School of Management, Fudan University, Shanghai, 200433, China.
School of Management, Fudan University, Shanghai, 200433, China; School of Management, Xi'an University of Science and Technology, Xi'an, 710054, China.
J Environ Manage. 2024 Sep;367:121957. doi: 10.1016/j.jenvman.2024.121957. Epub 2024 Jul 31.
This paper addresses the question of how environmental regulation and digital media coverage, as formal and informal external monitoring mechanisms, affect corporate environmental responsibility fulfillment. Using the data of Shanghai and Shenzhen A-share listed companies in China's heavily polluting industries, this study showed that both environmental regulation and digital media coverage significantly improve responsive and strategic environmental responsibility fulfillment. After distinguishing the media tone, it was found that positive digital media coverage promotes the fulfillment of both responsive and strategic environmental responsibilities. In contrast, negative digital media coverage only stimulates the fulfillment of responsive environmental responsibility, which reflected an asymmetrical effect of media tone. Further, the hierarchy of governance amplifies the role of environmental regulation in triggering the fulfillment of responsive environmental responsibility but weakens its value to strategic environmental responsibility. Inconsistent with our predictions, the relationship between digital media coverage and corporate environmental responsibility fulfillment could not be significantly moderated by Confucian culture. In addition, environmental regulation and digital media coverage only existed in companies with separate chairperson and manager positions, which indicated that an excellent internal governance environment is a prerequisite for external monitoring mechanisms to play a role in environmental governance. This study enriches the literature on how to drive responsive and strategic environmental responsibility by uncovering an external governance effect of environmental regulation and digital media coverage on the fulfillment of corporate environmental responsibility, and provides inspiration for multiple environmental governance actors to promote the construction of ecological civilization collaboratively.
本文探讨了环境规制和数字媒体报道作为正式和非正式的外部监督机制，如何影响企业履行环境责任。本研究使用了中国重污染行业的上海和深圳 A 股上市公司的数据，结果表明，环境规制和数字媒体报道都显著提高了企业对环境责任的响应性和战略性履行。在区分媒体基调后发现，积极的数字媒体报道促进了响应性和战略性环境责任的履行。相比之下，负面的数字媒体报道仅刺激了响应性环境责任的履行，反映了媒体基调的非对称效应。此外，治理层次放大了环境规制在引发响应性环境责任履行方面的作用，但削弱了其对战略性环境责任的价值。与我们的预测不一致的是，数字媒体报道与企业环境责任履行之间的关系并不能被儒家文化显著调节。此外，环境规制和数字媒体报道仅存在于董事长和总经理职位分离的公司中，这表明良好的内部治理环境是外部监督机制在环境治理中发挥作用的前提。本研究通过揭示环境规制和数字媒体报道对企业环境责任履行的外部治理效应，丰富了如何推动响应性和战略性环境责任的文献，为多方环境治理主体协同推进生态文明建设提供了启示。
