Public Pressure, Environmental Policy Uncertainty, and Enterprises’ Environmental Information Disclosure

Abstract

Under the Chinese strategy of “carbon peaking and carbon neutrality”, Enterprises’ Environmental Information Disclosure (EEID), as one of the important ways for enterprises to achieve low-carbon development, has gained increased attention from the government, media, investors, and other stakeholders. the EEID is not only an important tool for companies to communicate environmental performance to the outside world, but also an effective way for the government to monitor corporate pollution behavior. Its importance is self-evident. However, relevant research shows that 70% of Chinese listed companies had not implemented the EEID in 2020. Also, there are common problems in the disclosure content and the polarization of the disclosure level among the companies that do disclose. These problems weaken the objectivity and practicability of the EEID and have a negative impact on the government’s environmental supervision, the environmental protection demands of the public, and investors’ decision making. This paper takes listed companies in China’s A-share heavily polluting industries as the research sample to solve the optimization problem of the EEID. By adopting a fixed effects model (FEM), this paper empirically studies the impact of three public pressures on the EEID: government environmental regulation, media attention, and institutional investment preference. Based on China’s unique socialist market economic system, this paper innovatively uses environmental policy uncertainty as a moderator variable. This paper examines the limitations of theoretical research on public pressure and environmental information disclosure by studying the impact of local environmental leadership change on the relationship between public pressure and the EEID. The conclusions of this paper reveal the driving mechanism of how stakeholders such as government, media, and institutional investors influence the EEID. At the same time, it expands the application of public pressure theory in environmental information disclosure research by introducing the perspective of environmental policy uncertainty.

The Impact of Environmental Information Disclosure on Environmental Governance Satisfaction

“…At present, most of the existing research on information disclosure are carried out from the perspective of enterprises, such as that off Die Wu et al [51]. Environmental information disclosure can be divided into enterprise perspective [52] and government perspective. We study environmental governance from the government level.…”

The Perception of Environmental Information Disclosure on Rural Residents’ Pro-Environmental Behavior

“…In addition, Government Information Disclosure Regulations were officially implemented in 2019. The implementation of these laws and regulations clarifies the necessity of government EID [12]. EID has a positive impact on air pollution control [10].…”

“…The government regards EID as having the potential to reduce pollutants and carbon emissions and to improve environmental quality for a lowcost policy implementation [10,11]. The EID of the government is not only an important tool for the government to communicate environmental performance to the outside world but is also an effective way to improve the environment [10][11][12], which favours the role of 2 of 22 enterprises' EID in environmental governance [12]. In 2007, Measures for the Disclosure of Environmental Information (for Trial Implementation) were successively issued.…”

“…Improving the level of pollution source information disclosure enhances cities' ability to reduce sulfur dioxide emissions, confirming "target accountability" and "backward coercive effects" [11]. The media can raise public awareness by exposing a company's carbon disclosure information through positive or negative reports [12]. Thus, negative media reports on companies' carbon disclosure information can put pressure on the heavily polluting industries and play an important role in raising public awareness and environmental governance.…”

Does Circular Economy Contribute to Smart Cities’ Sustainable Development?

“…By adopting a fixed effects model (FEM) approach, another paper empirically examines the influence of the Chinese government's environmental regulation, media attention, and institutional investment preference on the Enterprises' Environmental Information Disclosure (EEID) [51]. The EEID is a major tool for companies to show the world their environmental performance, especially in terms of low-carbon development.…”