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1 – 10 of over 2000Qiang Lu, Yang Deng, Xinyi Wang and Aiping Wang
As an effective tool to promote rational resource allocation and facilitate the development of green management practices such as enterprise digital innovation, the green credit…
Abstract
Purpose
As an effective tool to promote rational resource allocation and facilitate the development of green management practices such as enterprise digital innovation, the green credit policy has recently gained extensive attention. The purpose of this paper is to analyze the relationship between green credit policies and the digital innovation of enterprises, and to further explore the mechanism of action between them and their boundary conditions.
Design/methodology/approach
Based on micro-level data on Chinese firms from 2007 to 2019, this paper constructs a difference-in-differences (DID) model to investigate the impact and intrinsic mechanisms of green credit policies on firms' digital innovation and its boundary conditions, with the help of a quasi-natural experiment, i.e. the Green Credit Guidelines.
Findings
Green credit policies inhibit digital innovation and fail to compensate for innovation. The analysis of the mechanism shows that the implementation of green credit policies has a negative impact on digital innovation by increasing the financing constraints faced by firms, and has also a crowding-out effect on R&D investment, resulting in a disincentive to digital innovation. Further analysis reveals that the negative impact of green credit policies on digital innovation is more pronounced in state-owned enterprises, enterprises without financially experienced executives, and in the eastern regions of China.
Originality/value
This study provides empirical evidence to understand the effectiveness and mechanism of influence of green credit policies on enterprise digital innovation, providing also a basis to further improve green credit policies.
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Peiran Liu, Ziyang Li and Peng Luo
This paper aims to verify whether the legitimate pressure of external forces on heavily polluting firms’ corporate social responsibility (CSR)-related behaviors affect firms’…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to verify whether the legitimate pressure of external forces on heavily polluting firms’ corporate social responsibility (CSR)-related behaviors affect firms’ assurance strategy in the Chinese context. The authors argue that, under external pressure, as a source of legitimacy, the assurance over CSR reports allows the business behaviors of heavy polluters to be recognized by society.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper sampled listed heavy polluters in China from 2011 to 2018 and used the multiperiod logit model to examine the effects of external corporate governance on firms’ assurance decisions. Principal component analysis methods were used to construct a comprehensive framework of external corporate governance. The indicators were obtained from the China Stock Market and Accounting Research databases, the NERI Report and the China Urban Statistical Yearbook.
Findings
This paper confirms that external corporate governance positively affects firms’ assurance decisions, and good financial conditions, well-governed internal controls and sufficient government subsidies positively moderate this effect.
Practical implications
The findings provide feasible ways to encourage firms’ high-quality corporate environmental information disclosure, thus providing valuable guidance for policymakers and other stakeholders to effectively supervise firms’ CSR behaviors.
Social implications
The findings are of great importance in encouraging high-quality corporate environmental information disclosures, improving the support of capital markets among developing countries and drawing social attention to the environmental protection and social responsibility of heavy polluters.
Originality/value
The research extends the current research in the field of social environmental accounting by using legitimacy theory to explain firms’ assurance motivations. Additionally, this paper focuses on the practices of assurance services in the emerging economy and provides suggestions for developing assurance over CSR reports.
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Ziqin Yu and Xiang Xiao
In recent years, environmental issues and resource depletion have posed significant challenges to firms and society. To address these environmental challenges, firms seek to build…
Abstract
Purpose
In recent years, environmental issues and resource depletion have posed significant challenges to firms and society. To address these environmental challenges, firms seek to build strategic alliances of green supply chain management (GSCM) with their supply chain partner. As the largest developing country in the Asia–Pacific region, China needs to take more responsibility for environmental protection, which requires more Chinese firms to participate in GSCM. Therefore, focusing on the issue of GSCM and innovation persistence in the context of an increasingly harsh ecological environment is essential.
Design/methodology/approach
To test the hypothesis, the authors perform an empirical analysis on a sample of 124 listed firms in China from 2014 to 2019. The results are robust to a battery of robustness analyses the authors performed to take care of endogeneity.
Findings
Empirical results indicate that GSCM can promote innovation persistence and both market environment turbulence and technology environment turbulence have a positive moderating effect on the relationship between the two. Mechanism tests show that GSCM can improve innovation efficiency, ensure innovation quality and alleviate financing constraints, thus promoting the innovation persistence of firms.
Originality/value
This study can provide a theoretical basis for the country to promote GSCM orientation, raise firms' awareness of the value of GSCM, convey the significance of GSCM to investors, influence firms' investment decisions and give experience to other developing countries.
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Wei Qian, Ping Zhu and Carol Tilt
Recent research has drawn attention to the tension between the Central and local governments in China regarding their roles in environmental protection. This paper aims to explore…
Abstract
Purpose
Recent research has drawn attention to the tension between the Central and local governments in China regarding their roles in environmental protection. This paper aims to explore this tension and examine the extent to which local/provincial government’s environmental oversight has influenced the quality of corporate environmental disclosure in China.
Design/methodology/approach
A sample of 198 listed companies in heavily polluting industries were selected to examine the relationship between their environmental disclosure quality and the respective local government’s environmental oversight level.
Findings
The results provide evidence that local/provincial government’s environmental oversight significantly influences environmental disclosure in China. Despite the coercive pressure from the powerful Central government on corporate environmental disclosure, local/provincial governments are able to buffer the pressure and adjust the intensity of their environmental oversight on companies during the implementation of central policies to retain local economic and political interests. This may partially explain the persistent issue of low environmental disclosure quality in China.
Research limitations/implications
This study enriches our understanding of the significant role of local governments in China in enhancing or sometimes discounting the regulatory enforcement of the Central government on corporate environmental disclosure, pointing to the need for concerted efforts by both local and Central governments to advance environmental disclosure development.
Originality/value
Research on environmental disclosure in developed countries has been well established in the literature. However, such research in developing nations is still limited, especially in China, the world largest developing country. The existing literature on environmental disclosure in China links it with either market demands, or regulatory enforcement from the Central government. The importance of local/provincial governments and their environmental oversight has long been ignored, which motivates this research.
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Xin Li, Siwei Wang, Xue Lu and Fei Guo
This paper aims to explore the impact of green finance on the heterogeneity of enterprise green technology innovation and the underlying mechanism between them.
Abstract
Purpose
This 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/approach
Using 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.
Findings
The 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/value
This paper enriches the literature on green finance and green technology innovation and provides practical significance for green finance implementation.
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Sheng Yao, Lingling Pan and Zhipeng Zhang
The purpose of this paper is to investigate whether firms with high environmental disclosure have a low possibility of non-standard audit opinions and audit fees and whether this…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to investigate whether firms with high environmental disclosure have a low possibility of non-standard audit opinions and audit fees and whether this trend is more obvious after than prior to the Measures for the Disclosure of Environmental Information (Measure) implemented in 2008.
Design/methodology/approach
Based on the Measures implemented in 2008, the authors select data for the listed manufacturing firms from 2004 to 2006 (Pre-Measure) and from 2009 to 2011 (Post-Measure) as research samples to investigate the relationships between environmental disclosures, audit opinions and audit fees with difference in difference models. In addition, we also consider the influence of media attention, the polluting industry and internal control on the audit effect of environmental disclosure.
Findings
The results show that the level of environmental disclosure is significantly negatively correlated with the possibility of issuing non-standard audit opinions and audit fees after measure is implemented, especially hard environmental information. Further evidence indicates that the auditing effect of environmental disclosures is stronger on firms that receive less media attention, in firms with better internal controls, and in firms belonging to industries with heavy pollution.
Originality/value
In the Chinese setting, a high level of environmental information disclosures can effectively reduce the audit risk and lead to a high possibility of standard audit opinions and low audit fees. This effect is pronounced after issuing Measure. The conclusions suggest that measure and increasing environmental disclosure have an obvious positive audit effect and that firms should be forced or encouraged to disclose more environmental information from the perspective of auditors in China.
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Jianfei Zhao, Thitinan Chankoson, Wenjin Cheng and Anan Pongtornkulpanich
A green innovation strategy is an important step for enterprises to balance economic and environmental. As the executors of strategic decisions, the attitude and capabilities of…
Abstract
Purpose
A green innovation strategy is an important step for enterprises to balance economic and environmental. As the executors of strategic decisions, the attitude and capabilities of senior managers determine the effectiveness of implementing green innovation. Therefore, this paper aims to explore the relationship between executive compensation incentives and green innovation.
Design/methodology/approach
Based on the data of heavily polluting enterprises listed in China's A-share market from 2015 to 2020, this study constructs an OLS model with fixed effects of time and industry, and uses the mediation three-step method to verify the correlation between executive compensation incentives, innovation openness and green innovation. Meanwhile, the grouping regression was used to test the moderating effect of environmental regulation on executive compensation incentives.
Findings
The empirical results show that executive salary incentives promote green innovation and equity incentives inhibit green innovation; the openness breadth partially mediates the relationship between salary incentives, equity incentives and green innovation, while the openness depth only partially mediates the relationship between equity incentives and green innovation; and environmental regulation positively moderates executive incentives.
Research limitations/implications
Due to sample selection and variable measurement, the study lacks certain generality. Therefore, future research needs to further analyze the internal factors affecting green innovation from multiple dimensions.
Practical implications
This study provides a new evidence for analyzing how executive compensation measures affect green innovation, and further enhances the mediating mechanism of open innovation.
Originality/value
This study has significant theoretical implications for examining the intra-firm factors that affect green innovation.
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Lan Wei, Yanbo Zhang and Jinan Jia
The absence of government intervention and market supervision cannot effectively promote green process innovation in manufacturing industries. As a new government regulation…
Abstract
Purpose
The absence of government intervention and market supervision cannot effectively promote green process innovation in manufacturing industries. As a new government regulation approach, environmental taxes provide a platform to internalize the externality of environmental pollution. This paper empirically investigates the impact of environmental taxes on green process innovation and the moderating effects of industry pollution heterogeneity and green credit.
Design/methodology/approach
This research collects manufacturing industry data ranging from 2008 to 2020, resulting in a total of 351 observations. Time-individual, two-way fixed effect models are constructed to examine the hypotheses.
Findings
The results indicate environmental taxes have an inverted-U effect on green process innovation in manufacturing industries. Implementation intensity of the current environmental taxes on China's manufacturing industries does not reach an inflection point. Further analysis suggests that environmental taxes exert influence on the inverted-U relationship with low-pollution industries displaying a steeper curvilinear pattern than high-pollution industries. Moreover, the analysis shows that green credit plays a moderating role in the inverted-U relationship, as low green credit provides more limited stimulus than high green credit in terms of the effect of environmental taxes on green process innovation.
Research limitations/implications
This study offers empirical evidence to accommodate negative externalities of corporate production and provides new perspectives in nudging corporate green-process innovation.
Originality/value
This paper verifies the effect of environmental taxes on green process innovation amid industry pollution heterogeneity by introducing an industrial-level analysis unit. This study improves the means by which environmental taxes are measured. Existing literature has narrowly used pollution discharge fees as a proxy for environmental taxes. The authors have summed up the taxes on vehicle and vessels, urban land use, urban maintenance and construction, vehicle purchases, waste gas, wastewater and solid waste to measure the effect of environmental taxes in this study.
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Jinhua Xu, Feisan Ye and Xiaoxia Li
This paper aims to empirically investigate the impact of the carbon intensity constraint policy (CICP) on green innovation.
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to empirically investigate the impact of the carbon intensity constraint policy (CICP) on green innovation.
Design/methodology/approach
This study takes the implementation of the CICP as a quasi-natural experiment and uses a quasi–difference-in-difference method to investigate the impact of the CICP on firm green innovation from a microeconomic perspective.
Findings
The CICP significantly limits the quality of firms’ green innovation. Among the range of green patents, the CICP distorts only patents related to CO2 emissions. The inhibitory effect is more pronounced in non-state-owned enterprises and heavily polluting firms. R&D investment and green investor are identified as the main mechanism.
Practical implications
These findings provide evidence for the influence of the CICP on firm green innovation, which can guide policymakers in China and other emerging economies that prioritize carbon intensity constraint targets and the improvement of relevant auxiliary measures.
Social implications
Governments and firms should have a comprehensive understanding of environmental policies and corporate behavior and need to mitigate the negative impact through a combination of measures.
Originality/value
This study contributes to the literature by providing additional empirical evidence regarding the two opposing sides of the ongoing debate on the positive or negative effects of CICP. It also provides new evidence on the policy effect of the CICP on firm green innovation, together with its mechanisms and heterogeneous influences.
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Jianshu Wang and Bo Zhang
Based on several important environmental protection and information disclosure policies that have been issued in China, the purpose of this paper is to test the relationship…
Abstract
Purpose
Based on several important environmental protection and information disclosure policies that have been issued in China, the purpose of this paper is to test the relationship between characteristics and the environmental information disclosure quality of sample companies.
Design/methodology/approach
The OLS regression analysis is selected for this research which takes China’s heavy pollution companies listed on the Shanghai Stock Exchange from 2015 to 2016 as samples.
Findings
The quality of these environmental information disclosures needs to be strengthened, and while the quality of the disclosures among the companies examined improved significantly in 2016 compared with 2015, there are still high variations in quality from industry to industry. In addition, the scale of company is most closely correlated to the quality of environmental information disclosure and the economic situation of the enterprises is the next. Other factors affecting the disclosure quality include in order the degree of local economic development the scale of the state-owned shares and the independent directors. Listed years and equity restriction show a positive correlation but not significant in statistics.
Originality/value
The research will assist administrative organizations to allocate governance sources effectively, plan governance investment as a whole, and improve the overall level of the disclosure of environmental information while strengthening the governance efficiency and effectiveness, according to the correlation and degree between the company characteristics and environmental information disclosure quality.
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