College of Economics and Management, Zhejiang Agriculture and Forestry University, Hangzhou, Zhejiang, China.
College of Continuing Education, Zhejiang Agriculture and Forestry University, Hangzhou, Zhejiang, China.
PLoS One. 2022 Sep 22;17(9):e0274787. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0274787. eCollection 2022.
Corporate environmental information disclosure is an important way for stakeholders to understand the performance of corporate environmental responsibilities. To explore the group relevance of corporate environmental information disclosure, this paper empirically tests the intra-industry peer effect of corporate environmental information disclosure using a panel fixed-effects model based on data of Chinese heavily polluted listed companies from 2015 to 2019 and studies its formation mechanism and impact path. The results show that there is an intra-industry peer effect in corporate environmental information disclosure; this effect exists in corporations of different ownership; social learning mechanism and environmental pressure mechanism are the channels to form the intra-industry peer effect of corporate environmental information disclosure; there are both intra-group imitation and inter-group imitation in the intra-industry peer effect of corporate environmental information disclosure. Based on the research results, the government can select corporations in various industries with excellent quality of environmental information disclosure as benchmarks to provide learning templates for corporations with inferior information. At the same time, the government can impose appropriate environmental protection pressure to promote learning and imitation among corporations. It is important to note that when selecting benchmarking companies, priority should be given to large and high-performing corporations.
企业环境信息披露是利益相关者了解企业环境责任履行情况的重要途径。为了探讨企业环境信息披露的集团关联性，本文基于 2015-2019 年中国重污染上市公司数据，采用面板固定效应模型，实证检验了企业环境信息披露的同行业内的同伴效应，并研究了其形成机制和影响路径。结果表明，企业环境信息披露存在同行业内的同伴效应；这种效应在不同所有制企业中均存在；社会学习机制和环境压力机制是企业环境信息披露同行业内同伴效应的形成渠道；企业环境信息披露的同行业内同伴效应存在同群内模仿和群间模仿。基于研究结果，政府可以选择各行业中环境信息披露质量优秀的企业作为标杆，为信息披露质量较差的企业提供学习模板。同时，政府可以施加适当的环保压力，促进企业之间的学习和模仿。需要注意的是，在选择标杆企业时，应优先考虑大型和绩效高的企业。
