讲座时间：2026年3月25日（周三）13:30-15:00

讲座地点：科研楼1115室

主讲人：杨皓，澳大利亚堪培拉大学

主持人：韩金镕，对外经济贸易大学2026年国际足联世界杯

主题：Mandated Silence: 'Compliance-Based Greenhushing' and the Defensive DNA of Corporate Reporting

Abstract:

As Australia transitions to mandatory climate reporting under AASB S2 (Australian Sustainability Reporting Standard No. 2: Climate-related Disclosures), regulators assume legal mandates will ensure the transparent disclosure of material risks and missed targets. This study challenges that assumption by examining the "defensive DNA" established during Australia's foundational era of mandatory reporting (1998 to 2017). Focusing on Section 299(1)(f) of the Corporations Act 2001, which explicitly required the disclosure of environmental breaches, we conduct a longitudinal qualitative analysis of how firms report non-compliance. Integrating Neutralisation Theory with Defensive Impression Management, we identify a pervasive "playbook" of legitimation strategies used to rationalise misconduct, including the denial of responsibility. Our findings reveal that even under legal mandates, companies successfully deploy "Compliance-Based Greenhushing," using rhetorical minimisation to render negative disclosures invisible while technically satisfying the law. While we acknowledge that the two regimes differ substantially in scope, complexity, and their underlying financial materiality frameworks, these historical patterns nonetheless provide a critical warning for the post-2025 era: when unprepared firms are forced by AASB S2 to disclose significant climate risks, this entrenched culture of defensive behavioural routines, shaped by decades of legitimacy-seeking under mandatory disclosure, threatens to undermine the effectiveness of the new standards.

主讲人简介: 杨皓博士现任堪培拉大学商业、政府与法律学院会计学讲师，长期致力于跨学科、政策导向的学术研究，研究领域涵盖可持续发展会计、政策研究与技术研究。其学术成果发表于ABDC A级/ABS 3级/Q1区国际期刊，包括 ABACUS、Technological Forecasting and Social Change、Australasian Journal of Environmental Management 及Health Policy and Technology。杨博士的研究聚焦于组织如何核算并披露其环境与社会影响，以及如何就此承担相应的社会问责，尤为关注强制性气候信息披露与生物多样性报告。其研究领域亦延伸至碳会计、企业战略性信息披露及印象管理，深入审视组织如何围绕可持续发展议题战略性地塑造其对外叙事。上述研究方向共同彰显了她在监管压力与社会关切日益增强的时代背景下，致力于推动企业信息披露透明度与问责水平持续提升的学术使命。