Purpose – This paper aims to determine the perceptions of managers in China with respect to the pressures for, and the purposes of, social and environmental reporting (SER) in the Chinese context. Design/methodology/approach – The authors interviewed 14 managers from nine different state-owned enterprises, all headquartered in Beijing. Interviews were conducted during 2009, the height of the period of growth in standalone corporate social responsibility (CSR) reporting in China. The authors assess the perceptions of the managers from a neo-institutional perspective. Findings – The findings indicate that, similar to reporting in more Western economies, managers perceive that a variety of coercive, normative and mimetic pressures interplay to influence SER in the Chinese context. The managers perceive peer institutions as exerting the greatest pressures for reporting and, surprisingly, indicate that the government, rather than exerting coercive pressures for SER, instead is seen as playing a facilitating role. The findings also reveal that the managers almost uniformly see the purpose of the reporting as a tool of image enhancement, particularly with respect to the general public. However, in contrast to studies of organizational response to institutional change in other settings, the authors find little non-conformity. Research limitations/implications – The findings suggest neo-institutional arguments for CSR reporting appear to hold, even in China’s socialist market economy. Practical implications – The finding that managers see CSR reporting as being largely about image enhancement may help to explain the low quality of disclosure documented in other studies. Social implications – Improving CSR disclosure in China would appear to require more mandated pressure from, particularly, governmental powers. Originality/value – This is the first study to explore via in-depth interviews the perceptions of managers in China to the evolving practice of standalone CSR reporting.

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Through the use of 30 provincial panel datasets covering the years from 2013 to 2017, on the basis of constructing the regional green development indicator system, this paper used the fixed-base range entropy weight method to measure the regional green development level. The difference-in-differences model was used to test the policy effect, the mechanism of the establishment of the green financial reform, and the innovation pilot zone on green development. The results showed that: (1) the establishment of the pilot zone promotes regional green development and shows regional differences; (2) under the guidance of policies, the provinces that set up the pilot zone affect the level of regional green development mainly through the upgrading of industrial structure and technological innovation; further research has found (3) a high level of financial investment in environmental protection and marketization, which will help the pilot zone to further play a positive role in promoting the green development of the region. The results of this article indicated that China should continue to expand the scope of green finance reform and innovation pilot zones and make reasonable arrangements among regions according to local conditions to explore new ways of promoting green development. At the same time, the government should actively play the role of green finance in the pilot zone to promote industrial structure upgrading and technological innovation and guide market players to establish green development concepts to gradually build an environmentally friendly, circular model economy to enhance the overall green development capacity of the region.

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