Effects of corporate environmental responsibility strength and concern on innovation performance: The moderating role of firm visibility

125

As one type of voluntary environmental regulations, environmental disclosure plays an important role in promoting sustainable development of enterprises by enhancing their environmental awareness. Based on the social responsibility and annual reports published by heavily polluting listed companies in China between 2007 and 2016, this article investigates their environmental disclosure and assesses the impact on their green innovation activities as well as its influence mechanisms. Text analysis is used to measure the environmental disclosure by way of three dimensions including environmental investment and management, environmental supervision and agency certification, and environmental performance and governance. The results of the Poisson regression model for panel data show that environmental disclosure has significantly encouraged green innovations carried out by heavily polluting listed companies in China during the past decade and this result is consistent with a variety of robustness checks. Besides, the mediation effect test demonstrates that environmental disclosure stimulated green innovations of heavily polluting listed companies by expanding their financing channels, promoting their product sales, and raising media attention.

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Control Variables and Mediating Variablesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Confession or justification: The effects of environmental disclosure on corporate green innovation in China

Xiang

Liu

Yang

et al. 2020

125

“…Although the main control variables are selected in the main model, there may still be unobservable variables that will affect the amount of CEID and CFP. To address this issue, the panel fixed‐effect model is used for re‐regression, and a two‐stage least squares model (2SLS) is used to alleviate potential endogeneity problems (Li, Li, Chen, Xiang, & Ruan, 2019; Wu, Liang, & Zhang, 2020). The industry average of the amount of EDI (IA‐EDI) from 2010 to 2017 is selected as the instrumental variable.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…is used to alleviate potential endogeneity problems (Li, Li, Chen, Xiang, & Ruan, 2019;Wu, Liang, & Zhang, 2020). The industry average of the amount of EDI (IA-EDI) from 2010 to 2017 is selected as the instrumental variable.…”

Section: Endogeneitymentioning

confidence: 99%

The impact of the amount of environmental information disclosure on financial performance: The moderating effect of corporate internationalization

Yang

Yao

Liu

2020

Based on the data of A-share heavily polluting listed companies in China from 2010 to 2017, this study uses content analysis and multiple linear regression to investigate the effect of the amount of corporate environmental information disclosure on financial performance and the moderating effect of corporate internationalization on this relationship. The results confirm the significant negative impact of the amount of environmental information disclosure on financial performance, while corporate internationalization has a positive moderating effect on this relationship. The degree of regional marketization and corporate ownership influences this moderating effect. Thus, a mandatory disclosure mechanism with a legal basis and clear standards is necessary, but should include diverse policies and improved incentive mechanisms in light of the differences in regional development in China. In addition, international organizations should encourage companies to increase their international operations. The robustness test shows that the results are reliable.

“…CER can help to build a firm's image, reputation and brand, by communicating a message of environmental sustainability (Menon & Menon, 1997). Finally, CER activities often entail considerable risks and uncertainty (Aragon‐Correa & Sharma, 2003; Menguc et al, 2010; Wu, Liang, & Zhang, 2020). By engaging in CER activities, firms must devote resources to energy conservation and emission reduction programs, lowering the environmental costs of production and improving efficiency.…”

Section: Theoretical Background and Hypothesesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Social determinants of sustainability: The imprinting effect of social class background on corporate environmental responsibility

Niu

Zhou

Pei

2020

Using a large sample of 10,668 small-and medium-sized private Chinese enterprises over the 2006-2014 period, this study investigates the effect of the social class background of entrepreneurs on firm corporate environmental responsibility (CER) activities. The research question is developed using the concepts of imprinting theory. We measure the social class background of entrepreneurs as the level of occupational prestige held by the individual prior to starting a business. Results show that entrepreneurs drawn from the upper and lower social classes show a preference for the pursuit of environmental governance investment strategies. Moderating influences based on political capital and institutional environment are also explored. The theory and findings highlight that the social class background of entrepreneurs has a lasting and varying impact on the CER activities of a firm. The results are robust to a variety of sensitivity tests. The study extends our understanding of how and why enterprise CER behaviour varies, particularly in the context of Chinese private firms, and offers important implications for the task of sustainable development by enterprises.