in firms' reports. The financial industry, which is ruled by Basel guidelines, and companies with lower returns tend to disclose reputational risk. The isomorphism does not depend on the time of membership in the OECD.Practical implicationsThe findings revealed that belonging to the same multilateral organizations like PA or OECD is not enough to create isomorphism in improving the corporative disclosure increasing the quality of sustainability reports. Policymakers and managers need more incentive to avoid strategic silence and selective disclosure of information to promote more transparency for society and enhance the usefulness of accounting and corporate information to interpret business risks, especially reputational risk.Originality/valueThis article contributes to the emerging literature in reputational risk disclosure with evidence explained in the frame of organizational institutionalism evaluating the features that contribute to the legitimatization process, with counterintuitive evidence about the isomorphism pressured by multilateral organizations and economic blocks.