Quality Of Environmental Information Disclosure Research Articles

A comparative study of environmental information disclosure between banks in net-zero banking alliance and China

This study compares the discourse and quality of environmental information disclosure (EID) in reports from five banks in Net-Zero Banking Alliance (NZBA) and four banks in China over the period 2016–2021. Python is employed as the primary research tool to work out the high-frequency words and the word co-occurrence matrix. With the theoretical framework of the Global Reporting Initiative's (GRI) six principles for defining report quality, the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) is employed to construct a quality assessment model, calculating the total weight of each corpus. The results indicate distinct differences in the information disclosure themes between NZBA and Chinese banks. As for the quality, NZBA banks exhibit higher quality environmental information disclosure compared to Chinese banks. Specifically, NZBA banks outperform in the principles of balance, accuracy, and clarity. This study contributes significantly to the analysis of environmental information disclosure, highlighting disparities in discourse and report quality between NZBA and Chinese banks. The findings offer valuable insights for banking practitioners, aiding them in enhancing the quality of environmental information disclosure. This study further reflects the varying economic and developmental priorities of the two banking contexts, influenced by economic and technological cycles.

Research on the impact of green mergers and acquisitions of heavily polluting enterprises on the quality of environmental information disclosure: empirical evidence from listed companies in China

AbstractGreen mergers and acquisitions are an important means for heavily polluting enterprises to achieve green transformation. Previous studies have yielded inconsistent conclusions regarding the relationship between green mergers and acquisitions and the level of corporate environmental management, possibly due to the omission of considering the quality of corporate environmental information disclosure. Therefore, based on a sample of 908 observations of heavily polluting listed companies on the A-share market of Shanghai and Shenzhen from 2010 to 2019, Utilizing a fixed-effects model, this study empirically examines the relationship between green mergers and acquisitions and the quality of environmental information disclosure and further explores the boundary effects of government environmental regulation and property rights on this relationship. The results show that green mergers and acquisitions of heavily polluting enterprises have a significantly positive impact on the environmental information disclosure quality of acquiring firms, and government environmental regulation positively moderates the relationship between green mergers and acquisitions and environmental information disclosure quality. Through subgroup analysis based on different property rights, it is found that compared to non-state-owned enterprises, state-owned enterprises exhibit a stronger positive relationship between green mergers and acquisitions and the quality of environmental information disclosure. This study has further enriched the relevant literature on green M&A and environmental information disclosure, provided new ideas for heavy polluting enterprises to achieve green transformation, and provided a reference for the government and enterprises to take countermeasures and suggestions.

Norm spillover? How environmental regulation in downstream industries affects upstream corporate environmental disclosure

ABSTRACT Although firms nowadays widely adopt environmental information disclosure (EID) to respond to stakeholder pressures, their EID quality is quite different. In this study, we examine this EID variation from the perspective of spillover. We argue that EID regulation in downstream buying firms is likely to foster a ‘norm’ of high-quality EID. This norm is likely to spill over to the upstream supplying firms via the influence of buying firms. Using publicly listed firms in China’s stock exchanges during 2011–2020 as a sample, we find that firms are more likely to have high-quality EID when their key buying firms are located in EID regulated (heavy-polluting) industries. Further, media coverage of the supplying firms and the state ownership of buying firms are likely to exaggerate the norm spillover effect. The results still hold after several robustness tests. Additional analysis shows that interlocking directors between buying and supplying firms amplify the effect of buying firms’ EID regulation, which suggests the underlying mechanism of spillover. Finally, heterogeneity analysis shows that the effect of buying firms’ EID regulation varies across suppliers with different firm characteristics. Our findings contribute to the literature on both corporate EID quality and spillover effect in the supply chain settings.

Assessing the impact of government-led green supply chain demonstration on firms' financial distress: The role of environmental information disclosure quality and supply chain concentration

Amidst the global advancement of sustainable production, the green supply chain initiative is becoming increasingly significant in harmonizing environmental and economic interests. This study delves into the financial implications of such initiatives, focusing on a particular government-led green supply chain demonstration project. Utilizing a difference-in-differences model and data from firms involved in the project between 2010 and 2021, findings indicate a notable reduction in firms' financial distress. This result, framed within the resource-based view perspective, shed lights on how green policy value permeates a company's internal capabilities, aligning environmental goals with financial performance. Additionally, we found that when companies enhance the quality of their environmental information disclosure and decrease the concentration of their supply chain, the inhibitory effect of this demonstration policy on financial distress is amplified. This underscores the pivotal value of enhancing information transparency and maintaining a flexible supply chain structure in green supply chain practices. In conclusion, this study emphasizes the empirical link between sustainable operations and financial resilience, laying a strong theoretical groundwork for businesses to proactively adopt green practices and aiding in the government's crafting of environmental policies.

The impact of the Belt and Road Initiative on green innovation and innovation modes: empirical evidence from Chinese listed enterprises

Under the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), promoting green innovation in enterprises has been the central focus of the developmental strategy for China and countries along the Belt and Road to ensure sustainable development in line with the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) related to the environment and development. This paper examines the driving factors and heterogeneous mechanisms of the BRI in green technology innovation, especially in collaborative vs. independent innovation modes, utilizing a multi-period difference-in-difference model (DID) and micro-level panel data of Chinese listed enterprises spanning from 2007 to 2021. We find that the BRI has significantly stimulated the number of green innovations of participating enterprises, primarily through the adoption of collaborative innovation mode, and the BRI policies are more likely to induce green innovation behavior of enterprises with high research and development (R&D), high quality of environmental information disclosure, and non-state-owned enterprises (SOEs), as well as in heavy-polluting industries. The implementation of the BRI has led to increased support from the government, financial institutions, and scientific research organizations to the participating enterprises, which helps alleviate their financial constraints and enhance patent transformation efficiency, and thus facilitate green innovation. These results are robust across different regression specifications. This study contributes to the existing literature on BRI’s environmental impact and green innovation with firm-level evidence, and has important policy implications for the Chinese government when promoting green innovation and internationalization of Chinese enterprises.

The impact of China’s new Environmental Protection Law on corporate environmental investments

As an important lever for China’s green development strategy, whether the new Environmental Protection Law can effectively form investment incentives for enterprises has attracted much attention and is also an important topic that theoretical research urgently needs to explore. This paper utilizes corporate data from non-financial listed companies in Shanghai and Shenzhen A-shares from 2007 to 2018. By adopting a double-difference model, it explores the incentive role and internal mechanism of the new Environmental Protection Law (EPL), implemented in 2015, as an environmental regulation on the environmental protection investment of enterprises, taking the new EPL’s enactment as a quasi-natural experiment. The study revealed a noteworthy and positive impact on motivation, which remained consistent even after various robustness tests. Additionally, the impact of incentives varied depending on the level of competition within the industry, financial constraints, and ownership type of the enterprises. Investigating the mechanism, it has been discovered that the incentive effect advances the environmental investment of firms through diminishing agency costs, enriching the quality of environmental information disclosure, and facilitating government subsidies to enterprises. This study not only verifies, from the factual empirical level, that environmental regulation policies can promote corporate environmental investment but also provides important evidence to support to a certain extent that the implementation of the new EPL can promote enterprises’ environmental governance behaviors. This article reveals the microeconomic effects of the new Environmental Protection Law from the perspective of corporate behavior strategies, and the research conclusions have important reference significance for the construction of national legal systems and the deepening of green development strategies.

The impact of air pollution on corporate environmental information disclosure–Evidence from heavy pollution industries in China

This paper studies the relationship between air pollution and the quality of environmental information disclosure taking the A-share listed companies in Shanghai and Shenzhen from 2014 to 2020 as sample. The study found that: firstly, air pollution will reduce the quality of enterprise environmental information disclosure. The main reason is that senior executives living in air pollution areas are more likely to have negative emotions, and the negative emotions of senior executives will make them have a negative attitude towards environmental information disclosure, thus reducing the quality of environmental information disclosure of enterprises. Second, the nature of state-owned enterprises positively regulates the negative correlation between air pollution and enterprise environmental information disclosure, while senior executive shareholding weakens the relationship between air pollution and environmental information disclosure. Further analysis found that: first, air pollution reduces the level of non-monetary and monetary environmental information disclosure. The research provides empirical evidence that air quality changes affect micro-business behavior.

Quantity or quality? The effect of green finance on enterprise green technology innovation

PurposeThis paper aims to explore the impact of green finance on the heterogeneity of enterprise green technology innovation and the underlying mechanism between them.Design/methodology/approachUsing the data of China's A-share listed enterprises from 2008 to 2020 and the fixed effect model, the authors empirically explore the relationship and mechanism between green finance and green technology innovation by constructing the green finance index while considering both the quality and quantity of innovation.FindingsThe study suggests that green finance is positively related to the quality and quantity of enterprise green technology innovation, while green finance is more effective in stimulating the quality of green technology innovation than quantity. In addition, alleviating financial mismatch and improving the quality of environmental information disclosure are core mechanisms during the process of green finance facilitating green technology innovation. Furthermore, green finance exerts a more positive effect on the quality and quantity of green technology innovation with large-size enterprises, heavily polluting industries and enterprises in the eastern region.Originality/valueThis paper enriches the literature on green finance and green technology innovation and provides practical significance for green finance implementation.

Corporate Environmental Information Disclosure and Market Value

In the face of global environmental degradation, people are increasingly concerned about the environment. Heavy polluting enterprises, as the main emitters of pollutants, need to bear the main responsibility for environmental protection, and how to make heavy polluting enterprises pay attention to environmental information has become an important concern of society. Therefore, this paper examines the quality of environmental information disclosure and the market value of heavily polluting enterprises from the perspective of heavily polluting enterprises themselves, in order to promote the value of heavily polluting enterprises, achieve rapid development, improve public awareness to increase expected cash flows, and adapt to the pace of marketisation to promote the harmonisation of economic and social values.

Technological innovation and the quality of environmental information disclosure: Evidence from a-share companies listed on China's Shanghai and Shenzhen stock exchanges

High costs of technological innovation and insufficient technological innovation capabilities may impede the ability of firms to communicate relevant environmental protection information to the public. This study aims to analyze the impact of technological innovation on the quality of environmental information disclosure conducted by firms. A non-balanced panel dataset comprising A-share listed companies in Shanghai and Shenzhen from 2007 to 2020 was subjected to ordinary least squares (OLS) regression analysis in the study. The model included year-fixed and industry-fixed effects to eliminate the influence of unobservable factors during the sample period. The results revealed a statistically significant positive relationship between the quality of environmental information disclosure by enterprises and the quantity and quality of technological innovation. The study's findings indicate that technological innovation offers a more sustainable path for the advancement of environmental information disclosure. By utilizing environmentally friendly and energy-saving technologies, the negative impact of the environment on technological innovation can be mitigated, leading to a more sustainable approach to environmental information disclosure. The practical implications of this study include fostering innovation to enhance disclosure quality, which benefits policymaking and industry practices. The understanding of the positive relationship between technological innovation and environmental information disclosure is enriched by the empirical evidence from this study, emphasizing its role in promoting sustainability and transparency.

The impact of environmental information disclosure on the cost of green bond: Evidence from China

In light of the rapid development of the green bond market and the importance of environmental information disclosure (EID) for green bond issuance, this study investigates the association between EID and the financing cost of green bonds. Using a sample of 561 green bonds issued between 2016 and 2020 in China, we use the entropy method to calculate the EID quality index based on a comprehensive evaluating system for green bonds, and then examine the impact of EID quality on the cost of green bonds. The results show that higher EID quality helps to reduce the yield spread of green bonds. These findings hold after addressing potential concerns for endogeneity. Channel tests indicate that information transparency and investors' expected risk play a mediating role in the relationship between EID quality and green bond yield spread. Cross-sectional analysis shows that EID has a greater negative impact on the yield spread of green bonds among those issued by non-financial firms and by issuers with better historical reputation. Overall, our findings highlight the importance of EID in the green bond market and provide insightful implications for market participants and policymakers.

Corporate strategic positioning and environmental information disclosure under circular economy: evidence from China

PurposeThe authors intend to investigate the relations between corporate strategic positioning and environmental information disclosure (EID) behaviors in the context of the circular economy. The authors argue that the development of the circular economy is crucial to address environmental issues and achieve sustainable development, and companies play a vital role in this process as micro-entities. By examining corporate EID behaviors, the authors could understand their adoption of circular practices to a certain extent.Design/methodology/approachThe authors conduct a content analysis of companies' annual fiscal reports, social responsibility reports and environmental reports and develop text-based proxies for both strategic positioning and EID quality to explore the relationship between them.FindingsThe authors find that corporate strategic positioning does affect corporate EID behaviors. Specifically, firms that implement a prospector strategy are more likely to engage in high-quality EID. Furthermore, the results suggest that green innovation is one of the mediators through which strategic positioning affects EID. Compared with defenders, prospectors are more likely to engage in green innovation, which, in turn, leads to higher-quality EID and demonstrates a more active approach to the circular economy.Originality/valueThis study contributes to the literature on strategic positioning and corporate EID by providing empirical evidence on the impact of corporate strategic positioning on EID behaviors. Moreover, the study employs a textual analysis approach to measure corporate strategy and EID, which is a relatively new research method in this field.

An empirical study on the relationship between the internal control effectiveness and the quality of environmental information disclosure: public data from listed companies in China's oil and gas industry

As China pays more attention to environmental pollution and environmental protection issues, corporate environmental accounting information disclosure has also received attention from researchers. The oil and gas industry, as the lifeblood of the national economy and at the same time an unavoidably heavy polluting industry, should be more vigorous in environmental protection and the regulatory requirements should be more stringent. Among the factors that affect the quality of corporate environmental information disclosure, internal control has certain research value as an institutional system that regulates corporate behavior. This paper explores the impact of internal control effectiveness on the quality of environmental accounting information disclosure by establishing a multiple linear regression model for empirical analysis, using listed companies in the oil and gas industry from 2016 to 2020 as the research object.

Watchful Eye or Just a Veil? Common Institutional Ownership and Environmental Information Disclosure Quality

As an important channel for the external stakeholder to understand the environmental performance of enterprises, corporate environmental information disclosure is not only an effective way to exercise social supervision but also an important mechanism to promote corporate environmental governance. However, Under China’s current environmental information disclosure model, irregular disclosures, ambiguity, and selective disclosure practices remain prevalent. Hence, it is crucial to seek solutions to improve the quality of environmental information disclosure. In recent years, the phenomenon of common institutional ownership has become increasingly widespread in the capital markets and has a significant impact on the strategic decisions of companies. This paper selects Chinese A-share listed firms from 2010-2021 as a research sample to examine the impact of common institutional ownership on the quality of environmental information disclosure. The study found that common institutional ownership can improve the quality of environmental information disclosure. The higher the degree of their linkage and the greater the shareholding, the more pronounced the synergistic effect. The findings remained valid after testing using propensity score matching (PSM) and changing the sample period. Heterogeneity analysis shows that the facilitating effect of common institutional ownership on the quality of environmental information disclosure is more pronounced in high-polluting firms and firms which stay in the growth and maturity stage. This paper enriches the research on the economic consequences of common institutional ownership in China and provides management implications for improving the environmental information disclosure system and promoting “genuine green” corporate social responsibility.

Does City Honor Drive Companies to Remove the Mask of Greenwashing? Evidence from the National Civilized City Program in China

At present, many enterprises are facing the dilemma of green management and greenwashing behavior is becoming increasingly serious. The honor of a city is an intangible asset that can bring opportunities for city development and enhance the recognition and loyalty of stakeholders within the city. At present, there are few studies on the impact of city reputation on corporate green behavior. This paper collected data on Chinese A-share listed enterprises from 2009 to 2019 and explored the relationship between the two using a double-difference model. The robustness of the hypotheses was verified by using the parallel trend test, placebo test, and PSM-DID. It was finally concluded that city honor inhibits corporate greenwashing behavior through two pathways, strengthening environmental regulation and stimulating corporate social responsibility, and it has a spillover effect between regions. Moreover, this effect is more obvious in regions with a high economic development level and a high degree of marketization, and it also shows a significant role in state-owned enterprises and enterprises with high total assets. This paper provides a theoretical basis for studying the relationship between city honor and corporate greenwashing behavior, and it also acts as a reference for standardizing enterprises’ environmental behavior and improving the quality of environmental information disclosure of enterprises.

Investor attention and environmental information disclosure quality: Evidence from heavy pollution industries in China

AbstractUsing listed firms from 16 heavy pollution industries in China, we show that investor attention can significantly improve the quality of corporate environmental information disclosure. By examining the heterogeneity effects of investor attention under different firm characteristics, locations, and external supervision, we reveal that this improvement effect is more pronounced for smaller firms, state‐owned enterprises, firms with weaker corporate governance, and firms located in China's western regions (regions with poor economic development). We further find that public's attention to environmental issues promotes the investor attention level on firms in heavy pollution industries, thus improving firms' environmental information disclosure quality. Overall, our results emphasize the role of external investor attention on corporate environmental issues.

Environmental information disclosure and the investment-cash flow sensitivity

Purpose- In 2008 China issued the Measures for the Disclosure of Environmental Information. Using the introduction of this environmental policy, this paper examines how the environmental information disclosure quality affects a firm's access to capital markets. In particular, the relationship is investigated between the environmental disclosure quality and the investment-cash flow sensitivity, a measure of a firm's financial constraints, before and after the implementation of the policy. Methodology- The content analysis is used to construct the measure of environmental disclosure quality. First of all, the contents of both qualitative and quantitative environmental disclosures are analyzed with respect to the following ten areas reported in firms' annual reports: (1) corporate investment in environmental protection, (2) government financial support related to environmental control, (3) tax reductions related to environmental programs, (4) lawsuits, settlements, penalties, and rewards related to environmental protection, (5) emissions and pollution reduction implementation, (6) certifications of environmental programs, (7) firm environmental protection missions and goals, (8) firm environmental protection plans and strategies, (9) bank loans related to environmental protection, and (10) other environmental-related information. And then, different points are assigned based on the disclosure quality for each of the ten disclosure areas and aggregated to obtain an overall disclosure score. Univariate and regression tests are used to examine the relationship between environmental information disclosures and investment-cash flow sensitivity. Findings- A negative association is found between a firm's environmental disclosure quality and the investment-cash flow sensitivity after the policy was implemented, while no such association is found before the policy implementation. Furthermore, the observed reduction in investment-cash flow sensitivity tends to be stronger for firms in high-polluting industries. Conclusion- Given the environmental policies in emerging markets are often viewed with great doubts, our findings suggest that government environmental policy plays an important role in firm's access to capital markets. Keywords: Environmental information disclosure, investment-cash flow sensitivity, government policy, asymmetric information, financial constraints JEL Codes: G18, G30, G32

Does stock market index adjustment affect environmental information disclosure? Evidence from China

This study empirically investigated the effect of adjustment of the China Securities Index 300 (CSI 300) on environmental information disclosure (EID) by index constituents, based on propensity score matching and difference-in-difference approaches. The results showed that the inclusion in the CSI 300 significantly improved the quality of EID by firms. Moreover, this positive impact was more pronounced among firms with lower agency costs and those located in regions with a stronger legal environment. Further testing of the mediating mechanism revealed that becoming an index constituent served to curb opportunistic behavior by managers arising from shortsightedness. Our results were valid after addressing the potential endogeneity between index adjustment and EID and remained unchanged in various other robustness tests. The findings provide support for the positive impact of stock market index adjustment on non-financial information disclosure and have practical implications for decision-making regarding EID in China and other emerging markets.

Can Environmental Information Disclosure Enhance Firm Value?-An Analysis Based on Textual Characteristics of Annual Reports.

This study examines the impact of environmental information disclosure quality on firm value for Chinese listed companies in heavily polluting industries from 2010 to 2021. By controlling for the level of leverage, growth, and corporate governance, a fixed effects model is constructed to test this relationship. Furthermore, this study analyzes the moderating effects of annual report text features, such as length, similarity, and readability, on the relationship between environmental information disclosure and firm value and the heterogeneous impact of firm ownership on this relationship. The main findings of this study are as follows: There is a positive correlation between the level of environmental information disclosure and firm value for Chinese listed companies in heavily polluting industries. Annual report text length and readability positively moderate the relationship between environmental information disclosure and firm value. Annual report text similarity negatively moderates the relationship between environmental information disclosure and firm value performance. Compared with state-owned enterprises, the impact of environmental information disclosure quality on the firm value of no-state-owned enterprises is more significant.

How does mandatory environmental regulation affect corporate environmental information disclosure quality

We utilize the environment fee to tax reform implemented in 2018 as a quasi-experiment, to investigate the impact of mandatory environmental regulation change on firm environmental information disclosure quality. Using data from listed companies in China between 2015 and 2020, we found that the mandatary environment regulation positively affects the monetary and non-monetary environmental information disclosure in heavy polluting industries. The mechanism analysis shows that external governance and internal control mediate the effect of mandatory environmental regulation on environmental information disclosure quality. We also found that, firms with low market values and no environmental subsidies disclosed more information due to environmental taxes.