Climate Change Risks Disclosure: Do Business Strategy and Management Characteristics Matter?

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

The authors may consider the following suggestions:

- rewriting the summary, so as to highlight the applied research methodology (the content analysis refers to the data source, not the research methodology) and to better emphasize the practical importance of the study;

  - completing the introduction with the structure of the paper;

- The description indicates that 102 companies were selected from a total of 177 listed non-financial companies. It is important to state whether the 102 selected companies are representative of all the nineteen economic sectors in which they are divided. If certain sectors are under- or over-represented in the sample, this could affect the generalizability of the study results;

- how is the exclusion of companies that have recorded losses for more than one year justified? There is a risk of removing from the sample companies that may have a proactive approach to climate change despite temporary poor financial performance;

- It is important to consider the temporal context of the study and to state that the results may be influenced by external factors, such as changes in government regulations or major economic changes;

- introduction of a discussion section where the obtained results can be highlighted and compared with those obtained from other researches;

- completing the conclusions with the limits of the research and future research directions; for example, the study may have limits in terms of extrapolating its results to practical contexts and providing precise recommendations, as the specific situations of companies may vary and may be influenced by more factors than those investigated; these limitations should be taken into account to better assess the applicability and interpretation of the results of this research in the specific context or for practical decision making.

Author Response

Comment number (1):  the summary has been revised and we included the applied research methodology. 

Comment number (2): the research structure has been added to the introduction.

Comment number (3): we illustrated it in "The study sample" part.

fourth comment: Thank you for the insightful comment. We acknowledge the potential risk of removing companies with temporary financial difficulties from the sample, and we believe that excluding these companies is justified for several reasons:

1. Financial stability is a crucial factor for companies to engage in long-term sustainability initiatives. Companies with consistent financial losses may face resource constraints and heightened investor scrutiny, limiting their ability to invest in climate change mitigation and adaptation strategies.
2. Financial performance is often perceived as a proxy for overall company health and management effectiveness. Companies with a history of financial losses may be perceived as less credible or trustworthy in their climate change disclosures, potentially hindering their ability to attract socially responsible investors and promote their sustainability efforts.
3. Focusing on companies with consistent financial performance allows for a more robust analysis of the relationship between business strategy and climate change risks disclosure. By excluding companies with significant financial instability, we can better isolate the impact of business strategy on disclosure practices without the confounding influence of financial performance.

 We understand that excluding companies with financial difficulties may limit the generalizability of our findings. However, we believe that the benefits of focusing on companies with consistent financial performance outweigh the potential risks.

Comment number (5): we added it in conclusion part.

Comment number (6): we added a section for discussion.

Comment number (7): we added a part in conclusion for future research directions.

Reviewer 2 Report

Thank you for the opportunity of reading and reviewing your interesting manuscript.

The paper addresses a topic which is highly relevant and actual for the journal and for the research landscape. It is highly important to investigate relevant ways of disclosing environmental impact information. The paper uses a sample of companies to investigate their disclosing practices.

 Although the research is well conducted, I have several suggestions and comments:

1.The Introduction is too long and includes parts that normally belong to Litertaure review section. Consider shortening the Introduction and moving below several parts

2.The model is quite simple, maybe you can discuss more on its suitability and adequacy

3.There is no Discussion section. I recommend to include the Discussion into the Results section and rename the new section as Results and Discussion

4.The Conclusions section is sketchy, I suggest to refer also to the limitations, policy implications, managerial implications, correlation with other studies, furthers etc.

5.There are minor typos or mistakes that need your attention to revise the paper. Eg: First bullet (!) line 352 etc.

Good luck! 

Author Response

Comment number (1):  the introduction has been revised.

Comment number (2): we added a section for discussion, to illustrate more about it.

Comment number (3): we added a section for discussion.

Comment number (4): the conclusion has been revised, and we added a part for future research and limitations.

Comment number (5) we reviewed the paper again and corrected all mistakes.

Round 2

Reviewer 1 Report

The authors revised the paper in accordance with the suggestions made. This can be published in the proposed form.