Environmental Information Disclosure, Reputation Capital and Performance of Enterprises under the Development Mode of Ecological Economy

Abstract

Over the past decades, the rapid development of economy has deepened environmental pollution. This paper investigates whether companies with high level of environmental information disclosure enjoy higher corporate performance under the development mode of ecological economy, and how reputation capital affects this relationship. To test this hypothesis, this study uses a sample of 161 Chinese listed pharmaceutical companies from 2015 to 2019. Strong evidence has been found that the disclosure of environmental information will hinder corporate performance, and the increase of environmental information disclosure will reduce corporate performance. In addition, through factor analysis of reputation capita, this study finds that good reputation capital can improve corporate performance, and reputation capital has a negative impact on environmental information disclosure and corporate performance. These results resolve, to some extent, the existing divergence of interests of enterprises with respect to environmental activities and ecological economy.